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[GoldenShadow]

Try This. everytime you get a surplus of dwarfs and have nothing to do with them(besides hauling) make a new squad, give them their own barracks set to train, give them cheap armor, weapon wooden training weapon, and cheap wooden shield. Let them train as reserves. I only have 2 active squads, 2 Axe Lords, and 2 Hammer Lords, cross trained in marksman, and equipped with steel crossbows. You can have a starting pair of dwarves from your embark be legendary +5 before the year ends everytime. Training starts must start early. Don't delay training until you have metal industry or you will have a bunch of idiots wearing good armor. It won't help you.

Legendary Hero Axelords are pretty much invinicible. they rarely even get scratched, so good armor is just insurance.

[nightwhips]

Try This. everytime you get a surplus of dwarfs and have nothing to do with them(besides hauling) make a new squad, give them their own barracks set to train, give them cheap armor, weapon wooden training weapon, and cheap wooden shield. Let them train as reserves. I only have 2 active squads, 2 Axe Lords, and 2 Hammer Lords, cross trained in marksman, and equipped with steel crossbows. You can have a starting pair of dwarves from your embark be legendary +5 before the year ends everytime. Training starts must start early. Don't delay training until you have metal industry or you will have a bunch of idiots wearing good armor. It won't help you.

Legendary Hero Axelords are pretty much invinicible. they rarely even get scratched, so good armor is just insurance.

Without more details I have trouble believing this, that you get axelords within a year. Just throwing them in hte military immediately won't cause that. I've had several forts where dwarves have trained over a year, and not remotely made axelord. So, that begs the question, how exactly are you setting up your military?

[Mushroo]

If anything military training in DF is OVERpowered. My squads of 2 training year-round consistently reach Legendary within a year. It seems unrealistic to me that anyone could become Legendary at anything in 1 year, but I ain't complaining!

Here's a tip: when you first start training, use a No Uniform squad. Once they are decently skilled Fighters, then assign them a weapon/uniform. Maybe it is just placebo effect, but my observation is they seem to spar more and level up quicker on their weapon skills if they are Adequate (or better) Fighters rather than Dabbling Fighters. It also ensures they'll have decent Dodging and Wrestling skills, which are very important.

[Loud Whispers]

What's unrealistic about a group of Dwarfs doing nothing but train and spar all year.

Doing absolutely nothing.

Except spar.

And getting really good at it.

And this is unrealistic.

[GhostDwemer]

Becoming legendary in a year of non-stop training is unrealistic. Look at, say, Bruce Lee, who trained eight hours a day for YEARS to become as good as he was. Bruce Lee was legendary. Your average US Marine, with several years of intense training, is not legendary. He's master level at best. And your average grunt is going to come out of a year's training as competent to professional level. Training is overpowered. That's okay though, you can become a legendary farmer in a year, too, just by doing nothing but stick seeds in the ground and harvest plants.

Skill gains are unrealistically fast in fortress mode, as compared to the real world. But this is dwarf fortress, not the real world. Many things aren't realistic. It's a fantasy game. So, I would say that military training is realistic and relatively well balanced by dwarf mode standards. I have no real problem with it one way or another. It works for me.

[Loud Whispers]

Dwarfs train constantly for days non stop.

Better than Bruce Lee.

(Also they're not training in a martial art).

[Slyjoker87]

Well in hilarious fashion, my diagnoser decided to go fey and claim a craft shop but didn't get what he needed and went berserk! He didn't even have armor or a weapon but went into a martial trance and started punching people in the face. Ended up taking down my fort of 25. 

Derp!

[greycat]

(Also they're not training in a martial art).

Hitting things with an axe/sword/mace/hammer is pretty much the definition of a martial art.

[GoldenShadow]

To clarify. befor embark. I use dwarf therapist to look at all of my dwarfs to see who has the best potential to be a soldier. I especially look for ones with good kinesthetic sense and avoid ones who are clumsy and weak. I give them +5 fighter and +5 axe skill on the embark screen. As soon as you arrive, build a carpenter workshop, dig out a hobbit hole, craft a armor stand and make a barracks in there. craft some training axes and wooden shields and assemble your 2 man squad. Since their skills are equal to each other, they will spar 90% of the time. Military skill growth is exponential. While it may take a year to get to rank 5 fighter, it also takes 1 about year to get to max rank 15+5 fighter. the better the skill, the more attacks/hits they have to throw per sparring session. You can see how it would grow super fast. Fighter skill is the most important skill for survivability next to shield user. It lets them attack faster, parry, counter strike, etc.
You just want them to build up their core skills.
Fighter
Shield User
Axedwarf
For this, all they need is a training axe and a wood shield and a place to train.
Just use 2 soldiers per barracks so they will spar more often.

