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[Argembarger]

If I were to separate basic Dwarf functions into these categories:

• Fortcarvers (Miners, Engravers, Mechanics, Architects, dwarves responsible for the structure of your fortress)
• Foodmakers (Any Dwarf responsible for making or preparing food or beverages)
• Guildsdwarves (Vital; Make things your Dwarves use or wear; Armor, weapons, furniture, clothes.)
• Artisans (Nonvital; Responsible specifically for gaining wealth or making things for trade.)
• Military (Full-time lifelong soldiers; militia does not count)
• Nobles
• Haulin' Peasants and Miscellaneous

then how many of each do you like to have in a group consisting of x dwarves?

I know that it's definitely not as clear-cut as the roles I defined above, but it's the most general list I could come up with.

As an example, if I had, say, 20 dwarves in just a sort of general survival fort, I would want to have, ideally, 3 Fortcarvers, 3 Foodmakers, 5 Guildsdwarves 2 Artisans, 4 Militarydwarves, 1 Noble, and 2 Haulin' Peasants.

I'm interested in how many of each you guys tend to have. Different fortress purposes are wanted; how different are your numbers when you're working on megaprojects as opposed to surviving in a terrifying mountain cavern? How different are your numbers with a full fort of 200 dwarves as opposed to a fresh embark?

When trying to determine a dwarf's roles, just think of it's ultimate purpose. A woodcutter potentially has several roles; it depends on what you use the wood for. If it's for floodgates, grates or windmills, the woodcutter is, by my definition, a Fortcarver. If the wood is for beds, bolts or weapons, the woodcutter is an honorary Guildsdwarf. And if you make wood crafts, then the woodcutter is participating in the Artisan industry.

And for a dwarf which has multiple jobs, you can either represent that by considering it a "1/2 artisan 1/2 guildsdwarf" or just taking whatever it does the most and considering that it's role.

This topic is somewhat ethereal and perhaps esoteric; on one hand, I'm interested in the castes of different fortresses, and on the other hand, sometimes I get hopelessly confused when I'm assigning roles and I may be passively seeking advice here.

[Brandstone]

I group dwarves by gathering, production, military, administrative, hauling/conscripts, and useless nobles. I like having one part gathering to two parts production, two administrators to keep records and collate job orders, military and hauling between 1.5 to 2 times the population of the gathering dwarves, and as few nobles as the Mountainhomes send me. These ratios are way off in the founding time of the fortress since each map requires different things to get started.   

[rephikul]

== Nobles ==
1x mayor/broker
1x doc
1x manager/bookeeper

== Non-scaling jobs ==
1x miner
2x carpenter
1x wood cutter
2x animal trainers
1x plant gatherer
3x metalsmiths
5x furnance operators
8x wood burners
1x clothier
1x siege engineer

== Scaling jobs ==
10% cook/butcher
2.5% grower
2% leatherworker
5% bone carvers
20% mechanics / hauler / military
20% siege operators / hauler / military
Rest pump operator / hauler / military

[FleshForge]

There is never going to be an "optimal" arrangement of labor, because everyone has different priorities.  E.g. the big argument about blocks vs. raw stone.

[BurnedToast]

2 - 3 legendary miners.

1 legendary of whatever crafts you plan on doing (you really only need one)

1 legendary doctor (not that this is realistically possible to get)

1 legendary farmer if you don't plan on importing all your food (I usually import)

1 legendary brewer/cook.

5 - 10 military dwarves

11 bajillion haulers.

[darkrider2]

The way I see it there are two things you can do.

A) Have a couple incredibly skilled dwarves in each category, turn hauling off for them and let a horde of useless dwarves move everything around for them.

+more valuable items
-losing a dwarf more harmful to fort

B) Have no dedicated haulers, all dwarves haul while still having other jobs.

+good for megaprojects
+they're all the same, losing a dwarf doesn't matter too much

[Vercingetorix]

My only real rule is turning off hauling for legendary dwarves.  That way, over time only unskilled peasants will be doing the hauling work.

[Untelligent]

Depends on what phase of my fort I'm in.

At the end of my last one, I think I had 20 full-time miners, 30 full-time masons (I think the miners had masonry enabled too), 20 dwarves with all the food labors on, 30 military dwarves, 10 dwarves with all the crafting labors on in case my nobles needed a mandate, 5 or so weapon/armor smiths, 15 engravers, 10 woodworkers/bowyers/woodworkers, 10 mechanics, and the other 40 or 50 were kids, nobles, and haulers.

Quality never matters to me except for weapons and armor.

[Namfuak]

I pretty much just turn on whatever professions the migrants that come in are skilled in, unless they are particularly good military skills in which case they become full military.  I figure that if I need their job, they'll do it, and if not they are haulers.  Usually, I start out with 2 miners, and slowly move up to 3 and four, then possibly to five and six depending on how much mining I am doing.  Optimally I have 6 masons, two of which have both masonry and detailing and 4 have just masonry.  Four carpenters is usually fine as well.  2-3 woodcutters, one of all the "specialized" (read: only needed for a day out of the whole year, if that) farming professions (lye/potash making, soapers, dyers (still have never made a cloth industry with full dyers, my forts never live that long)), 2-3 wood burners if no magma, and maybe one if needed (who mostly hauls).

I try to have 3 furnace operators and 3-4 weapon/armor/metal/blacksmithing types.  I usually have one dwarf making rock crafts/toys and one making bone bolts (or wood if I'm doing much hunting).  Usually, I have one or two brewers and one or two cooks with just that turned on, and a butcher or two as well, and then a bunch more with hauling enabled.  I also try to have a couple fisherdwarves who do both fishing and cleaning, and usually they are zealous enough about it that I don't have to turn off their hauling.  Usually one of my masons is an architect (since most of my buildings are out of stone, so he then goes and makes it).  Obviously I have the nobles as well, though unlike most people I usually have a separate bookkeeper and manager after the first couple of immigrant waves, and I'll turn on something small for them or simply have them sit around for a long time (since I always turn off hauling)

I think that about covers it.

[vadia]

It changes with the mood of the fortress I want.


Currently I'd like

0 craftsdwarves (the bums)
1 legendary farmer
1 legendary butcher
1 legendary tanner
1 legendary mechanic
1 legendary miner
1 legendary planter
1 legendary gem cutter
1 legednary gem setter
1 legendary strand extractor
1 legendary weapon smith
1 legendary armor smith
2-3 legendary cooks
1 legendary brewer
1 legendary mason
a bunch of sub-legendary masons who can have strange moods to make furniture and throw-away statues (an odd idea for a trap I have)
pretty much fill out the rest with a random hobby or two during their time off the military
and about 235,000 war elephants.

[LealNightrunner]

I always turn off stone hauling for miners, but other than that everyone pitches in.

The only fort I got to the pop cap was a 40d one, and I had about 80 homeless haulers cause I didn't have anything interesting on the map besides the odd 100 goblin siege that the two military dwarves could kill without breaking a sweat.

I ended up flooding that one out of boredom... took a long time too.

[Eskielidder]

Approx 80-90% idlers (slack bastards)!