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[Toybasher]

I had a seige, luckily i used a drawbridge to seal off my fort from outside, and they eventually decided to leave after armok-knows-how-long

I still have many ambushes who keep massacuring my militery.

My militery consists of 3 dwarves. Two with silver scrimitars and one with a silver war hammer.
One if them wears a copper helmet and  shirt, the other wears a iron helmet and shirt

Is it the the equipment im using that is the problem?

Also, where should i set up the traps? By the entrance? or out in the site near the edge of the map?

Also i am still having problems with the idiotic dwarves getting weapon slow atrociously slowly from trainning, its been almost a year (maybe two) and their now at novice.
Am i doing something wrong?

[Delta Foxtrot]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Defense_guide#Traps

An effective method with traps is to create a long twisting corridor filled with cage/weapon traps that your enemies have to march through (keep in mind that weapon traps can get cluttered quite fast with bodies and have to be cleared post-battle). Some people use dodge traps (weapon trap on a single tile wide path with several z-level fall on both sides). Or you could play with retracting drawbridges with levers/pressure plates, dropping enemies many z-levels. There's quite a bit of options, some more advanced but some fiendishly simple, and that wiki article covers many of them quite nicely.

I consider the bare minimum armour to be: a helmet, breastplate or mailshirt and a shield (head and vital organs, basically). As soon as I'm able, I add full armour kit to my squads (helmet, breastplate, mailshirt, greaves, gauntlets and a shield). Copper will do, but iron is the preferred material (bronze is good too, steel is better but more complicated to produce). I can't confirm it, but I've understood that squads train better if they're uniformly armed (that is, only one weapon type per squad). Something about hammerdwarf teaching the sworddwarfs how to hammer and the sworddwarfs teaching the hammerdwarf how to fight with swords. Weapon materials roughly mimic armour (with the exception of using silver for blunt weapons). A dozen dwarves armed and armoured in iron and training 24/7 go a long way against simple ambushes.

Don't forget that numbers also count in battle. Especially early on while your militia is below weapon-lord/master level, you will want to have the numbers to match the goblins. Even if your dwarf is somewhat more skilled than a goblin, outnumbered 5 to 1 isn't exactly good odds. Either have enough dwarfs to challenge the goblins in the open, or manipulate the environment to make sure you're only fighting one squad at a time. Everyone has their own preferences, but when it comes to militia size I prefer to have 1/5th or 1/4th of my fort on militia duty.

[Garath]

my fort has 3 entrances, in case most of the traps in one entrance have to be cleaned out. drawbridges raising on two ends keeps the current group inside. If all traps are jammed or triggered, i send some marksdwarfs up to a galery, behind a wall that is carved into fortifications. Usually only leader goblins are elite archer/crossbow, and they tend to run into cage traps, so there is little danger. If there are still more enemies, who havnt run away, i open one of the other gates. I try to have just one open at a time in cases like this, since keeping an eye on too many corridors can result in forgetting to pull a lever at a crucial time.
my corridors tend to look simmilar:

XXXXXXXX
  X   X   X
  T   T   T
XXXXXXXX

X = wall
T = trap

2 tiles wide corridor with evenly spaced blockades to force someone on the trapped tile. A whole 1-tile wide corridor is nightmare if there is a lot of loot or lumber to be hauled from outside. this allows yor haulers to step to the side most of the time

the first trap is usually a few tiles inside the entrance, since this prevents goblins from running away immediately after finding the first trap. Traps tend to consist of: 1 serrated disc. Early on its glass or copper, but i try to slowly replace them with iron, steel or bronze. 3 spiked balls. Early mostly silver but also some copper ( I tend to get more tetrahedrite than iron ores). Preferably these are silver, bronze or iron, in that order of preference. Than finish with 1 spike, or 2 spears/pikes if i have goblinite (loot from goblins) leftovers. Preferably iron or steel, but these are just for extra failsafe and i usually leave them out in the beginning. After 4 traps like this, i put 2 cage traps

NO creature that is not imune to traps makes it past there. Not cyclops, giants or ettins. Most will not make it past the first. Of 10 goblins charging, at worst 5 will make it through, but they will all be missing limbs, suffering from lots of broken bones and be bleeding. Same for trolls or ogres. Usually though, after the first 2 dead, the rest of the goblins try to run, back through the traps. So close the gate, goblins often have some metal caps, helmets and other armor, not to mention weapons, and it would be a shame to let it walk off the map. Dont bother with ogres and trolls, let em run

[Psieye]

My militery consists of 3 dwarves. Two with silver scrimitars and one with a silver war hammer.
One if them wears a copper helmet and  shirt, the other wears a iron helmet and shirt

Is it the the equipment im using that is the problem?

