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[RoboGuardian]

In my embark, I had a dwarf with skills that would benefit a Speardward Militia so I could have a moderate defense as well as given him supplies.  He shows his equipment ready but the options for (m)ove and (a)ttack / (k)ill cannot be selected.

How am I to defend my fortress if the Militia is so bugged?

[Hurkyl]

You're referring to the squads menu? It sounds like you haven't actually selected a squad to give orders to.

[RoboGuardian]

The squad is selected and correctly outfitted.  :/

[Lida_Brainbroken]

I assume you did assign this dwarf to a squad?  It'll show up as "militia commander" in the "u"nits menu if it was the first soldier assigned.
Does the "s"quad menu say you need to form a squad first?  If not, and the dwarf is assigned, it's the first time I've heard of this happening.  Thoroughly search the bug log for any mention of something similar happening to somebody else, and in the meantime somebody else may have a fix.
You're going to have facepalms galore until you get more familiar with the game and it's quirks.  I still do.

[RoboGuardian]

They are correctly assigned and have their correct equipment assigned as well.  Similar problem occurs with a Hunter/Marksdwarf and there are more steps in that procedure so I know I'm not leaving anything out.

EDIT:  The problem with the Marksdwarf/Hunter is that he will not hunt and will drop his equipment when in the militia squad and yes he has his own separate squad pertaining to archery.  It just seems that dual-roles between early game and later game are a problem.   As later game you have singular attacking roles.

[Garath]

the issue there is actually that "hunter" has a uniform assigned to it that cancels out the military uniform. So he'll either wear his hunter uniform or the military uniform, but not both at the same time. The military uniform even has its own crossbow and quiver and bolts, seperate from whatever is used for hunting. Similar situations appear with woodcutters and miners. It is just the way it currently works

[RoboGuardian]

Is there a way to keep them without a uniform then? o.o;;

EDIT:  Good grief...Found it.  Hoping this will work.  Off I go again.

EDIT2:  As the above poster had stated, there are two separate uniforms that prevent any 'starter' equipment from being used and essentially making early militia impossible. I would believe this will be forcing you to rely on traps.  More of a headache than a real worry.

[FuzzyZergling]

Just disable mining/woodcutting/hunting from your military dwarves.

[Garath]

I'm in doubt wether the tendency of people to disbelieve all the advice and the wiki and still try to make the hunter/militia combo work is a good or a bad thing in humanity in general. On one hand, it shows an inquisitive spirit that will not accept dogma and will test old truths to see if it actually is try, sometimes opening new ways forward. On the other hand it is wasting a lot of time and effort going against established wisdom about what works and what doesn't and making the same futile effort again and again and again.

btw, this is not adressed to anyone in person, just a general musing.

[Keldane]

I think that the urge to keep trying anyway has something to do with a thread - I think it was by Urist Da Vinci? - that claimed there was a way to make miners use the same pick in military situations as in civilian ones. If memory serves, it boiled down to "Make the picks yourself and assign picks specifically", as for some reason ones you brought with you on embark, or (I think) brought by immigrants or caravans would cause the expected bugged behaviour.

As I say, the information in that thread pertained specifically to miners in the militia, and made no mention of marksdwarves/hunters. Perhaps the same is true in regards to the weapon, but I know the arrow overlap would cause issues.

[Hatake Kakashi]

The way I like to "hack" this is

a) make a custom stockpile of weapons, armor, backpacks, flasks, quivers and bolts either directly at, OR close by, my entrance where I usually want my militia to first assemble at when there is a threat.
b) keep some dogs just in front of the stockpile to spot thieves who might want to steal from this stockpile or enter the fortress
c) have my militia with dual roles anyway, no need to have pure military dwarves in the embark. Instead of hunter/marksdwarf, I would go wood cutter/marksdwarf, instead of wood cutter/axedwarf I would go miner/speardwarf. Helps to distinguish their modes, and keep tabs on equipment, as they will either strictly have a battle axe or a mining pick and be in civilian mode, or a military set and be in the military mode. This way all mining picks and battle axes are dedicated civilian mode tools while any spears and crossbows are dedicated for military and threat response. Make sure to create or bring the correct amount for things to roll smoothly.

The drawback here is I don't get to have a hunter that would participate effectively in militia since the only way he would be useful for defense is if the design wasn't so that he will run from far far away to pick up his OTHER crossbow from the frigging stockpile (reference a) ) which shouldn't be needed anyway, and then probably it was too frigging late. If hunter/marksdwarf would be able to follow commands without dropping his crossbow, only then he would be convenient... But we can't have that. So that a) b) c) above is how I'm rolling in the meantime instead.

[RoboGuardian]

I'm in doubt wether the tendency of people to disbelieve all the advice and the wiki and still try to make the hunter/militia combo work is a good or a bad thing in humanity in general. On one hand, it shows an inquisitive spirit that will not accept dogma and will test old truths to see if it actually is try, sometimes opening new ways forward. On the other hand it is wasting a lot of time and effort going against established wisdom about what works and what doesn't and making the same futile effort again and again and again.

btw, this is not adressed to anyone in person, just a general musing.

And yet you posted it in the topic anyway.  Not everyone consults the Wiki thoroughly as there are Video Tutorials available.  One such that I followed was CaptnDuck's Youtube tutorial.  :/   It at least got me into the right direction of having a fort.

[Lida_Brainbroken]

I'm in doubt wether the tendency of people to disbelieve all the advice and the wiki and still try to make the hunter/militia combo work is a good or a bad thing in humanity in general. On one hand, it shows an inquisitive spirit that will not accept dogma and will test old truths to see if it actually is try, sometimes opening new ways forward. On the other hand it is wasting a lot of time and effort going against established wisdom about what works and what doesn't and making the same futile effort again and again and again.

btw, this is not adressed to anyone in person, just a general musing.

And yet you posted it in the topic anyway.  Not everyone consults the Wiki thoroughly as there are Video Tutorials available.  One such that I followed was CaptnDuck's Youtube tutorial.  :/   It at least got me into the right direction of having a fort.

I doubt Garath meant any malice.  We gotta vent a little, sooner of later.  We often see the same mistakes/questions repeated, and sometimes it starts to wear on you.
CaptnDuck posts good tutorials, at least the ones I watched, though I prefer the DFwiki quickstart guide because it plunks you down right in the middle of the greatest DF resource available.

[Sutremaine]

EDIT2:  As the above poster had stated, there are two separate uniforms that prevent any 'starter' equipment from being used and essentially making early militia impossible.

?

No, you can use your starter equipment for both hunters and military, but not at the same time. If you have a dwarf who has the Hunting labour enabled (or Mining or Woodcutting), then the appropriate equipment is claimed for that labour. If you then put that dwarf in a squad and activate the squad (or individual dwarf), they'll drop their civilian equipment and go and find their military equipment. However, their civilian equipment is still claimed even if it's not currently being worn. You need to deactivate the uniform-claiming labour before the items are free for general use again.