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[Hostialan]

Try fist-fighting a Alligator.

[TriBeCa99]

I just survived my first siege with no casualties on my first fortress... then again I had ~40 melee dwarves with all iron weapons and a mix of iron and leather armor and ~18 marksdwarves in leather. I realized really quickly that all my civilians weren't going to get inside in time (carrying corpses from the caverns out to the refuse pile), so instead of relying on my trapped entrance I gave a move order to all squads to stand right outside my main entrance. The marksdwarves skewered the gobbos while they advanced, and then once they were close the melee dwarves charges and slaughtered them to a man (err, goblin).

[krenshala]

My first siege has been going for 8 months now.  Nothing quite like getting thirty zombies stopping by for a bite to eat mid Obsidian of the first year of the fort when you've only got 18 adults (1 child) and just got your above ground farms going.

I got lucky and managed to pull everything alive inside the 31x31 surface keep walls and finished walling up the one opening just before the zombies were close enough to interrupt the mason.  Everyone herding the camel, alpaca, and birds inside did interrupt him a few times.  My luck was mixed when I was only able to dig down two z-levels before hitting the aquifer, so no stone left, 9 bronze bars and only a few trees left to use for fuel (can't cut very much more as few saplings grow inside the keep).

Does anyone know how long the undead will hang around the walls causing caravans and migrants to run away before showing up on screen?  This is the first one that hasn't killed my fortress.

[itg]

The problem with cage traps, is that dwarves are epically retarded, and will attempt to reload cage traps *while the siegers are in the freaking hallway*.

You have to make damned sure that all spare cages in the fortress are set to forbidden, and that the cages in the traps are also set to forbidden, --OR, micromanage your burrows very aggressively, or else urist mcdumbass will trundle on out with a shiny new green glass terrarium, and get a mace stuck in his brain. (Not that he is likely to notice, of course.)

Weapon traps reset themselves, so they require less maintenance. Drawbridges that drop invaders onto nasty spikes likewise don't need much maintenance either.

The burrows solution is actually pretty easy to use, although the easy way may not be obvious. Assuming the cages are above ground, just make everything below ground one giant burrow, as in literally every single square of the map, add any above-ground parts of the fortress to that, and set it as the civilian alert burrow (it's on the military screen). It takes about 5 seconds to designate the burrow that way and you just set the alert to automatically force every one inside and stop them from messing with the cages.

[BoogieMan]

I thought bismuth bronze was the best material for crossbows?

[Sutremaine]

Does anyone know how long the undead will hang around the walls causing caravans and migrants to run away before showing up on screen?

They can hang around for a year or so. Goblins will fight undead and may break the siege for you, but if it's just the first year you may have to wait a while for them to turn up.

[chevil]

I thought bismuth bronze was the best material for crossbows?

Bismuth bronze is identical to bronze. It is however more valuable than regular bronze and has a beautiful color.

[ITHEURIST]

Depends on the weapon.  For blunt, it does reasonably well. Edged? Not worth it.

Since crossbow dwarves have this silly imperitive to bash with their crossbows when they run out of bolts, rather than retreat to get more, silver crossbows are a reasonable investment. That way when they bash with them they stand a reasonable chance of smashing something rather than just bouncing off enemy armor.

I tend to rely on traps more often than military though, as I prefer not to endanger my dwarves unnecessarily.  This means I tend to mass produce crappy weapons for weapon traps, and enormous glass discs and the like.

The few times I have decided to train military, I train lashers with human whips, preferably made of dense metals like silver or platinum. Lightsabers for the win.

*edit

If you have steel, copper, and silver, then try this:

Steel axes, steel swords, copper breastplate, legs, boots and hand armor. (Steel is technically better, but steel tends to be expensive to produce in large quantities. Copper is only slightly worse for armor, IIRC)  Silver shields, silver hammers, silver mauls, silver crossbows.

Fill the weapons traps with copper weapons.

Thanks everybody and may the force be with us all...

[Loud Whispers]

If you have steel, copper, and silver, then try this:

Steel axes, steel swords, copper breastplate, legs, boots and hand armor. (Steel is technically better, but steel tends to be expensive to produce in large quantities. Copper is only slightly worse for armor, IIRC)  Silver shields, silver hammers, silver mauls, silver crossbows.

Silver cannot be used to make shields or crossbows.

Use the steel for axes and spears, axes are usually the way to go though. Steel breastplates and helms should be sought for, and only use copper armour if the Dwarves are highly skilled and have high armour user - otherwise you'd be better off without armour, as copper is heavier than steel and slows your Dwarves down for minimal protection, protection which can be much better afforded by shields. Make your shields out of copper, preferably wood, and any hammerdwarves should be equipped with silver war hammers. Crossbows should be made out of copper or wood, preferably copper.
Don't bother with gauntlets, high boots or greaves unless you have lots of access to good metal like bronze, iron, steel or the glorious cotton-candy, as they're the weakest parts of armour and don't protect any vital organs.

