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[vassock]

I need to make a military group that uses iron weapons and armor. What is the easiest way to do this?

[Firehawk]

Reading the wiki is the easiest way.

[vassock]

I can't find where it says clearly how to tell them to go to a point. I assigned 5 dwarves to a new squad, created a uniform and assigned it squad-wide (and yes I do believe I have all of the items they need). Now how do I tell them to go to a certain point in the map?

[Avaline]

'S' key lets you access the squad menu.  From there you can Station a squad to a certain point right away or tell them to kill something. 

There's a way to make that automated (as in, this month X squad will guard THIS spot)  but it's messy to setup.  The squad menu is a nice quick "Ok, go here right now!" you probably are really after.

Spoiler: pre ninjaed account on how to make a military the 'easy way' (click to show/hide)

Easiest method to get some kind of army?

Step 1: start off with at least one dwarf having 5 points in Teacher and a few points in a particular weapon, perhaps some armor/shield too.

Step 2: create a squad (either right away or after you have a few more dwarves).  Set them to 'metal armor' uniform.  Dump all of your chosen military there. 

Step 3: in Alerts, set the squad to 'training'.

Step 4: In Equipment, if a dwarf has some skill in a weapon type, remove 'individual choice: melee' and set them to the weapon they are good at.  Dwarves without some weapon skill can keep 'individual choice'

Step 5: Schedule.  Start at the top the list, go down 2 months, hit 'x' so there's no orders.  go down another 2 months, hit 'x'.  Repeat until you have 2 months of training then 1 month with no orders.

Step 6: Design a training area, set it to barracks, use 'T' to make it a training ground.  Best if food and drinks are available nearby. 

Step 7: make your armor/weapons.  Do NOT make any training weapons, or leather mess or whatever.  Just buy or make metal ones.  Iron is fine.

That's basically it.  The squad will now train for 2 months each season and rest one month.  The 'Teacher' dwarf will help them gain some early skills in whatever that dwarf knows.  Otherwise, they'll train or spar or whatnot. 

Note, I set armor/weapons at Step 7 but the sooner you do that the better.  It's perfectly fine to wait until after you can start making them before you start creating your military.

Bonus Step: Make a large batch of training spears and mechanisms.  Then create Upright Spear traps inside the training area.  Literally fill the place with traps.  1 spear per trap is fine (some say 1 is best, some say 10.. you said 'easy' so 1 will do).  After that, link them all to a lever.  Once linked, have it set to Pull Lever on repeat.  The spear traps going off on the training dwarves will help them train much faster.

Issues with bonus step:  For one thing, you MUST set up specific weapons for your military now, or they will just pull the training spears.  'Metal Axe' or 'Metal Short Sword' will work fine here. 

Secondly, you MUST have them in armor before you start lever pulling. 

Thirdly, pets and children won't last long if they go in there.  Try to avoid the military having pets.  As for children, some people make all of the female dwarves marksdwarves.  Others kick pregnant women out of the military.  Still others.well.. just let it happen.

That's why it's a 'bonus step'.  It will help your military train Abnormally Fast, but it may be more than you're ready to get into.  if so, just follow the regular steps and you'll be fine  .

[Shoku]

If they do have pets you can easily build a pet-separator. Just create some pet forbidden doors that lead to a room with a lever or some such which links to a hatch right in front of the door. The hatch obviously needs to have a hole underneath it leading into the cat-pit or whatever you would call it. And if you see any remote reason you would want the animals back out of the pit just set up a drawbridge or maybe a floodgate (but not another locked door- they will obsess over trying to go through it.)