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[Sigz]

So I've just recently got into DF, and went through the utter newbie's tutorial, and am on my first fort since then. Things are going well, I'm now at 80+ dwarfs, but for the past 3 or 4 ambushes, my best squad has always been asleep in their rooms (not the barracks for some reason, even though the squad is set to sleep in the barracks), and I can't figure out any way to wake them up to go defend. Is there any way to get them to wake up for a battle, or do I just have to use my other squads?

Thanks!

[Ralith]

Is the alert set to the one where they are to sleep in the barracks? I don't know of a way besides deconstructing their beds to wake them up and I'm not sure that that does.

[Corinthius]

Deconstructing their beds gives them an unhappy thought, but the military folks are generally so ecstatic it doesn't matter much...

[Psieye]

Counter-questoin: DF2010 or 40d?

Though actually, the solutions are teh same in both cases: either you deconstruct their beds while they're sleeping or you generate a loud clap of noise. A tiny cave-in of a single constructed floor/wall tile that you control via collapsing a support (linked to a lever) is an excellent way to generate some loud noise that wakes everyone nearby up. Just make sure that cave-in 'alarm clock' is in a sealed and safe area so it doesn't hurt anyone - sound travels through floors and walls as if they don't exist so you can place it below all your bedrooms.

[Hyndis]

You probably want to have more than one squad.

Make 4-5 squads. This would be 40-50 dwarves in total. I would recommend leaving 1 squad to guard your main gate to make sure no ambushes sneak by. Then put the other squads on search and destroy. Have about 6-7 of each squad be active at any given time. This will give the other 3-4 guys plenty of time to eat/booze/sleep before going back on duty.

[Sigz]

Thanks for the help everyone! I'll probably just deconstruct the beds of all the slackers, as I don't really want to take the time to set up a bunch of levers and such. And I'll definitely make more squads; as of now my guys have been able to handle most stuff, but I'm starting to get a lot of idlers so I might as well put them to work.

[ZapRowsdower]

If I remember correctly the DF Wiki said something about building a floor panel on top of a wall in the barracks. Then you just get a dwarf to remove the wall the the floor tile falls to the ground and wakes them up.

Dont quote me on that though, and removing the beds will prolly work faster anyway.

-ZR

[Hyndis]

For each squad assume that at any given time half of the dwarves will be on duty. So if you want 20 dwarves active you need 4 squads. Always have something guarding your main gates to protect against ambushes. Just station that squad there to hold the line.

Then create very huge burrows and have your other guys defend burrows. This will put them on search and destroy.

For ease of organization, I give each squad a different weapon type. So I'll usually have some swords, some axes, some spears, and some crossbows. The gate guys also get crossbows to help gun down any thieves.

Lets say I have 5 squads, 1 on guard duty at the main gate and the other 4 roaming about. A thief will have to get past 5 armed and on duty dwarves at the main gate, and those guards only need to last long enough for the reinforcements to get there. The other 20 roaming dwarves will clear the map of all threats, both above and below ground.

[Safe-Keeper]

This just illustrates further the need for an Age of Empires II-style alarm bell that you can ring to wake up dwarves and get them to stop messing around with eating and whatnot and get to their posts.

[Rex_Nex]

Ah, Call to Arms, I think it was. Have a air-raid siren play in the background when you hit it!

[ZapRowsdower]

If dwarves are ANYTHING like me waking them up for any reason will cause a tantrum spiral that will eventually end all life on the world.

I wonder if there's a such thing as an alarm clock that wakes you up with beer...

[Nikov]

David Hackworth, US Army, once laid down behind a log during the middle of the day to take a nap. When he woke up he was covered in dirt. He'd slept through a North Korean artillery barrage.

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

If I remember correctly the DF Wiki said something about building a floor panel on top of a wall in the barracks. Then you just get a dwarf to remove the wall the the floor tile falls to the ground and wakes them up.

Dont quote me on that though, and removing the beds will prolly work faster anyway.

-ZR

Bad idea. The dust cloud will cause injuries in any dwarf caught in it.