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[Cryten]

Gday Ive got a few questions concerning managing my military which goes beyound the 4 question faq in the wiki.

Firstly Ive read that dwarves on duty for long periods go insane. How long does this take? are there any signs? whats your recommeneded duty time?

Secondly will on duty dwarves feed/water themselves?

3rdly Is it possible to off duty my dwarves WITHOUT them fighting each other into unusability (ie dont spar guys)

4thly Ive assigned all the beds in my minds barracks. Will the dwaves relise this and only military dwarves sleep in the barracks? Civilians OUT!

Help is appreciated.

[Danaru]

I can only answer number 2:

Yes, they'll feed and water themselves. normally when the main goblin force shows up.

[BurnedToast]

1. They don't go insane, they just get (increasingly bigger) sad thoughts the longer they are on duty. In theory if the dwarf is happy enough from other things (somewhat hard if they are not sleeping in royal bedrooms and eating in the giant dining hall) they could stay on patrol forever and there would be no problem. As for how long it takes, I don't know for sure but it's quite a long time, at least a month and probably more like 3 to get the first sad thought.

2. Yes, if you have them carry food and drink they will eat/drink that first then start going back to the fort when they get hungry or thirsty. Dwarves don't currently have the discipline to stand there till they starve to death even if ordered to do so.

3. only if you set them to use crossbows, then they will use up all your bone bolts. However, sparring is a good thing and once they get legendary shield use and legendary weapon skill the chances of them getting a wound from it is so small it's not worth considering and so you want them sparring as much as possible.

4. Unfortunately, no - any dwarf who does not own a room will prefer the barracks beds/floor to sleep in. Make rooms for all your dwarves and it won't be a problem, or if you don't want to make them rooms just add lots of beds to the barracks - sparring dwarves won't bother sleeping dwarves at all.

[Exponent]

I haven't tried this, but if you only use weapon racks and armor stands to designate the barracks, and then you have other areas with a bunch of beds (without designating any of them as rooms of any form), then sparring is likely to happen in the barracks with the weapon racks/armor stands, and dwarves will still use the beds, even though they're not rooms, for sleeping.  The only two things that I am not moderately confident about are whether the soldiers will also use these beds (try both settings for squads: sleep in barracks or in rooms), and whether or not dwarves prefer sleeping in beds in a designated barracks over sleeping in beds that aren't part of any room at all.

[Sunday]

Also, if your dwarves 'Don't really care about anything anymore,' they won't get a sad thought for being stationed on duty indefinitely.  Of course, it seems to me that they find it more difficult to get happy thoughts, as well (which makes sense).