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[grufti]

I've stayed away from DF for quiet a long time (for obvious reasons) and I'm just taking a look at DF2012.

I've been looking at the military again. At least the basics work now. (they seem to train and they seem to even spar sometimes) But they train way to slow. My dwarfs have been training for at least one full year now and gained just a little bit of fighting experience, but no skill levels at all.

Do I need to use a workaround again (danger room, arena fights) for this issue, or am I doing sth. terribly wrong? All military dwarfes are using leather armor and wooden weapons.

Any tips?

[AWdeV]

I find it helps if you use small 2-man squads for your melee dwarves. They'll take a lot less time getting everything organised for a demonstration and they'll spar a lot more often. I've had a skilled fighter with no weapon skills and a complete noobie sparring for a few months and after that time they were both competent. Not very impressive but it's good enough against disarmed goblins and with proper equipment (steel shortswords in this case) they can manage perfectly well in actual combat.

[grufti]

so it's back to workarounds again 

seems I won't be playing for another view versions. Till toady finally desides to fix the military -.-

[AWdeV]

That's a bit over-dramatic.

[xeniorn]

I don't think slow training is something that is to be "fixed". It's more like a feature - one that decently mimics the real world. I don't believe there was ever a great warrior who was only a peasant a year before. Training takes years both IRL and in DF. And like in RL, getting real combat experience counts for more than spending your days watching dodging demonstrations and lightly tapping your friends with the weapon of choice and getting lightly tapped by them.

A few forts ago I had a low level fighter who was one of sole 3 survivors of 30 original military dwarves. Due to incredible experience gained in that siege, he got legendary status in knife user and soon became legendary in dodge, armor user, and shield user as well. So it's really not that much of that problem getting your dwarves experienced, as long as it is not by locking them in a nice sterile environment of the barracks.

[slothen]

That's a bit over-dramatic.

[Sorcerer]

If you take ten random people off the street, give them weapons and lock them in a room and say TRAIN! you are the new militia!
what do you really expect of them?

Now.. give those people someone who can teach and knows how to actually fight, you'll see a dramatic change.

Just having someone in the squad with military skill helps, but [TEACHER, LEADER, ORGANIZER] all have a SIGNIFICANT impact on training effectiveness.

if you really want to "fix" training scrubs to elites in a year, just mod dwarves to make their combat skills gain faster and require less total xp to max.

[Girlinhat]

"Oh no!  I can't set up an inefficient squad and walk away from it!  I'm leaving the internet forevers!"

You don't know how to utilize military training.  Learn how to set up a training squad, they're not the same as combat squads.  Your lack of understand is not Toady's lack of coding.

[Carnes]

so it's back to workarounds again 

seems I won't be playing for another view versions. Till toady finally desides to fix the military -.-

Making a 3 man squad is a workaround now?  It is the same as DF2010.  If you haven't played for years, it's likely it looks different to you.  You don't need training weapons anymore, real ones work fine.  Just make a squad and tell them to train. 

If they aren't training fast enough for you because the game mechanics tries to limit it to something reasonable, you will have to use "workarounds" to jump ahead of the natural curve.  Dangerrooms and arenas will speed up the soldier training.  But i doubt those will ever be integrated into the military to "fix" it.  Because it isn't broken.

[Girlinhat]

If he's been away for "quite a long time" there's a chance he skipped DF2010 altogether, probably claiming it was broken.

[Lexx]

Get your militia killing any wildlife that moves. More food for you and you get faster experience. Also bring a trained military dwarf that has points in dodging, fighter and armor user. As well as teacher. This will speed up the training of your squads. because group training won't work well if the group is being trained by someone that knows nothing.

If you do some more research into how the military mechanics work its not very hard at all to get a decent army. Failing that. Use many traps and inventive ways to kill invaders.

[KodKod]

In the previous version all you had to do to get dwarves with high level military skills is to send a few unskilled recruits to kill wandering squads of skeletons or zombies. The likelihood of them doing any actual damage to armoured dwarves was next to none, and all the combat skills would raise ridiculously fast as the newbies desperately flailed about trying to hit something.

Now of course a single undead can lay waste to a starting fortress in no time at all, but hey, there are always plenty of kobolds!

[FrisianDude]

so it's back to workarounds again 

seems I won't be playing for another view versions. Till toady finally desides to fix the military -.-

Don't act as if anybody owes you anything. 

[Mushroo]

Military training is way OVERpowered in Dwarf Fortress. If you aren't getting Legendary Axedwarfs in 12-18 months, you're doing something wrong. Seriously.

[Michaelsoftman]

Let's not forget the DANGER ROOM that can give you a Legendary Dwarf in under 5 minutes.  It's fun to have a 1 Dwarf Military and hope he doesn't get shot in the eye.