Yes. First rule of combat: equipment material is EVERYTHING to first order. Yes, quality of manufacture, skill of users and a bit of luck do factor in, but by far the most important consideration is what material your equipment is made of. Extensive research has been done on this topic but to quickly summarise: you want steel or better ideally. Iron or bronze if that's not an option. Leather, bone, copper, etc is better than nothing sure but expect a lot of casualties if you stay on these materials for long.

Now it just so happens you may not be able to produce any of those "battle-worthy" metals on your site. Then you need to be more resourceful and make do until you've scraped together enough equipment from war loot and caravans. This is not something a beginner should be forced to learn while still learning the basics of DF, so I suggest generating mineral-heavy worlds so you're almost guaranteed to find some good metals on site.

Also i am still having problems with the idiotic dwarves getting weapon slow atrociously slowly from trainning, its been almost a year (maybe two) and their now at novice.
Am i doing something wrong?

Yes. Conventional military training has a reputation for being slow but not that slow. Without more detail from you however, we can't assess exactly what you're doing wrong. At a guess, a common mistake is not activating your soldiers to be on duty, instead hoping they'll figure something out just by putting them in squads.

I should further say that many people are discontent with how slow conventional military training is when they get it running properly. "Use danger rooms" is a 'controversial' method of getting faster training that is intensely debated as being too exploity or not. Let's not have that discussion here though, if you want to learn more then ask for links. The somewhat slower and less controversial method is to use training weapons on live targets. I should point out: if you're using training weapons for ordinary conventional military training, you are doing it wrong as they serve no benefit whatsoever in that scenario.

The problem is that during that time between failure and victory 90% of players have quit. There is no "sandbox mode" for dwarf fortress, there is no way for players to experiment and explore the game and grow feet to stand on.

Turn invaders off. That's the 'sandbox' mode you're looking for. That switches off most of the direct and indirect causes of fort deaths. If a new player needs to apply [NO_EAT] and [NO_DRINK] as well then we'd have cause for concern but learning the military is an appreciably bigger obstacle than learning to manage food and booze.

do keep in mind that the "losing is fun" creed is there for a reason.

Yes, but the reason you state is not the original reason why Toady coined that term. Not that this detracts from your point - nothing wrong with a creed being adapted from its original context as it is indeed fitting for DF. To sate academic curiosities, the original reason was because of the vision for a living world where every fort you lose will be remembered and have an impact on future forts. That's true at present, but not as much as Toady's vision (which needs release 5 of the current dev plans).

[khearn]

Toybasher, I'd like to apologize. My problem wasn't really with what you did. You came to the official DF forum with a problem, asked a question, got advice, and followed it. I can't blame you for that.

My problem is that the second reply you got told you to use runesmith to kill them, and the third told you to edit the raws to make the self-vaporize. If people want to rationalize cheating by claiming it's a single player game, that's fine. But they shouldn't present cheating as the first option to a newcomer for every problem that comes along.

Toybasher, I don't blame you for cheating, given the circumstances. I'm just sorry that you got cheated. Read the forums for a few days and you'll see people proudly relating how their first fortress got wiped out by its first ambush, and how cool it was when they started another one and survived that one's first ambush. Getting your butt handed to you before you're ready for it is part of the DF experience, and you got cheated of it. I'm sorry for that.

So to the rest of you, cheating may be OK in a single player game, but don't cheat other people by spoiling their experience. Let people at least experience the game without cheating before you tell them to do it. New players will have plenty of opportunity to learn to cheat around here, there's no point in racing to be the first to tell them how.

[AzuredreamsXT]

Take it like a dwarf!

