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[TriBeCa99]

I'm finally getting into some detail about equipping my military, and from the wiki page this is seriously complicated.

It sounds like I should avoid over-encumbering my mostly entirely noobish army with all iron (I have no flux stone yet). So the wiki recommends untrained dwarves use a mix of metal and leather. But it's still not 100% clear in some cases.

Best I can understand, I can wear an iron mail shirt, leather armor, iron helm, leather greaves (or am I better off with iron leggings?), iron gauntlets, iron high boots, and a wooden shield (is leather shield okay? I'm short on wood).

Does that sound right?

Edit: And does this apply to marksdwarves as well? I've currently got them in all-leather armor....

[Garath]

sounds good for a new army, and I'd go for the iron greaves too. The leather armor replaces the breastplate which is pretty much the heaviest piece of armor and not the most vital one to start with. Read up on layering and cover for more on that. Basically, chain mail covers more of the whole body, including partly the vulnerable arms and is therefore the first thing needed. You can also add leather cloaks and hoods that also have a good coverage. You can add many layers of stuff, but what you described is a good place to start

a leather shield is as good as wood or metal. For a shield all that matters is quality, at least with regards to blocking. The rare shield bashes need a heavy shield... go with less weight instead

[Sutremaine]

Metal helm / mail / leggings is just a little over the average encumbrance limit, and covers all the skull, spine, and organs in metal. Once a dwarf starts to be slowed by armour, adding extra weight slows them down rapidly. Using anything but plant cloth for clothing can squeeze a little extra speed out of your troops -- plant cloth is remarkably heavy.

Marksdwarves can be armoured in whatever you like -- there's nothing special about their armour requirements. If you're confident that they'll never be in melee, you can equip them with just a crossbow and let them run around in their civvies.

Dwarves who are particularly weak or slow will suffer more from wearing excess armour, and a dwarf who's both strong and fast might be able to wear full iron and still keep up with squadmates. You may want the dwarf slowed anyway, as they don't wait for reinforcements once they see an enemy...

Leather is a fine shield material, though not very good for bashing. If you can pin down a troll or something though, you can get a lot of XP from using it as a semi-immortal punching bag.

[TriBeCa99]

Thanks guys. On another note--does the recommendation for keeping squads down to 2-4 dwarves apply to marksdwarves as well, or can those squads be larger?

[crossmr]

Thanks guys. On another note--does the recommendation for keeping squads down to 2-4 dwarves apply to marksdwarves as well, or can those squads be larger?

3 is your ideal size for training, not 2. Marksdwarves can be anything, they don't train in the same way. Though you may want separate training squads. they might train on wooden bolts while your main squad uses metal and doesn't train. You can also create training squads for melee so you have a main axe squad and a training squad. as they become legendary, you move them to the main squad. The main squad can be any size as they're already trained up.

[Sutremaine]

3 is your ideal size for training, not 2.

Elaboration: three is quicker overall because if one of them goes to eat, sleep, or drink, two will be left for sparring or demonstrations (or a move / kill order -- dwarves need a flanking buddy when taking on large enemies).

If you have a really skilled dwarf with good Teaching skill and high stats overall, giving them a single student may be the most efficient way of transferring knowledge because the student's only significant source of XP is the skilled dwarf. But the most efficient way to get those skilled dwarves is with a squad of three.