[Oaktree]

If you have steel, copper, and silver, then try this:

Steel axes, steel swords, copper breastplate, legs, boots and hand armor. (Steel is technically better, but steel tends to be expensive to produce in large quantities. Copper is only slightly worse for armor, IIRC)  Silver shields, silver hammers, silver mauls, silver crossbows.

Silver cannot be used to make shields or crossbows.

Use the steel for axes and spears, axes are usually the way to go though. Steel breastplates and helms should be sought for, and only use copper armour if the Dwarves are highly skilled and have high armour user - otherwise you'd be better off without armour, as copper is heavier than steel and slows your Dwarves down for minimal protection, protection which can be much better afforded by shields. Make your shields out of copper, preferably wood, and any hammerdwarves should be equipped with silver war hammers. Crossbows should be made out of copper or wood, preferably copper.
Don't bother with gauntlets, high boots or greaves unless you have lots of access to good metal like bronze, iron, steel or the glorious cotton-candy, as they're the weakest parts of armour and don't protect any vital organs.

I disagree with skipping gauntlets, greaves, and metal boots on your melee military.  That's essentially the goblin armor model, and it's a major reason wooden bolts and "weaker" metal weapons are effective against goblins.  Iron weapons don't usually penetrate iron armor, but a dwarf will an iron battleaxe is often effective verses goblins due to leg and arm hits that cripple opponents or at least disarm them.

If (when) an attack gets past the shield there is then a chance it takes out an under-armored hand, lower arm, or leg.  That's a dropped weapon, dropped shield, and generally a dwarf passing out from the pain.  Which promptly leads to a much more likely heavier pounding or death blow from the goblins.

[Sutremaine]

Gauntlets and boots are also rather light even when made of copper. And while hands and legs may not be vital parts, you can only lose one of each before before becoming crippled. It's better than being dead, sure, but far worse than not taking the attack in the first place.

I always use leggings over greaves though. They take one bar instead of two, are slightly lighter, and protective enough. They're not as good against bolts as greaves are, but with the default ammunition values greaves aren't very good against bolts either.

[Loud Whispers]

I disagree with skipping gauntlets, greaves, and metal boots on your melee military.

Only skip if short on good metal.

If (when) an attack gets past the shield there is then a chance it takes out an under-armored hand, lower arm, or leg.  That's a dropped weapon, dropped shield, and generally a dwarf passing out from the pain.  Which promptly leads to a much more likely heavier pounding or death blow from the goblins.

If you had a limited supply of metal but a plentiful supply of Dwarf, you could do two things.
Armour a good few Dwarves in a full suit of good armour and weapons, or a good many Dwarves with vital organs covered with good armour and good weapons in hand.
Say you had 300 bars of metal. A fairly decent treasure trove.
To equip one Dwarf in a full solid suit, it'd cost you about 24-25 bars of metal depending on what weapon you chose, battle axes costing one more than their fellows. To equip one Dwarf in a breastplate, helm and weapon it'd cost you 10 bars less at 14-15.
For those 300 bars you could field 12 metal cans or 20 scantily clad soldiers. Being able to field more armed soldiers saves more lives than fewer armoured soldiers, especially at the lower skills.
It costs 8 bars of metal to cover the legs and the feet, 1 bar less than a breastplate. For those 8 bars you get some of the weakest parts of the armour, protecting the legs. If one leg is broken, it can be fixed if the Dwarf is recovered - which is possible with more Dwarf soldiers. If one leg is severed, it can be mitigated with a crutch. A heart, lung or disembowelment is almost always lethal. Same with helm and gauntlets at the same price, except one covers useless fingers and hands while the other holds the booze helmet. 20 Dwarves attacking will suffer less hits than 12 Dwarves attacking, the advantage always goes to the one with more numbers. By restricting coverage to vital organs you can ensure Dwarves can sustain injuries and continue fighting, crawling if they have to - but fighting all the same, whilst fielding more Dwarves than goblins can kill.

[wierd]

why does this suddenly come to mind?

[Urist MacNoob]

Silver is hard to sharpen and edge. However, it's pretty damn dense. No lack of weight behind your strikes.

[wierd]

Its low sharp, and bad edge values are why it sucks for cutting weapons, like axes, and swords. The high density makes it excellent for maces and hammers.

Steel has a great sharp and edge rating, making it significantly better suited to those weapon types.

The other issues discussed were the weight/penetration resistance tradeoffs for metal choice in armors, where you want light, and high resist, so that dwarves can move and react quickly, as well as economy considerations, such as the fact that armor making consumes humungous amounts of metal bars.

However, depending on the site, some of the considerations tendered so far, such as whispers' admonisment for making greaves and gauntlets, may or may not apply.

Take for instance, the location for my current eugenics experiment. I have over 800 iron ore (harvested!), and over 1000 dolomite. It lacks easily tapped magma, but has trees in abundance. I could easily produce copious amounts of steel armor and weapons there. The argument to scarcity is less applicable.

If however, your site is very low in iron, or completely lacking, lacks flux, etc, then you might be totally dependent upon goblinite shipments and trade relations for your steel equipment. In which case, the argument to scarcity makes tremendous amounts of sense.