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[krescent]

I mean, it LOOKS like they are, but monitoring two of their 'fighter' skills, nothing is increasing.

ive set up two squads of four, assigned them to barracks, set their yearly schedule to train with 2-3 minimum. gave them leather armor and no weapons.

set the barrack item to train and sleep.

i dont see any skill increases, am i missing something? or is it just horribly slow?

checking on them they all seem to be 'waiting for combat training'

[Darkweave]

Is someone currently 'organizing combat training'?

Try reducing the minimum number and see if that makes a difference. Early on dwarves do take a long time to gain experience but as their student skill improves they level a fair bit faster. Monitor exactly what training they do. If they've done nothing but watch a shield demonstration and a dodging demonstration I wouldn't expect their fighting skill to go up.

[krescent]

okay I think it is raising they're just having a hard time organizing the training.

what's the best way to keep them happy while they train? I see numbers dropping..

[Darkweave]

Give them good bedrooms. If you have them carry food they tend not to use your dining rooms so they won't get happy thoughts from that. They'll take joy in slaughter if they fight/kill anything. Masterwork statues in the barracks may help, I haven't tried it personally. I usually wait until they become 'enraged by a long patrol duty' then give them 2-3 months off as it can take a little while for the thought to disappear, 1 month usually isn't enough. Once they become X-Lords/Master leave them on duty full time.

On embark I usually take:

Dwarf 1 - 3 Axe user, 3 Shield user, 2 teacher, 2 student
Dwarf 2 - 3 Fighter, 3 Armour User, 2 teacher, 2 organizer
Dwarf 3 - 3 Striking, 3 Dodging, 2 teacher, 2 student

That gives me a good starting military platform. I give each dwarf what I consider to be an offensive and defensive skill in case I run in to trouble really early. Taking a few copper/bronze shields and axes can get them some early experience versus wildlife and get you some easy meat. I try and get them at least copper armour and weapons by Autumn and have them training full time from the second wave of migrants onwards. Add spare migrants to the squad with them training three months on one month off or just full-time and in 3-5 years you'll have X-Lords/Masters with legendary fighting and level 7-12 in the other military skills. Picking migrants that aren't 'weak' or 'clumsy' helps but military training improves these attributes and within a few years they'll all be unimaginably strong, indefatigable, have an iron will etc.

Giving one squad wooden training weapons and having them beat on cavern creatures and wildlife can very helpful too, just don't have them face off against armed goblins or re-equip them first. So long as you get at least 6 dwarves in the military equipped in iron/bronze by the start of the second year you shouldn't have much trouble dealing with the first and maybe second cavern layer and any goblin ambushes. If you have trouble getting them to pick up equipment try either resetting the uniform or stationing them by your armour stockpile.

[shadenight123]

engrave their barracks and place an artifact statue or something in there.
nobody cares tomorrow they are going to die if there is an artifact bin in the barracks.
or a tasteful engraving of a dwarf screaming and a goblin laughing.

[wuphonsreach]

The downside of engraving individual bedrooms or placing expensive items in them is that you may end up with jealous nobles who become aggrieved if the peasants have anything other then smoothed rock for their bedrooms.

Smoothed 2x2 or 2x3 bedroom with a bed and as many cabinets as you can fit works well enough.

[shadenight123]

uh-oh...i have my entire fort engraved and artifacts everywhere...
if i ever find a noble is pissed of this, i'll just pull the lever of the lava floodgate.

[Psieye]

Do your dwarves have any combat skill? You can't expect a bunch of greenhorns with no teacher (with actual combat skills) to figure out how to fight on their own. They won't spar until they have some skill levels in their weapon either. Therefore the first stages of training is going out into the wilds and killing random critters to learn how to swing your weapon. THEN they can think about some proper training.