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[Arkansan]

Ok so after a couple of weeks of trying I can now manage to keep a fortress consistently well feed, boozed, and housed. I have a few random little problems though, there are times where my dwarfs refuse to dump certain stones or objects for no apparent reason. They also seem to have a hell of a time linking things to levers, they will actually do it maybe one out of four times. Any suggestions on these? Is there something simple I am just overlooking?

Now on to the big problem. I have survived one ambush, two sieges, and a fire spewing titan attack and now my grave halls runneth over with military dwarves. It goes down like this, my squad of crossbows run out, maybe three of them actually fire their weapons while the rest rush in to bash with the stupid things. Naturally about half of them die every time. My axe squad enters melee, and within a few seconds there is typically only three out of ten left. I only have about four dwarfs from both squads that have survived all events. When I check their inventories they aren't wearing all there gear even though the equip screen has checks by each piece. They typically are only wearing a mail shirt, mail leggings, a shield and their weapon. They refuse the damned helmets, gauntlets, and boots. Is there something I am missing here? Some stupidly simple thing I forgot to do?


Also is there a way to make my military less squishy? I am not opposed to a danger room, but they won't connect levers so that really is not working out. I would also like to try doing it without a danger room if possible. Oh and does anyone know reasons they might refuse to collect goblinite and dispose of the corpses, cause the entrance to to my fort looks like some sort of demented gore themed amusement park.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Dyret]

It seems like after a few sieges forts tend to be drowned in various hauling assignments, which seem to screw up the fortress in all kinds of ways and more often than not never get done. Have you tried atom-smashing corpses and such?

As for the military I think the best solutions for melee-dorfs for now is to arrange them in squads of two to encourage sparring. I've had legendaries within the first year using that technique, but it doesn't seem to be 100% reliable. As for marksdorfs, have you tried stationing them (m) somewhere instead of ordering a direct attack? It might force them to use their ranged weapons, but I suspect they will still charge like crazed animals whenever anyone get too close. locking them in bunkers, maybe?

[Arkansan]

I will break down my squads into groups of two or three, its worth a shot. As to atom smashing I can't get a drawbridge hooked to a lever at the moment so that is out, though as soon as I can I will be smashing away a lot of clutter. Yeah, right not out of two squads and a total of 18 dorfs, I have 5 survivors, three of whom are in the hospital and one of which has so many crazy ass injuries I don't see how he could survive.

[Ruhn]

For the bodies outside: check (o)rders to see if dwarves will gather corpses from outside.
For marksdwarves: check your stocks and see if there are enough bolts available.  Make sure they have enough assigned to every squad in military screen.
For equipment: Disable your military from wearing civilian clothes.  If they are already wearing gloves I don't think they will be able to wear gauntlet also.

[Arkansan]

Well they are ordered to claim bodies, maybe there is just to many jobs at the moment. Also a newbish question for sure, but how do I remove civilian clothing from my dwarfs?

[4maskwolf]

As in, from the military dwarves? There is an option on the equipment screen.

[Arkansan]

Ohh... found it, that's what I get for not paying attention to what I am looking at.

[Togre]

Architecture can help with many of your problems.  If you station your crossbow-dwarfs behind fortifications or (even better) on a platform above their enemies, they will be able to shoot at them, but unable to charge off to their doom.  In the same way gateways, bridges or even choke points, can give you time to assemble your melee squads without a line of sight to their foes.  Again, this way they won't charge off in penny packets, but will wait until their enemies come to them or you order the assault.

If you can build a courtyard or two in front of your entrance.  Build a second floor, maybe with fortifications, maybe with an inner room with bolt stockpile.  Won't cure everything, but will be a step in the right direction.



As for equipment instead of civvies skivvies, (m)ilitary--> (e)quip-->(r)  This toggles between "Over clothing" and "Replace clothing."  Probably will have to do for each squad.  If you are using uniforms, (m)ilitary --> u(n)iform --> (r).


As for working levers.  I know you need the mechanic labor to build and attach levers.  If its a priority, pick 1 (or 2 or 3) dwarfs, enable mechanic labor and disable all others labors until the tasks are done.


Finally, as far as picking up corpses and goblinite, there could be a lot of things causing that--stockpile space for items, too many hauling tasks (we'll get there, just wait a bit!!), burrows, etc.  One that might not be as obvious is if the items are forbidden (can you check?).  If you go to Set (o)rders --> make sure you have Dwarfs (G)ather bodies on.  And while you're there check out (F)orbid-->Claim (o)ther dead and Claim other death i(t)ems.

Last thought--armor and bolts can be tricky and glitchy.  Make sure you have way more bolts, quivers and armor than you need.  Make sure you are familiar with the military set up screen.  I dress each dwarf individually--I don't know that I'd recommend that, but I always know what I need to forge more of.  And check what your little beserkers are wearing from time to time--at least that'll spot problems before they lead to !!fun!!

[Arkansan]

Thanks for the help guys. I am building a choke point near the fort entrance with fortifications and traps, sealed off by a drawbridge. Hopefully next time I should be able to thin them out and then send in the axe dwarfs. I think my dwarfs are finally getting ahead on their hauling tasks, oh and most of the corpses outside were forbidden for some reason. On the plus side I now have more troll fur clothing than I could ever want.

[Togre]

I can't imagine wanting any troll fur clothing.  <shudder>