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[slowpokez]

Ok, so what is it that determines dwarves combat-preferences?
Some dwarves seems to always use the same tactic...
One dwarf "always" bites his enemies no matter how disgusting they are. (and yes he has a sword and started off with no skill in biting)
One dwarf "always" strangle his enemies to death(he is one in a set of 10 wrestlers but the other 9 only rarely decide to choke someone.)
One dwarf "always" cut off his opponents limbs and if they somehow survives the bloodloss he kills them with a boot to the face or a quick decapitation.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Limbcutter-

This is so consistent that I've started to name my dwarves after fightingstyle.

[brainfreez]

my military usually wait until the opponent starve to death , die from infection or  does a suicide.

[chronicpayne]

Ive been having issues with fine tuning military equipment as well...

According to the equipment screen, all the members have been assigned the correct items (green icon next to item)
but in reality the equiping seems to be spotty.
Often after recieving a move order i will notice some dwarves with a couple peices, some with none, and some with everything.

There seems to be quite a bit at work in military equipping their gear, such as dwarf size (avg 60,000) and weapon size for one. For example if a dwarf is small enough he wont be able to use certain regular weapons like a battle axe.

With that and everything else in mind, does anyone have a their own "how-to rule of thumb" guide for equiping dwarves, and making sure that they arrive in battle with that same gear?

The steps I use:

Create uniform. Have tried selecting over clothing, and replacing clothing.  Also have tried with exact and partial matches.
Make sure I have all the equipment available.
Set the squad to use the uniform, take on/off duty to apply the uniform.
At this point they go to pick up their gear, ~75% of them get it all on and are fine.
They all show the green icons next to the items, ie reserved. So i am not sure why some do not pick up said gear.
Wait long periods to allow them to gear up, months even, to similar results.
When sending dwarves to battle it does not seem like that same 75% arrive with full gear. Most appear to have bits and pieces.


Im thinking some of my problems stem from having too young dwarves. For example ive noticed a couple of the miscreants not fully equiping gear are young (12 years old) so would this maybe explain it?
For me the military is one of the final frontiers of gameplay that I cannot get to work at 100% the way I want it, so any help would be really appreciated.

[Loud Whispers]

I've noticed fighting styles in my Dwarves all the way back from .31 to today. The best soldiers I've had tended to be the most sadistic too. At the start of the siege they'd clear through squads with ease, raking heads all round as if it was goblin christmas in a forest retreat submerged in dubious molten rock. Then once it was clear none of the goblins left stood a chance of hurting them... They avoided damaging major organs. Drawing out the death for as long as possible.

[Wrex]

I wonder if llow empathy plays a role. After all, the deadliest dwarves tend to draw out theif kills E.G Hollistic detective.

[Shinotsa]

I'd generally chalk this one up to human psychology, but recently I noticed that one of my dwarves has been clearing out vermin in the same way. She'll hit them with the blunt of her sword, sending them flying, skidding on the ground, and exploding against a tree or some other object. I'm almost positive I'm just paying more attention to this type of murder than others because of how gruesome it is, but I can't shake the nagging feeling that she's a tad more sadistic than her lover, the other legendary swordsdwarf in my military. Now that I think about it, HE seems to have a brain seeking sword, but it IS named Fortunechance or something along those lines, so maybe he's just really lucky.

[GoombaGeek]

[Monk321654]

His beard. It's made of blood.
MADE OF BLOOD!

[GoombaGeek]

His beard. It's made of blood.
MADE OF BLOOD!

Actually, his blood is made of beard.

[Monk321654]

His beard. It's made of blood.
MADE OF BLOOD!

Actually, his blood is made of beard.

MADE OF BEARD!
But... Beard is a solid.

[slowpokez]

His beard. It's made of blood.
MADE OF BLOOD!

Actually, his blood is made of beard.

MADE OF BEARD!
But... Beard is a solid.

True but it is also semi-conscious, this allows the beard to freely wriggle it's way forward throughout the veins of its host carrying vital substances such as oxygen and ethanol.

[i2amroy]

Ok, so what is it that determines dwarves combat-preferences?
Some dwarves seems to always use the same tactic...
One dwarf "always" bites his enemies no matter how disgusting they are. (and yes he has a sword and started off with no skill in biting)
One dwarf "always" strangle his enemies to death(he is one in a set of 10 wrestlers but the other 9 only rarely decide to choke someone.)
One dwarf "always" cut off his opponents limbs and if they somehow survives the bloodloss he kills them with a boot to the face or a quick decapitation.

Fighting style is one of those things that, to summarize Toady, doesn't actually have any overarching Ai controlling it, but the game is complex enough that players see it there. Of course there are a few rules, like if someone actually has skill in biting they will be much more likely to actually bite someone, and attacks on unconscious enemies always go for headshots, but there isn't really an overall "fighting style" simulator in existence right now.

[slowpokez]

Ok, so what is it that determines dwarves combat-preferences?
Some dwarves seems to always use the same tactic...
One dwarf "always" bites his enemies no matter how disgusting they are. (and yes he has a sword and started off with no skill in biting)
One dwarf "always" strangle his enemies to death(he is one in a set of 10 wrestlers but the other 9 only rarely decide to choke someone.)
One dwarf "always" cut off his opponents limbs and if they somehow survives the bloodloss he kills them with a boot to the face or a quick decapitation.

Fighting style is one of those things that, to summarize Toady, doesn't actually have any overarching Ai controlling it, but the game is complex enough that players see it there. Of course there are a few rules, like if someone actually has skill in biting they will be much more likely to actually bite someone, and attacks on unconscious enemies always go for headshots, but there isn't really an overall "fighting style" simulator in existence right now.

Yea I know, that is pretty basic- that's why I added "started off with no skill in biting" for an example.
Are there similar "hidden stats" for things like choking which is a form of wrestling?

[EBannion]

Choking is the end goal of all death-terminated wrestling. There aren't many other ways to kill someone with wrestling (kicking in their skull isn't wrestling, I don't think...)

So that's probably why your wrestler likes choking folks.

The other things... hilarious.

Edit - I had a thought... you mentioned that the biter has a sword. Does the limb-hacker have an axe? Perhaps it has something to do with the most optimal attack for each weapon. I know that IRL axes are much better as limb-choppers, so it's possible that it works that way in the Fortress as well. Perhaps the shorter reach of the biter's sword allowed him to bet into bite range enough that his skill improved, and then the better skill drove a cycle of biting and getting better at biting?

[tolkafox]

I had one dwarf that insisted on beating things with it's shield, and another that insisted on kicking things despite being fully armed. I think it has to do with their personality and traits, a more agile dwarf might choose more agile attacks and a stronger dwarf might choose stronger attacks?

What are their strengths/weaknesses and personalities like? You can look them up from their thought screen, or get an actual number from DT.