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[Saladman]

Current version, LNP.  No military skills on my pioneers, figuring I'll bootstrap a military with immigrants.  First two waves of immigrants, I get a macedwarf and two swordsdwarfs.  I humor them, I'm starting with small squads anyway.  Two squads of two it is.  They spar; progress is satisfactory.  Third immigrant wave I get... seven more macedwarfs and two more swordsdwarfs.   

So, a few questions.  The wiki says immigrant skills are weighted towards those you use a lot and those you have none of.  Was this weighted by those first immigrants having the skill at all, or by my training them up more, or is it random, or does my home civ have a preference for swords and maces?

Also, what now?  I've got dwarfs at level 9 in fighting and [weapon], with the incoming warriors at competent/3.  Should I stick it out with swords and maces, or have the new guys figure out axes and hammers from scratch?

Finally, at what point do you switch from squads of 2-3 to seeding larger squads with drill instructors?  Fighting and [weapon] are going up as I said, but armor, shield and dodge are coming up slower, and Teacher slower still, so I'm guessing that point is yet to come.  But its also not clear to me Teacher's going very high at all at this rate.

[Bandreus]

The problem is traditional training (i.e. no danger room) is very slow.

Having small squads on active training obviously helps a ton, although I would advice having 3 dorf squads, setting up standing orders to have 2 dorf per squad training all the time, so that one dorf is free to go to sleep every so often. You can also set-up dedicated barracks (beds), dining hall and small drinks/food stockpiles near your training area to minimize time lost during breaks.

Also, the squad leader will very slowly gain teacher experience, I don't think you can make this process any quicker.

A good way to bootstrap the whole process is to rig a dwarf or two among the initial seven to be dedicated teachers, i.e. proficient teachers + points in whatever skills you want your military to quickly learn (a weapon skill + dodge are a good choice).

The kind of weapon skill your immigrants come with is very luck based. If you find yourself with an overabundance of dorfs with an unwanted weapon skill, feel free to regig them into another weapon (you will have to set the other desired weapon type specifically in the military interface, as leaving the setting on personal preference will result with them in picking up the weapon they are most skilled in, if that's available to them).

Keep in mind, you can just draft more unskilled paesant to be trained in using the weapons you're looking for, while leaving the unwanted macedwarves/whatever as replacement for those who fall in battle.

I usually switch to larger squads once I have a few legendaries, or whenever my military grows too much and having multiple 3-dorf squads is too much of a mess. Be sure to assign your most skilled dorfs as squad leaders, as I think that helps with making the teaching process go more quickly.

[chevil]

Swords and maces aren't bad weapons. Bit less efficient but not bad. Giving your dwarves new weapons means that it would take almost a year of training before they would be useful. Also defensive skills always develop slower than offensive ones.

I usually start with 2-3 training squads and a active military.

[Bandreus]

Oh, one last tip: try and keep your dedicated teachers (regardless if from embark, or fort trained) away from harm way. Rebuilding your decimated military is way more manageable if you have a bunch of skilled teachers training up new cannon fodder brave soldiers in between FUN waves.