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[Dotto]

My recurring problem in the last days have been understanding the military and making them obey my orders. Sometimes i send them to patrol in one point and, without any obvious reason, they go the wrong side. Anyway, at the moment, i donŽt understand why my squad set to stand down is not trainning. WerenŽt they supposed to do that? They are not eating sleeping, resting or drinking.

[KenboCalrissian]

Make sure you have at least two people in the military with the same type of weapons.  Swordsdwarves will only train with other swordsdwarves, etc.

Also, your dwarves will not constantly stay on their patrol route.  They eventually get tired/hungry/thirsty and need to leave for something.  You can do a couple of things to alleviate this, but two of these come at a price paid in unhappy thoughts:

-For food, craft backpacks, then go to their squad screen in m > v and tell them to carry one or two rations.  This will keep them fed so they can stay on patrol longer.  This does not cause unhappy thoughts.
-For sleep, you can order them to sleep on the ground in m > v.  This causes unhappy thoughts, though I'm not sure if certain personality traits prevent it.
-For thirst, craft waterskins.  This will most definitely cause unhappy thoughts if you do it for too long, because dwarves hate to drink water.

I'm not sure why dwarves haven't learned to bring flasks with them for taking alcohol out on patrols... maybe it's purely for sake of challenge.

[shadowclasper]

Wait a sec... if dwarves will only train with guys of the same weapon type, why in God's name were my wrestlers fighting with my macedwarves? And turning them back into wrestlers?

[Dotto]

The problem IŽm having is that my marksdwarves are not training, as they were supposed to, since they are standing down. The archery range is there, untouched.

[SquirrelWizard]

First, the Commander of the squad dictates what the squad is currently doing. If he's asleep the rest of the squad will be around him, if he decides to go eat, they follow. That being said, if your dwarves are ending up on the wrong side of whatever you want them to patrol to, just move hte patrol point alittle ways back in teh direction you want to shift them.

Depending on what you want them to accomplish you may want to give them backpacks and waterskins. (note, for any wrestling unit do not give them backpacks. As they wrestle they'll toss out their food on the floor which will cause miasma and tick off nearby dwarves, also food that is in a backpack is claimed by the owner of the backpack so other dwarves will ignore it.)

By investing in your food preparation (i have... well had... a ledgendary chef who made masterwork prepared meals) you can extend the duration of time they can spend on duty. with the waterskin they will drink water, but will not get an unhappy thought until after a while, but they dont get a happy thought for booze. Sleeping on the ground causes unhappy thoughts but if you manage it right you can keep them on patrol for a good while. Make sur ethat when you take them off duty that you tell them to not carry water so they'll drink booze.

In regards to your marksdwarves problem

A) do you have more than 25 bone bolts that aren't forbidden?
B) Are they off duty?
C) Are they not socializing?

Marksdwarves are notorious about shluffing off training. my suggestion would be to retain any prisoners you capture, strip them of their gear, and use them as targets for your dwarves to practice on. You are garrunteed that the marksdwarves will shoot them, and you can dictate when and how they do it.

[Dotto]

The majority of my bolts were forbidden, but i changed that and still they insist in not trainning. DonŽt know if there is a way to make them train. When I have the prisoners IŽll try using them as targets. In the meanwhile, since my previous answer, my fortress was sieged, but my troops acted like they were supposed to and I had few casualties. Thanks for you tip.

[Derakon]

You need to set up the archery range to shoot in the proper direction; it's not sufficient to just build it.

Also, check your marksdwarves' hands; they may be holding things that prevent them from picking up bolts.

[shadowclasper]

The problem IŽm having is that my marksdwarves are not training, as they were supposed to, since they are standing down. The archery range is there, untouched.

OH! Do you have wood or bone bolts? Or are they all metal? Because if they aren't bone or wood your dwarves refuse to use valuable battle ready metal bolts.

[Dotto]

I really donŽt know what is going wrong. Sometimes they start shooting, but just for a little time. I have plenty of wooden bolts, but they still insist not to train. Anyway, IŽve got another siege. IŽll be back soon. Thanks anyway!

[Edzako]

Slightly unrelated question. I have trained 16 legendary wrestlers and equipped them with iron caps, boots and shields. Now, as all good half naked spartians they should begin start training with spears, but I am a bit worried that they will kill each other. How dangerous sparring with 1.5 meter long steel spears is ?

[dogstile]

Slightly unrelated question. I have trained 16 legendary wrestlers and equipped them with iron caps, boots and shields. Now, as all good half naked spartians they should begin start training with spears, but I am a bit worried that they will kill each other. How dangerous sparring with 1.5 meter long steel spears is ?

forget what people will tell you about item quality with spears. spears are stupidly dangerous to train with no matter what the material.

that said, you want Spartans? you have yourself a Spartan test, survive training!

[Edzako]

I could tolerate some casualties, say 6-8 dwarfs, but will at least some of them survive, would be quite stupid situation when orks would arrive and all that I have is 1 bloody dwarf. btw - do they gain experience from killing ?

[SquirrelWizard]

when it comes to weapon training, typically what is suggested is; equip your best armor and equip the worst weapon of that type that you have. The reason being is that the crappy weapon = low damage when sparring, and the best armor = high damage reduction when sparring. What dogstile is refering to is that spears, like bolts, use piercing damage which is stupidly good at hitting vitals.

Again, cage traps + stripping enemies of gear + arenas might be a safer option if you choose to go that route.

[2xMachina]

I find that the dwarves will only train for a short period of time, then go off chatting. You can't keep them training for long periods of time.

[Dotto]

IŽll keep an eye to confirm that, but I think they are most of the time chating and, in their off time, training a little, just to relax.