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[kyleighterry]

Hi

I'm not new to dwarf fortress, and many years ago donated to the cause and even got a hand drawn picture from Tarn back in the day and faffed on the ASCII version for hours, but due to my impulsive and sporadic personality I hadn't played on this for ages then the steam version came along. Despite having a family and full time job and associated responsibilities I have managed to get a good number of hours back into this game, however I feel it takes millions of hours to fully appreciate the game

Can I ask a question to you guys, the wise folk of Reddit

What are your top hints/tips with squads and militia? I find it overwhelming and just throw random folk in as I'm too busy panicking about building floors and stuff

Any advice very greatly much appreciated

Thanks!

[Magmacube_tr]

Spears are good.

Shields. Always. Even if they are crappy.

A dwarf with any weapon is leagues better than one with none. Many FB's were felled by unarmored miners with copper picks.

Build your barracks on places that are close to entrances to your fort. Armor makes dorfs slow. It is bad when the baddies enter the fort and the warriors are still hobbling over to their stations.

Don't make adamantine warhammers. Just don't.

Don't make the dorfs constantly train. They become pissy. And start bar fights and kill people. Have 3-4 squads and train them for 3-4 months in rotation.

You might want to actually train everyone once in a while. At least the people who want to use their marital art skills.

We aren't Reddit. We are The Ancients.

[Crystalizedmire]

Don't make adamantine warhammers. Just don't.

Same goes for maces

[Salmeuk]

put a barracks (and training squad) at the entrance of each cavern for natural guardhouses

spears for big beasties. swords n axes n hammers for armored foes

if you are serious about military, training should begin at embark with two dwarves constantly sparring with weapon and shield. give them a year of this with maybe a break month or two, and they will have attained fair skill.

 then train up another set of migrants using those two dwarves as captains. at this point i begin armor training. rinse and repeat this process to maximize training growth.

as far as sieges go, if you keep odds 1 to 1 your dwarves will likely prevail. 2 to 1 means fewer injuries. Anything less and you risk being overwhelmed, as dwarves struggle to fight more than two opponents at the same time. it can be very rewarding to split sieges into conquer-able portions

remember, armor is very heavy. it is a significant speed detriment to be in full plate

if you don't have time to train up armor user skill, consider a light equipment setup with weapons, shield, helm, mail shirt.


finally, this is pro tip, but if you have to fight a flame breathing beast or a dragon, a flooded battle room can help with extinguishing burning dwarves. however. . there is a consideration of steam generated.
I find the tradeoff is worth it since burning dwarves struggle to fight, and random piles of flame will block pathing.

So the strategy is to build a flooded arena of 2/3 or 3/3 water, and then force the beast fight in that arena.

[StrawBarrel]

When selecting dwarves for the military I look for immigrants with military skills already. Another quality I select for is citizens who have a need to fight such as "practicing a martial art", "fighting", and "causing trouble". https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Need
So the military for me doubles as a place to improve the citizen focus and mental health as well as for the ability to be kill other creatures at the fortress.

Edit October 22, 2024 Tuesday:
Also I would recommend building metal weapons and armor, if possible, within the fortress. So mining ores, producing charcoal or coke for fuel, and building smelters and metalsmith's forges are useful for building weapons and armor in house.
Alternatively if the fortress is located somewhere with no metal ores you can trade with visiting caravans.