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[Togre]

In the past my military was armored through micro-managing or through only having 1 type (iron, steel, etc.) of gear which I then specified in a uniform.

My question is this:  If I have a handful of copper helms, bronze helms and iron helms, which ones will be equipped first if I tell my dwarfs to equip <metal helms>?   Is there a priority based on material, quality or personal preference?  Do they generally manage to use the best stuff first?

Or will I need to hold their hands and dress them like a bearded, death-dealing 3year-old?

[Girlinhat]

It's primarily price, actually.  They grab the most expensive piece of their uniform, which is usually right.  Adamantine costs more than steel costs more than bronze costs more than copper.  Ergo, expensive is better.  Goblinite Iron Breastplates will be slightly preferred before your own, because they have an art image of the goblin civ's logo, which makes it like 10☼ more expensive or something.  Silver spears will be grabbed before bronze spears, so watch out when making silver weapons.  And, the leader of the squad always gets first pickings, so if you produce an artifact battle axe, the commander will almost always go claim it.

Certain rules change when a dwarf grows attached to or names an item.  This can usually be undone by removing their squad uniform (leave them naked) and making the same uniform.

[Phleem]

In the past my military was armored through micro-managing or through only having 1 type (iron, steel, etc.) of gear which I then specified in a uniform.

My question is this:  If I have a handful of copper helms, bronze helms and iron helms, which ones will be equipped first if I tell my dwarfs to equip <metal helms>?   Is there a priority based on material, quality or personal preference?  Do they generally manage to use the best stuff first?

Or will I need to hold their hands and dress them like a bearded, death-dealing 3year-old?

I find this one of the annoying aspects of the game. I think the way it works is that when a new item becomes available, the dwarfs get a chance to claim it in order of their priority. I think the priority is by squad, and then position in squad.  So the first dwarf in the first squad decides if he wants the new item. If not, the second dwarf in that squad will consider it, and so on. If one of them claims it, and drops his existing item, that in turn becomes available, and can get passed on in a similar manner, which can result in a chain of equipment changes.

I think the other reply about the choice of whether to change items based on cost is correct, which can result in unexpected choices when high quality level armor of lesser materials are valued higher and so choosen by Urist MacRatherLookGoodThanLive. You may want to forbid the artifact ceder armor.

Warning: I am not very good at this game, and this interpretation of how the little bearded fucks are deciding what to wear might not be correct at all.

Frankly, the entire equipment management aspect of the game is a wretched swamp, rivaled for annoyance level in my mind only by soap making frustrations caused by the lye and water bucket confusion and tallow cooking fiascoes.

[Urist Da Vinci]

The uniform menu is currently specific enough that you can have your squad wearing red-dyed cave spider silk cloaks, if you want them to. You can also assign specific items, even artifacts, to specific dwarves.

[andyman564]

i've noticed that the militia commander will ALWAYS get the best armor and weapons, even if someone else claimed it first. and i think the rest of the squad gets their stuff on a first come first serve basis.