[tommy521]

My problem is that the second reply you got told you to use runesmith to kill them, and the third told you to edit the raws to make the self-vaporize. If people want to rationalize cheating by claiming it's a single player game, that's fine. But they shouldn't present cheating as the first option to a newcomer for every problem that comes along.

In my defense, he asked for a tool that he can use to kill them. If he had asked for a good strategy to help him set up a trap or a military I'm sure he would have gotten plenty of responses including good strategies for traps and military.

[Sutremaine]

Already answered, but I'll add some stuff anyway.

My militery consists of 3 dwarves. Two with silver scrimitars and one with a silver war hammer.
One if them wears a copper helmet and shirt, the other wears a iron helmet and shirt

Is it the the equipment im using that is the problem?

Yup. Silver is a poor material for edged weapons and a good one for blunt ones. Have you got any spears or small daggers lying around? Their small contact areas offset some of the poor performance of silver and copper. Bronze or iron edged weapons would be even better. I would not recommend switching entirely to silver war hammers. They're good for disabling enemies and for armoured opponents, but goblins don't wear full armour and it's quicker to hit them with something sharp and hope it connects with one of their many unarmoured body parts.

Get them covered with bone and leather at least, and add a cape and hood to the uniform. Right now their hands and their legs are fully exposed (what's the third dwarf wearing?), and while bone and leather won't turn aside many blows at all they are at least an extra layer.

Also i am still having problems with the idiotic dwarves getting weapon slow atrociously slowly from trainning, its been almost a year (maybe two) and their now at novice.

Skill breeds skill in the military, and if you start from absolute scratch your dwarves will be lousy teachers, lousy students, lousy demonstration organisers, and will have nothing to teach each other anyway. I've been fiddling around with starting skills, and a Skilled Dodger with some skill in Teaching and Organising can get two other dwarves (with some Student skill) up to Skilled as well in roughly six months. This requires them to be unarmed, but you're pretty much guaranteed an ambush-free first year.

But -- there's still plenty you can do to give your military as much time as possible for training. Give them waterskins and their own nice rooms within ten paces of the barracks (keep these above ground to stop cave adaptation. Puking dwarves are not fast dwarves), and never let them off-duty. I'm not sure about giving them backpacks. On the one hand, it cuts down on eating time. On the other, they'll go to the food stockpile to refresh the food supply every time they eat, they'll stop eating in the dining room, and if they lose the food out of their packs they'll leave it lying around to rot.

[Flare]

Runesmith can be used but if it is a siege then you will not get migrants or caravans anymore because afaik it wont remove the "siege" sign. Also, are they armored? I try to give them a helm and a few caps... otherwise yes they will be slaughtered. Try training them on animals or a danger room if you're into that stuff

In my experience a shield has served far better than armor has. Perhaps he has not equipped his militia with those.

I actually don't think his problem has to do with equipment. Even if his three troops were decked out in adamantine, I doubt that would help sway the battle given that your average ambush produces somewhere around a full squad of competently skilled gobbos. Advising him that his problem is his equipment isn't going to help him as his, what I assume to be totally inexperienced dwarves get the crap kicked out of them due to a total lack of skill.

In any case, my general advice would be to use those three militia dwarves to buy you some time to seal yourselve up. I did this in my first few ambushes. The militia would be no where as good as the gobbos, they do usually retain enuogh skill to hold them off for a while. This will let you build some walls to seal off your fort, or better yet, raise the bridge. If you haven't built your fort in a way that makes it possible to seal it off in a quick manner, make sure to do this in your next game.

[tommy521]

In my experience a shield has served far better than armor has. Perhaps he has not equipped his militia with those.

Oh yes of course, I was referring to head related attacks.

[Sandrew]

P.S. the whole fortress mode is a "way for players to experiment and explore the game and grow feet to stand on." There is no right or wrong way to survive, but there are the "accepted" and "not accepted" ways. (editing raws to remove threats, vs letting the little suckers die, to start again)

You just proved all his points right. There is no right or wrong way. You can call it cheating, or you can call it a method to gain familiarity with the military system. Eventually, eh will work out a way to overcome his foes. By traps, magmatic contraptions, or sheer dwarven strength and steel.

[Sutremaine]

Even if his three troops were decked out in adamantine, I doubt that would help sway the battle given that your average ambush produces somewhere around a full squad of competently skilled gobbos.

