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[Froggie]

i just started a new fort and before i create my military i want to know:

1. are melee dwarves any good against ranged enemies?
2.what do the different damage types do eg;blunt,blade?
3.what type of military should i focus on?

[Trif]

1. If they get close enough, melee dwarfs are very deadly against ranged opponents. The problem is getting in melee range.

2. Blunt weapons can hit through armor and are generally good for breaking bones, but not much else. With a blunt weapon, incapacitating enemies is easy, but killing is harder because blunt attacks don't cause bleeding.
Blades are easier to block with armor or shields, but if they hit, they can cause nerve damage, bleeding or even dismemberment. Very deadly.
Pointed weapons like spears can pierce armor better than blades, but get stuck more easily and hit only a small part of the body.

3. Ranged squads are generally considered to be most effective because bolts can pierce armor, break bones and cause bleeding. They are a bit harder to set up, but the wiki can help you there. You'll need a lot of crossbows, quivers and bolts.
If you want to have a bit of variation and more challenge, axe dwarfs are nice for certain kills against lightly armored enemies. Hammer dwarfs can give a lot of support against armored opponents. Sword dwarfs are good all-rounders, but less dwarfy. And spear dwarfs are very good against megabeasts with hard skin.
And don't forget to equip everyone with shields. Good luck!

[Azated]

1: It depends. If the archers are skilled enough, they will destroy your melee soldiers before they take five steps. However, if even one of your melee soldiers makes it, it's usually safe to say that the archers will be stains on the ground before long.

2: Blunt damage is caused by weapons like maces, mauls, and crossbows in melee. They have a high chance to break bones and bruise, even through armor. Bladed damage, caused by swords, has a high chance of lopping off limbs and cutting things up, but they often glance straight off armor. Piercing damage, caused by stabbing attacks and ranged ammunition, has a brilliant chance of penetrating armor and damaging internal organs, but the hit radius is very small. Unless your soldiers hit something vital, damage will be minimal.

3: What you choose is largely a matter of choice. A well equipped and trained crossbow squad is often better at melee than your average goblin hammerman, and a well trained melee soldier is basically a god.

The staple of most armies is crossbows, though. You usually don't need to worry about heavy armor since they won't be engaging the enemy directly, they're very cheap to maintain, and very few enemies have strong enough armor to resist a steel or even iron crossbow bolt. Your average goblin army can even be defeated by a steady hail of wooden bolts, too.

Pseudo edit: Ninja'd.

[Froggie]

thanks guys , ill get to setting up my dwarf army 

[Spell]

I had best success with swords and axes, but legendary dwarves can beat entire sieges with about any weapon. Hard part is surviving till the legendary skill.

My usual story with crossbowmen:

Urist McCrossbowCaptain: Archers to arms! Man the fortifications!
Urist McCrossbowman: How many bolts should we take?
Urist McCrossbowCaptain: Bolts? What for?

[Hyndis]

I've found that nothing can best massed marksdwarves.

A large number (50-60 massed together) of marksdwarves can lay down so much fire that nothing will survive to even get into melee range. Anything that, by some miracle, does get into melee range is probably already wounded with numerous crossbow bolts, and so they're at a huge disadvantage, so even marksdwarves will make short work of them in melee combat.

Marksdwarves also have a higher survival rate than melee. Melee dwarves will rush out and are prone to getting surrounded and chopped to pieces. A wounded marksdwarf will fall where he's standing, which should be surrounded by other marksdwarves, so the still active marksdwarves will act like a literal meatshield for the wounded one. Being shot with an arrow or bolt also have a very high survival rate assuming its not a headshot where they're killed outright. If injured by a ranged attack but not killed instantly, its almost a guaranteed full recovery.

[AutomataKittay]

Best quick military is everyone as markdwarves, with a squad of picks and axe wielder to hack anything that's too tough.

