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[Pokon]

How many dwarfs does the average fortress around here need? How do people deal with general overpopulation?

[DiezIrae]

I begin to suffer headaches as soon as I get to over 120 dwarfs. General overpopulation... is that some other word for genocide?

[Tirion]

By segregating children and starving them to death in a locked door. And by sending crap squads recruited from unnecessary dwarves (potash and fish industry, I'm looking at you) against goblin lashers and megabeasts, in a version of the Uriah Gambit.

With a big, engraved dining room, engraved 3x3 individual bedrooms, prepared meals and at least 2 kind of booze, most dwarves won't get to unhappy.

[SixOfSpades]

It depends on your computer and playstyle. If you've got a kick-ass CPU and are highly geared towards military and megaprojects, you'd probably want to keep population around 150-200. If your computer is midrange and you don't mind defending yourself with traps alone, You'd likely be happy with 50-100 dwarves. If you have a slow computer, go play Dig Dug and pretend you're a dwarf and they're goblins.

[SharkForce]

potash isn't all that bad. i mean, it's not like you need a ton of dwarfpower to fuel the industry, but you can really churn out crazy amounts of food from your farms with fertilizing.

and the rest are generally no worse at hauling stuff around than anyone else ime.

[dwarfhoplite]

I usually build a gravity chamber for kids and like, to see if gravity still exists, you know..
Other than that my poorly armed military eats a lot able bodied dwarfs. 

[vadia]

hypothetically you could do with two dwarfs locked up.

To fill up all the jobs 100 is MORE than sufficient

[omg_scout]

I always enroll my extra dorfs in military. It is very CPU friendly if they just train in barracks.

Small problem is, that in current patch, squads consisting of 10 dwarfs train slower than their skills rust (yep, I confirmed it). Dwarves train great when in squads of 2-3 dwarves, but microing 100 militia dwarves in 50 squads is like microing the zerg rush with selecting one zergling at time.

[Vercingetorix]

I've consistently modified my dwarves to give them human lifespans (maxage 60:120) so there's always some healthy "churn" in the population to keep it reasonable.  It's also satisfying to read the slabs that say the dwarves "died peacefully". 

[Oaktree]

I always enroll my extra dorfs in military. It is very CPU friendly if they just train in barracks.

Small problem is, that in current patch, squads consisting of 10 dwarfs train slower than their skills rust (yep, I confirmed it). Dwarves train great when in squads of 2-3 dwarves, but microing 100 militia dwarves in 50 squads is like microing the zerg rush with selecting one zergling at time.

The general solution for this is to give the large squad multiple training orders with minimum 2.  Not quite as good as 2-3 dwarf squads, but you get more training and especially sparring than a single 10 dwarf training order.

[crekit]

I think the problem will be fixed when trading is changed. Currently traders only ever bring so many goods, and they never change how many they bring, so there is never a need to produce more than a certain amount of trade goods. But once that changes, we will have a use for all these hands!

[zubb2]

I find 50 is great for me as my forts are more untrained labour sweatshops.

I usualy have some famers,miners,a Manager for a leader,some nobles like a bookkeep.

The rest are "crafters" they have every job except hunting,farming,fishing and mining.

They don't have mining because the game is yet to enable them to haul an axe and a pick at the same time.

Well outside of a squad I mean.

[melphel]

How are we defining "need"?  Players here have run forts with only the starting seven, some with even fewer than that.  Self sustainability is ridiculously easy to achieve if you know how.

Or are we talking how many dwarves usually have a job to do? 

Personally, I depend on having a hoard of haulers to unclutter workshops and keep resources flowing, so having a couple extras isn't bad.  I also try to maintain at least a 25% conscription rate.  With 150 civvies, about half will be unskilled haulers.  And not all the skilled dwarves will always have something to do (doctors, butchers, and trainers will spend most of the time doing nothing.) Between different tasks, idlers range from 0 to 100, most of the time being around 60.  That sounds like a lot, but it helps when you have a recently butchered elephant that would otherwise rot in the workshop.

"General overpopulation" is usually good for cannon fodder, and if that fails, hauling.

[Reelya]

Can't ever have enough guys for above-ground mega-construction. You're not building big enough palaces. I have a hauler/mason/engineer/woodcutter caste that do all the above-ground stuff. That role can soak up unlimited labor, and i use them as a raw recruits pool to expand other roles like mining or furnace operating as needed.

[pisskop]

Unwanted migrates go to the outdoor meeting area I designate when they arrive.  I place thm into emergency squad and either cave in, drown, or tell to kill.  Otherwise I burrow them and have them dig exploration tunnels.  Until death in some horrid manner.