It would work for bladed weapons. I created a peasant in full adamantine plus an adamantine shield and a silk dress, hood, and cloak. Then I faced the dwarf off against a goblin Grand Master in everything and armed with an iron short sword. Everything was deflected except shots to the upper arm, shoulder, eye, nose, and lips. After over 100 pages of combat plus several bouts of the goblin trying to stab through the over-exerted dwarf's helm, the dwarf was skilled enough in Misc. Object Use to stove the goblin's head in with her shield.

Tests against goblins with silver and iron warhammers did not go so well, with each dwarf lasting roughly 2 pages of combat before getting her head bashed in. Adding 1 and then 5 leather cloaks and hoods and sending the dwarf against the goblin victors went marginally better, with the leather occasionally standing up to one strike from the iron warhammer. By that I mean the dwarf got away with only a shattered skull.

So shield skill is incredibly important, because it stops an attack from even connecting (as does dodging, but that can be dangerous depending on the terrain). I assumed that the OP was using shields but not mentioning them since they're not technically armour. Maybe not such a good assumption.

[Nan]

What I've been doing when I want to use a militia, is embarking with two military dwarves. I make sure they both have good qualities such as strong, tough, quick healing etc. Usually one is a proficient axeman and dodger, the other a proficient spearman and shield user. Embarking with a military is well worthwhile, and you can use them to hunt wildlife to put food on the table.

Initially I set the axeman to woodchopping and the spearman to some random task (perhaps smithing to create the squads gear, or leatherworking), but soon I construct an armorstand (usually outside at the entrance) turn it into a barracks, recruit them into a squad and set them to train (remembering to turn woodchopping off! Leaving it on causes "naked fighter syndrome"). The initial uniform I use I call "Mad Dwarf" and it consists of the following:
Helm
Cloak
Shield
Individual Choice: Melee.

The helm helps prevents brain injury, and the cloak helps to avoid silly little injuries like being bitten by a badger, and does help some in real battle. I try to give them the best helm I possibly can. It is worthwhile, IMO, bringing iron ore and fluxstone for making steel, and make at least 3 steel helms and 3 steel weapons. But even a bone helm is better than nothing.

When my first immigrant wave comes, I recruit the most promising of the immigrants (either in terms of skills, attributes or both), for a squad of 3. The final recruit is usually assigned either a sword or hammer.

The squad trains all year round. I give them nice bedrooms near the barracks. The bedroom is important. Military dwarves often don't have many sources of happiness, but a nice bedroom is a staple.

Usually within a couple of years, they'll be legendary fighters, some level of master in their chosen weapon, and with rising defensive skills.

Gradually I upgrade their uniform. It seems that there's not much point in having good armor until their armor user skill increases. With their high fighting skill (and shield and dodging skills) they seem to have no problem taking out the goblin ambushes without injury. But eventually you'll want them armored like battle tanks. It seems effective to prioritize mail shirts, gauntlets and high boots to get the whole body covered.

As more immigrants come I create additional squads of 3. These will usually be set to train in peace deeper in the fortress, since the alpha squad can take care of most threats.

One little note, is that you can often get a carpenter high enough skill to produce masterwork wooden shields, long before you can produce masterwork metal shields. The same goes for masterwork leather shields, if you are lucky enough to get a high level leatherworker from a mood or immigration. A masterwork shield is better at blocking than an ordinary shield, and this will usually trump the benefit of a heavier shield for "shield bashing". Also if you are lucky enough to get an artifact weapon, shield or armor piece from a mood, then be sure to manually assign it using m(ilitary)-e(quip), otherwise it'll tend to sit around gathering dust.

The final thing is to build a hospital. At a minimum you want to have cloth, thread, splints, crutches and soap! Soap is important, as is a working well (or just a hole above a reservoir) in the hospital itself. Having ready access to soap and water will greatly improve the life expectancy of your wounded, even if they're being treated by peasants with no medical skill.

If you want a really strong militia, embark with 6 military dwarves, ore to produce steel and/or bronze, and one herbalist/carpenter to feed them . It's tough at the start, but after a couple of immigration waves the labor will be totally under control but your militia will be godly.