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[Mushroo]

Agreed, leave the number at 10 unless you have a specific reason to change it.

...Like wanting to have a working active squad?

Tell my legendary axedwarfs that their training schedule is broken.

[schismatise]

Agreed, leave the number at 10 unless you have a specific reason to change it.

...Like wanting to have a working active squad?

Tell my legendary axedwarfs that their training schedule is broken.

QFT

[krenshala]

Agreed, leave the number at 10 unless you have a specific reason to change it.

...Like wanting to have a working active squad?

Tell my legendary axedwarfs that their training schedule is broken.

Or my four Professional Speardwarves (after two years in the military).

[Mushroo]

Or my four Professional Speardwarves (after two years in the military).

They should be Legendary within a year; try splitting them into 2 squads of 2.

[Sutremaine]

Agreed, leave the number at 10 unless you have a specific reason to change it.

...Like wanting to have a working active squad?

Why would you want them to work? Leave them in the military and let them train that skill set. They're only going to be doing junk civilian jobs anyway unless you're putting your armoursmiths in the military rotation.

[krenshala]

Or my four Professional Speardwarves (after two years in the military).

They should be Legendary within a year; try splitting them into 2 squads of 2.

They were random FNGs, some with skills, some without, so the first six to nine months saw lots of demonstrations, which most likely slowed things down.  It didn't matter, as they slaughtered the elven ambush, even though they didn't have their armor yet at that point (just copper spears and wooden shields).  By the time they would need to be legendary, they would be, and they would have trained at least another dozen FNGs to be nearly as bad ass as they were.  Too bad that was my last 0.31.25 fortress ...

[Loud Whispers]

Agreed, leave the number at 10 unless you have a specific reason to change it.

...Like wanting to have a working active squad?

Why would you want them to work? Leave them in the military and let them train that skill set. They're only going to be doing junk civilian jobs anyway unless you're putting your armoursmiths in the military rotation.

By working I mean constantly sparring Dwarflords.

-_-

[schismatise]

Agreed, leave the number at 10 unless you have a specific reason to change it.

...Like wanting to have a working active squad?

Why would you want them to work? Leave them in the military and let them train that skill set. They're only going to be doing junk civilian jobs anyway unless you're putting your armoursmiths in the military rotation.

By working I mean constantly sparring Dwarflords.

-_-

As far as i'm aware (correct me if i'm wrong), there is actually still a bug that will cause soldiers to wait for a demonstration throughout the duration of an inactive month, if the dwarf giving the demonstration didn't show up before the end of the previous, active month. Apparently if the period of inactivity is long enough, your dwarves can in fact die of thirst or hunger, stuck waiting for a demonstration. So i dare say that if you use large squads and have them training on and off throughout the year, you may possibly run into problems.

However, if you have them training 12 months a year, you will not have problems with leaving the minimum number as the default of 10. I state this with many forts experience of exactly that.

From what i can tell, having the number higher than the number of dwarves in the squad means that when the month ticks over and the soldiers aquire a new job (eg. training), they pause for a couple of seconds before the job is aquired and they go about their business. Having the number lower than the number of dwarves in the squad seems to eliminiate this very small pause. This is just my observation though - i may be wrong.

[Loud Whispers]

As far as i'm aware (correct me if i'm wrong), there is actually still a bug that will cause soldiers to wait for a demonstration throughout the duration of an inactive month, if the dwarf giving the demonstration didn't show up before the end of the previous, active month. Apparently if the period of inactivity is long enough, your dwarves can in fact die of thirst or hunger, stuck waiting for a demonstration. So i dare say that if you use large squads and have them training on and off throughout the year, you may possibly run into problems.

However, if you have them training 12 months a year, you will not have problems with leaving the minimum number as the default of 10. I state this with many forts experience of exactly that.

From what i can tell, having the number higher than the number of dwarves in the squad means that when the month ticks over and the soldiers aquire a new job (eg. training), they pause for a couple of seconds before the job is aquired and they go about their business. Having the number lower than the number of dwarves in the squad seems to eliminiate this very small pause. This is just my observation though - i may be wrong.

This bug is why having the schedule number over the squad size doesn't work

[Mushroo]

However, if you have them training 12 months a year, you will not have problems with leaving the minimum number as the default of 10. I state this with many forts experience of exactly that.

My experience confirms the above. 2-dwarf squads, minimum number training unchanged from the default 10, squad is constantly training, legendary in around 12 months.

[Malkenon]

 -- sorry, first time visiting this art of the forum so forgive my post --

Legendary fighters in a year?!?! :O :O :O  i think ive had a squad training for at least a year and im not sure their weapon skill has gone up at all... is it because i have more than 2 in each squad? does that slow down the skill gain? and does it also slow it if theyre using different weapons? i currently have them all set to individual choice, melee, since some are better with hammer, some sword, etc.

[Sutremaine]

Having two dwarves in a squad will make them do demonstrations for a while until their skill is equal, then they'll start sparring. Because all the dwarves in the squad are sparring and gaining roughly the same amount of skill, no dwarf will fall behind or gain enough XP in something to for demonstrations to restart. Sparring is a much better source of XP than demonstrations, so you get rapid XP gain.

Personally I like squads of three because they train fast enough and having three means less chance of sending one dwarf out to be kicked around by ogres (skill doesn't matter here, that dwarf is going to the floor sooner or later. They won't necessarily die, but they're stuck on the defensive). Two is much, much quicker though and by far the best choice if you're training pure civilians.

Having said that, you might get the odd demonstration. Between dwarven personalities, random fluctuations in XP gain for a skill, and the RNG, it's bound to happen sooner or later.

[Mushroo]

-- sorry, first time visiting this art of the forum so forgive my post --

Legendary fighters in a year?!?! :O :O :O  i think ive had a squad training for at least a year and im not sure their weapon skill has gone up at all... is it because i have more than 2 in each squad? does that slow down the skill gain? and does it also slow it if theyre using different weapons? i currently have them all set to individual choice, melee, since some are better with hammer, some sword, etc.

Best advice I can give is work your way through the Wiki and triple-check each variable. For example, did you remember to assign the squad to train at an armor stand/weapon rack/barracks? (If not they will just stand there.)

And yes, you really should try the 2- or 3-man squads, it does make a difference.

ps I don't care if they do a mix of demonstrations and sparring, that is OK with me.

[schismatise]

-- sorry, first time visiting this art of the forum so forgive my post --

Legendary fighters in a year?!?! :O :O :O  i think ive had a squad training for at least a year and im not sure their weapon skill has gone up at all... is it because i have more than 2 in each squad? does that slow down the skill gain? and does it also slow it if theyre using different weapons? i currently have them all set to individual choice, melee, since some are better with hammer, some sword, etc.

If when you embark you assign 2 dwarves Teaching skill 5 and Weapon Skill 5 (the same weapon skill for both of them), and then the first thing you build when you arrive is a barracks (along with their required weapon and a shield if you didn't bring them), and set them both to training immediately, leaving all the defaults of 10 minimum and 12 months per year training (make sure the squad is "active"), they will do almost nothing but spar, and by the end of the year they will be roughly legendary fighters, at least great if not legendary weapon users, and probably around level 5 in shield using.

If instead you use 10 random recruits, some of whom have various points in biting, kicking, dodging, striking, wrestling, and various different weapon skills, and you set them training at say, minimum of 5, every second year of the month, they will do almost nothing but random demonstrations of mostly useless combat skills, and by the end of the year you'll be lucky if any of them has gone up more than a single level in any combat ability.

[wzam]

Thank you, everyone. This thread is very enlightening.