Green, fresh recruits take longer. It usually takes them 2 years to become legendary, maybe longer if they have extra skills like wrestling, dodging, etc. They will waste time doing wrestling demonstrations instead of sparring. Theres nothing you can do, just let them. Just know they will take longer to train.

[Loud Whispers]

(Also they're not training in a martial art).

Hitting things with an axe/sword/mace/hammer is pretty much the definition of a martial art.

I honestly don't want to go off in a definitions tangent.

[kaijyuu]

Dwarves doing wuxia would be something I'd like to see.

[GoldenShadow]

Just found out 2 axe lords can lose to a siege. But damnit, it was the biggest siege I ever had. upwards of 60 goblins riding giant toads and cave crocodiles. They sent in the trolls first. the axelords mopped up easily without a scratch. One of them got thirsty so I dismissed him for a second so he will drink from the waterskin and restationed him(Wanted him to fight in top condition). He ends up running all the way back down into the Fort to the food stockpile while his friend is fighting dozens of cave crocodile mounts all by himself. I still have the reserves, but they aren't ready got battle. Not only do they not have armor yet, they are only level 5-8 in the core skills. I go ahead and station them a bit behind and hope the 2nd axelord can get back up before his friend becomes a croc snack.
No such luck, the crocs rip him apart. Hes wearing full iron armor and it doesn't help him at all.  The reserves get their chance to meet Armok. Some are instantly ripped to shreds, some take down dozens of goblins before being ripped apart.  It was a gigantic massacre. 150 dead bodies. The last few invaders ran away and I was left with a dozen survivors which very quickly turned into a tantrum spiral. I had a single adult and a few kids left. The adult wasn't upset too much, he didn't know anybody apparently. He was hauling corpses waiting for a migrant wave to arrive to ease his burden only to be shot down by an ambush a few months later.

[Buoyancy]

If anything military training in DF is OVERpowered. My squads of 2 training year-round consistently reach Legendary within a year.

I doubt that this is actually happening, or is happening as easily as you claim it is.  I suspect that you are doing something other than simply creating a squad and giving them a barracks to train in, as I have repeated had squads of two dwarves gain nothing more than dabbling-adequate weapon skills in years of constant training.  The system is not working properly if squads of two train orders of magnitude more quickly than squads of ten. The system is also not working properly if you have to micromanage it beyond putting your dwarves in a squad and giving them a barracks. 

[Mushroo]

If anything military training in DF is OVERpowered. My squads of 2 training year-round consistently reach Legendary within a year.

I doubt that this is actually happening, or is happening as easily as you claim it is.  I suspect that you are doing something other than simply creating a squad and giving them a barracks to train in, as I have repeated had squads of two dwarves gain nothing more than dabbling-adequate weapon skills in years of constant training.  The system is not working properly if squads of two train orders of magnitude more quickly than squads of ten. The system is also not working properly if you have to micromanage it beyond putting your dwarves in a squad and giving them a barracks.

Honestly every thread I have ever seen people complaining about military training, it is because they OVERanalyzed it. "I have 18 squads of 6 training every third month (except during leap  years) my question is whether I should give them 3 pairs of socks or 4, and will the soap battleaxe I got in a strange mood penetrate goblin armor?"

The default settings are not broken and less is more. Yes, I really did nothing more complicated then putting 2 dwarfs in a cave with training axes and an armor stand, training constantly. No, they were not "dabbling-adequate" but rather "legendary," I promise. Maybe I got lucky and their advancement was helped by certain random personality traits, however, I have repeated the experiment many times and always gotten Legendary within 9-24 months.

Regarding the squad size, another way to think about it, that might hurt your brain less, is that there is a certain fixed quantity of experience points per squad per unit of time. (Roughly speaking.) So it is your choice whether to have 2 very talented soldiers, or spread the points around and have 10 somewhat talented soldiers. (I understand that the math doesn't actually work that way, but as a thought experiment, it makes a lot of sense.)

[GoldenShadow]

Good point.  I cherry pick the BEST dwarfs to be soldiers. High kinethetic sense and Very high agility are the main traits to look for. Not only does this make them faster and deadlier in real combat, it makes them train faster too.