Markdwarves don't need much past a leather shield, crossbow and quivers, leather armor also to hook quiver up to if they're naked, at the minimum. But put enough of them, as above mentions have it, and nothing that bleed will survive bolt storms, even using bone bolts. They're not expected to wade too close or into melee danger if you have enough of them, so they can manage with leather and bone armors.

For anything that don't, you'll need some dwarves with melee and picks are easily available once you've disabled mining labors. AFAIK, picks are also pretty much the best all-around weapon, however you could use axes if you're short or isn't facing something as hard as metal. They're also the ones that'd actually benefit from metal armor. However, you can't use woodcutters and miners as military, until you disables their jobs, because of uniform conflict ( unless that's been fixed in the recent version ).

[Hyndis]

For anything that don't, you'll need some dwarves with melee and picks are easily available once you've disabled mining labors. AFAIK, picks are also pretty much the best all-around weapon, however you could use axes if you're short or isn't facing something as hard as metal. They're also the ones that'd actually benefit from metal armor. However, you can't use woodcutters and miners as military, until you disables their jobs, because of uniform conflict ( unless that's been fixed in the recent version ).

This is a good point. You do need something other than pure marksdwarves just in case you get something that doesn't have blood, like a titan, FB, or something of that nature.

I keep a squad of fully armored dwarves with masterwork steel picks on hand in reserve. They normally don't fight, except to "spar" with prisoners and as a last line of defense if anything should get past the marksdwarves. If something shows up that is immune to the marksdwarves, or the marksdwarves somehow aren't able to kill all of the goblins at range, I bring in the melee guys to mop up.

They're my quick response force. They also deal with berserk dwarves or nasty wildlife in the caverns, or anything up close that can be dangerous.

[Particleman]

This thread has inspired me.

In my current fort I've put all my civilians in military squads so I can force them to wear leather and bone armor because their clothes keep wearing out, but armor doesn't wear out. So, I'm now going to give all my civilians crossbows and add a long corridor with fortifications for walls to the entrance of my fort. Hm... or maybe I'll just have them stand on top of the guardhouse. Yeah, I think I'll do that, it'll be faster to build.

[wuphonsreach]

I'm a convert to giving everyone wood bucklers and bone crossbows at the start (or everyone except your woodcutter, miners, and hunter).

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=113308.0

In my last fort, 100 of the 140 dwarves were in militia squads.  Thieves never made it more then a dozen steps before being cut down.

[Satarus]

If you danger room train your guys up to be very good with shields, enemy marksmen are not very scary.  I find a mix of axes and hammers works best.  That way you get stuff for both dismemberment and armor penetration.

[Sutremaine]

You can also train shield use through sparring pretty easily -- let them dual-wield shields for a while, and they'll increase the skill quickly.

[Joben]

I don't personaly have much use for marksdwarves.
But that may be limited experience, my longest running for is on a heavily forested plain where their range is not much advantage.

But they don't seem to be very efficent at actually KILLING things. They sit there wasting bolts on a prone unconcious enemy for days on end.

5-10  is ok as support though. They help disable and slow fast enemies. Very handy if you anger the humans and they start sieging with mounted archers or something.

But vs your average goblins I'd rather have melee dwarves. Training seems to trump weapon selection by and large, so pick two or three and you're set. Personaly I'd make sure one is spears though for the big stuff.

I've seen axes and maces (excellent weapons vs troll and smaller) not make much impression on forgotten beasts and such, but spears make it into the heart and lungs and through the skull reliably.

[Sutremaine]

Very handy if you anger the humans and they start sieging with mounted archers or something.

Or mounted anything, if their animals aren't the predatory sort.

[vassock]

No military is good enough to be relied upon as your primary mode of defense. You're better off using systems of drawbridges, burrows and traps. Marksdwarfs do okay from behind fortifications, but IMO I found stationing them and getting them to attack + the logistics to be a major pain in the ass and frankly not worth it. Just get some legendary sworddwarfs to clean up the enemies after the magma/traps wound or kill most of them.