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[Togre]

My fort has massive amounts of copper, silver and iron.  However no flux stone and buying out the caravans is producing finite amounts of steel.  I have enough for all the non-blunt weapons for my military and my weaponsmith is legendary so I'm thinking about upgrading some of my armor from iron to steel.  My current uniform is:
iron helm
leather cap
iron chain mail
iron breastplate
leather cloak
iron greaves
iron high boots
iron gauntlets
iron shield

I can't upgrade much, but what should my priorities be?


PS:  I'm sure this has been discussed before, but for the life of me I couldn't find any older thread.

[Wrex]

Steel blades, Steel Helms, and probably steel chain. Also, use wooden shields, lighter and they offer the same protection, unless you desprately need the shield bash damage.

Also, use Bronze blades if you have the material over iron ones, since Bronze blades cut better. Silver bludgeons are superior to all other kinds, so if you like maces, silver is the way to go there.

Steel blades are self explanitory, The head is the most important part of a dwarf, and Chain prevents those niggling, deadly bodyshots. Steel Chain leggings may also be worth it, since leg injuries suck.

[Splint]

I'd say priotize helmets and hand/foot protection.

[ZzarkLinux]

Yea, don't use metal for shields.

Personally I'd ignore helmets, and instead favor of greaves and mail shirts.
The concept is that you want dwarves "functional" or you want them dead.
Helmets create too many dwarves in-the-middle, where they can't work but they still eat/drink (like children that never mature).

Alternatively, you can make your priorities bigger if you want.

[Sutremaine]

Bladed weapons (done already), helms, mail shirts. After that, up to you. A dwarf can lose one arm and still function okay, or one leg and function okay after some time spent with a crutch, but the leg or foot injury will send them to the ground in the middle of the fight.

If weight isn't an issue, go for copper shields and let them spar without weapons for a while to raise Misc. Object User skill. You can't stop them from whacking things with their shields, but you can make those shots bone-breakingly useful.

[Joben]

If you want max coverage efficency I think steel mail shirts would be a solid bet since they cover the entire torso, plus the throat, upper arms and upper legs. Also they take 2 bars each vs a breastplate's 3 (Go figure)

[malimbar04]

I'm confused by the suggestions for mail shirts. Were they once shown to be more effective than breastplates?

[Wrex]

They cover more body area and are cheaper to make. Breastplates are just that- breast plates. They actually cover very little.

[Findulidas]

If you got a high ranking warrior with high skills in shield, dodge, misc and fighting then having a heavy metal shield isnt that bad. A high dodge and shield skill should easily make up for the small increase in weight and a good shield basher is pretty lethal considering dwarves dont do the most obvious smart attacks at all times. They do some bashing and stuff between the attacks with the melee weps.

Atleast from what I had gathered from before.

[Loud Whispers]

iron helm
leather cap

remove the leather cap. They are no longer compatible with helms. Replace it with a leather hood.

Steel blades, Steel Helms, and probably steel chain. Also, use wooden shields, lighter and they offer the same protection, unless you desprately need the shield bash damage.

Steel helms and steel chainmail is good. Protects the lungs and the brain, the two organs capable of causing instant death amongst Dwarves. As for the shields, wooden ones suffice but it's a good idea to have *some* metal shields in case of fire-breathing-monster attack. Which will burn your wooden shields up like charcoal in a metalsmith's workshop.

Silver bludgeons are superior to all other kinds, so if you like maces, silver is the way to go there.

Steel blunt weapons and silver are roughly the same in effectiveness, but silver's much cheaper and I wouldn't be using steel for warhammers if steel's in short supply any time soon.

I'm confused by the suggestions for mail shirts. Were they once shown to be more effective than breastplates?

Almost as good as breastplates at blocking [EDGE] attacks with relatively middle to large contact areas, whereas steel breastplates are the best at blocking blunt attacks (even better than candy plate). It's just that it's cheaper to make and distribute, plus it covers more areas of the body.

[Helgoland]

Steel blades, Steel Helms, and probably steel chain. Also, use wooden shields, lighter and they offer the same protection, unless you desprately need the shield bash damage.

Steel helms and steel chainmail is good. Protects the lungs and the brain, the two organs capable of causing instant death amongst Dwarves. As for the shields, wooden ones suffice but it's a good idea to have *some* metal shields in case of fire-breathing-monster attack. Which will burn your wooden shields up like charcoal in a metalsmith's workshop.

Nope, shield material doesn't matter when blocking dragonfire - feather tree wood is as good as nethercap is as good as steel/candy/what-have-you.

[Loud Whispers]

Nope, shield material doesn't matter when blocking dragonfire - feather tree wood is as good as nethercap is as good as steel/candy/what-have-you.

Wasn't there that update which made fire more volatile?

[wuphonsreach]

You also have the option of making chain leggings, melting them down, then repeating the process (you get back 50% more metal then what you needed to make them).

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Melt

[Wrex]

Dragonfire is incapable of burning held objects if it is blocked by a shield. However, dragonfire is so hot it can reaise the ambient temprature to the point where you spontaenously burn

[GenJeFT]

My understanding is that chainmail can be worn with breastplates.

My melee army is equiped with steel chainmail and steel breastplates for armor. As well as everything else steel (steel greaves not leggins).

The only thing they fear are good goblin archers and just about any lasher. Lashers are scary.

Its still difficult to get them to wear exactly what they are suppose to be wearing.