Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Blead]

Hello guys,

Long time lurker and very inactiver poster here

I had a question about the military:

- What armor pieces do I need to make to fully equip my military dwarfs?
- How can I make them equip said item? It seems that if I go to the military screen and let them equip a certain weapon they won't pick it up or just chose a certain type of weapon.
- Also, for a beginning military, what could I do to make a good start? I recon Military bedrooms, training rooms, Stockpiles for armor and weapons, a hospital and mayhaps a stockpile for food?

Any input would really be advised! I shall put it bluntly I didn't search for any additional information beforehand because then I would only find what I could think of. You guys are much more experienced you could give me advice about things I haven't thaught of.

Cheers,

KB

[GiglameshDespair]

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Military_quickstart
There you go.
If in doubt, check the magmawiki.

[Blead]

I was really hoping for a more detailed answer instead of a Wiki link.

I can't find what they are suppose to wear on that page.

[Lord_Phoenix]

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Military_quickstart
There you go.
If in doubt, check the magmawiki.

Here's the right one with full mechanics explanation of exactly how much a dwarf can wear, and lists of potential outfittings.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Armor#Layers

[Blead]

Ah thanks that very helpful. I just can't wrap my head around it how and when I can make a succesful militia. I always end up with a handful of ragtag people with nothing but their fist or trainingweapons.

[joeclark77]

Try this:

leather cloak
mail shirt
breastplate
greaves
high boots
gauntlets
helm
shield (or buckler for your crossbowmen)
weapon

[Uronym]

I always do this:

• Shield
• Helmet
• Breastplate
• Mail shirt
• Gauntlets
• Greaves
• High boots (if they are foreign, use low boots)

[joeclark77]

I add a cloak for style.

If you are real nerd, you will find out that dwarfs can wear like three mail shirts and six cloaks on top of all that, for slightly better protection, but that's too exploity for me.

[krenshala]

Of course, even when you assign helm-hood-breastplate-mail-tunic-leggings-trousers-boots-gloves-gauntlets-shield, you still occasionally end up with a dwarf dressed in nothing but a helm, left sock, weapon and shield. And, of course, she was unhappy because of the lack of clothing.

[Lich180]

Same here, I always run into issues trying to equip my squads with multiple mail shirts and cloaks, so I just set them to replace clothing with their armor, and exact matches. Forces them to at least equip what they are assigned, as long as they can find it. Plus I try to have enough armor stockpiled before making a whole ton of new recruits, so they all can get something to wear.

leather cloak
metal helm
metal mail shirt
metal breastplate
metal gauntlets
metal greaves
metal high boots
shield (wooden usually, since they almost never bash with it, and a wooden shield still blocks anything)
specific weapon of squad (if I let them pick they choose a weapon they aren't skilled in, or whatever is the prettiest)

Then let them loose to train and kill stuff. Usually I have at least bronze to start with, which is good enough for kobolds and most thieves. Runs into problems with iron daggers and such, so I try to at least have iron/steel weapons for everyone, and maybe a helm if I can get one issued to everyone.

[Sutremaine]

Weapon (usually a pick)
Shield (leather (aka 'brown') to start, copper once speed / strength / armour user skill improves)
Helm (best material available)
Hood
Leather armour
Mail shirt
Dress / robe
Cloak
Gauntlets
Mittens (sometimes)
Trousers
Chain leggings
High boots

I'd really like to make a [COVER] item for the feet, just to complete the clothing set, but I can't think of anything that would be sensible to put over a pair of boots. Spats maybe?

I like this uniform because it's fairly light and has a lot of padding. Only problem I find is that leather makes the best padding, but the number of varieties available clogs up the stocks screen like you wouldn't believe. Next release I may mod the game to handle skin as it does fat and then process the butchered skin glob into one single type of leather.

[Blead]

So it's possible (perhaps a necessity) to have leather armour under your metal armor? I know this is kind of realistic since the knights of old days wouldn't go to war with nothing but a cold metal plate against their body.

[Noodz]

Nope, leather armor is a shaped item afaik, and you can only wear one shaped item per body part.

If you are having a hard time producing everything for you dwarves, i suggest you start by first covering all body parts, and only later going for several layers. First priority should be shield (it can be of any material), and then a set of helm/mail shirt/gauntlets/greaves/high boots is good enough for most shock troopers.

Because of the item equipping quirks, trying to convince a dwarf to wear several layers of armor may result in him not wearing anything at all. So i tend to keep it simple.

[thegoatgod_pan]

My kit is a little exploity, but it works:

Helm (metal by default, usually specify to steel/bronze whatever, so they don't wear goblin discards)
Chain Shirt
Breastplate
Cloak
Cloak
Cloak
Leggings
Greaves
Gauntlets
High Boots
Shield
Shield
Shield
Shield
Shield (wooden/leather)
melee weapon of choice (again designate by metal)
silver hammer (just in case/easy to make in bulk)

The multiple shields and cloaks and weapons all work together: shields especially are the only dependable protection against archers and in the plural they are very effective indeed


The military screen is really confusing until you realize that:
A. it is fully and totaly operatable by mouse: so you can just click on what ever instead of endlessly screwing with menus.

B. You can make your own uniform and designate it to an entire squad by hitting shift+enter instead of just enter when assigning it.

C. On top of your uniform you can always assign specific weapons/armor: so if you make some nice artifact sword and want you captain to grab it, just manually equip it to him/her and he/she will grab it the next time they get a station order.

[Blead]

Wait how do I equip a weapon to a militia using only my mouse?