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[lordlp]

As overseer, I see all dwarven as comrades. From digging to soap making, all comrades serve their use to the Mother Fort.

This way of thinking has always extended to military as well - for the good of all; if you can fight, you will fight for the Fort. Yet it would seem now dwarven women are looser then Paris Hilton on booze and pop out kids as if they are commodities. This would not be an issue, dwarves will be dwarves, but they bring these dregs on dwarven society out on the battle field, into danger rooms.. and anywhere else they shouldn't be.

I've gone though a few military dwarven, and children, in the past fort. Best one was the Female battle axe commander who lost her kid (speared though the head) - she lived and was happy.. her husband was throwing tantrums down in the furnace room.

So I pose this question - If dwarven society will not adopt a clan mentality when it comes to babies, should women be denied service in the military?

[Nyxalinth]

It depends.  seriously.  I usually draft both sexes and don't worry about the consequences.  I figure they're going for the Dwarfwin Awards when they go and do stupid shit

[squeakyReaper]

I usually allow women to have fortress guard and sheriff duties, but not front line things if I can help it. Everyone gets drafted regardless of sex for initial experience, but once they have a wedding party women get moved to administrative services. Men with wives usually also get priority on moving to reserve.

[Lielac]

Not gonna lie, I only draft male dwarves. If you could tell when a female dwarf was pregnant and if mothers would put their kids in daycare instead of carrying them around for the first year of the sprog's life it would be different, but the hit to dwarven happiness from dead babies outweighs the personal amusement gained from dead babies, and the micromanaging from moving out newlywed women doesn't interest me, so it's a male-only military here.

Of course, this assumes I actually make a military and don't just make a dodge-em trap suspended 14 z-levels above the surface the only way into my fort through pulling one lever strategically placed in the middle of my dining hall.

[acetech09]

Women are put on marksdwarf patrol duty, where dead babies aren't as likely.

But my jedi legion (Using looted whips) that gets down and dirty in combat normally is all males.

[Bartok]

I have an unmarried female in my military, but she's in the ranged weapon squad, rather than armed with an axe.  I figure the odds on her getting married are fairly low, and she'll be behind fortifications if she does marry and turn into a baby factory.

As it is I've still had a few babies die in danger room cleaning incidents.

The rest of the females are married.  Heck, there are my initial 7 dwarfs, and maybe 2 or 3 other singles in my fort.  I'm just in year 3, and I capped my population at 50.  I've got around 40ish dwarf children in the fort now...

[Broseph Stalin]

My military tends to be about 50% female and after a few years they're all holding a baby in their teeth while they wield an axe and shield in both hands. If your fort is pimped all the hell out then you can usually take the happiness hit from a dwarf simultaneously losing a wife and baby. Since my babies never survive to adulthood I don't really lose anything by turning them into distractions.

[Girlinhat]

I don't care.  Every migrant coming to my fort is briefly screened.  If they hold useful skills like weaponsmithing, farming, or gem encrusting, they get to keep their jobs.  If they come with sub-par jobs or inferior skills, like 3rd rate metalcrafter, fish dissector, or lye maker, then they may or may not get assigned to backup duty on a worthwhile skill, like becoming backup farmer or apprentice mason.

If jobs are filled and the dwarf has no profitable skills, they are given a spear, a wooden shield, a kitten leather helm, and informed that there are stones in the shaft and goblins on the grass.  Nature will take its course from there.  Men, women, children, cripples, it doesn't matter.  They can all hold a spear.  Except the cripples.

Any who become upset and decide they've had enough of living in these oppressive conditions is allowed to live outside of the oppressive conditions.  On the surface.  With the Goblin Elite Bowmen and the Elephant Corpses.

[Gizogin]

The only thing I look at when creating my military is weapon proficiency.  Admittedly, this is largely because I can't be bothered to do any more research.

[Jingles]

Dwarfs don't actually have separate genders, it's all just an elaborate pretense to fool outsiders.  Really new dwarfs burst out of random hanging globs of fat most dwarfs seem to pride themselves on.  The female state is what all dwarfs naturally are, the male state dwarfs choose to opt out of their civil duty of growing baby producing  pustules, and instead choose a life of self indulgence and myopic eccentricity, their one goal to create the ultimate left sock.

Quite frankly they are all disgusting equally, and all deserve to die just as much as any other.  Babies especially, to spare the world from the growth of yet another dwarf monstrosity.

[nenjin]

I honestly don't try to manage it. There aren't enough distinguishing features between male and female dwarves for it to matter to me. Going through the effort of organizing tons of roles by gender is too much work for my imagination's sake. Besides, it gives me an excuse to imagine badass warrior female dwarves in leadership positions, rather than sticking to the prototypical male fantasy tropes.

I try to keep married couples out of the military if I can help it. But when I'm keeping my pop cap exceedingly low for several years at a time, I usually have to make compromises.

So a female militia commander? Why not? If she's ridiculously muscular and packing the right skill set, I'm not going to appoint some bloated fat ass who barely qualifies for the role over her, simply because they're male.

[wierd]

As far as I can tell, dwarves do not have any sexual dimorphism. As such, there are no stat or ability bonus for either.  The only drawback to females in the military is the "my little baby meatshield!" Phenomenon... depending on how your fortress is run, this behavior can be seen as a net gain. (Skilled mother warrior is unharmed as baby meatshield absorbs all the arrows, and or, attracts the attacker's attention while she guts it. If baby meatshield dies, one less useless resource consuming, fps destroying toddler to worry about later.)

Proper psych conditioning will result in mommy axelord not caring too much if baby meatshield fails to survive.

Other than this quibble, there does not seem to be any appreciable reason to draft only male dwarves for active military service.

[King DZA]

No. No they should not. No dwarf should have serve in the military. All it does is bring about more senseless loss of life. Life that could have been spent praising and honoring me. It's tragic, really...


But, until the beasties and baddies of the world learn to be more submissive and accepting toward my rule, or at the very least learn to mind their own goddamn business, any dwarf with the ability to swing sharp/heavy things in the general direction of less-than-friendly visitors is a potential protector of the fortress.

[forsaken1111]

My military is exclusively women, because they have the best shields. (babies)

[-Firestar-]

Females are bad no matter where they are. 

By random chance I once had an all female farmer brigade. Seeing as Dwarves seem to all give birth at the same time, you can guess what happened. I had to lock two dwarves in their room to prevent tantrums. I had actually run out of ale thanks to the useless females not working.

That being said, skilled people are too few and far between. If they are skilled, they get the job. Trying to manage gender in addition to a hot of other factors just makes gender not really a priority. I agree with the bonuses of 'baby meatshield' One less FPS killing toddler for upteen years to come.