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[Dartungar]

Hello there, fellow forumers.
I've studied DFWiki and such, yet I doublt I am good at organising my military.

Usually, I start at ~20 population, making 2 squads of 2 dwarves, sending them to train and spar. By that time, I have few weapons and armor pieces from dead thieves or purchased from caravans. Soon I make squads contain 4 dwarves (and then I try to keep about 25-30% of my fortress in military).
Next, I try to mass produce iron breastplates, wooden or iron shields, greaves, boots and gauntlets, and a few weapons of each kind, so I can arm 20 soldiers.
Then I envolve my hunters (about 6-8 for a fortress of ~80, usually) in the marksdwarf squad, make sure they use only crossbows, and produce a few crates of bolts.

I always embark on a non-evil wilderness (because, you know, I am more of a peaceful mayor who loves occasional !!FUN!!), and my fortresses thrive by the river or lake or sea. Yet again, I doubt I do everything I can to make my little army efficient - now I am afraid of even breaching 1st cavern, and real sieges make me terrified.

Any tips and tricks would be gladly appreciated.

[AutomataKittay]

Best tip for your overall situtation is to accept there will be loss, eventually and try to give everyone good quality within reason ( Some noble position gets angry if someone below them are equal or better, quality-wise ).

Then you have to consider what weaponery you want to stick with, I always have at least a squad of crossbowier because I uses fortification to keep dwarves out of melee, but I tend to have a back-up of axe or pick squad for those that don't bleeds to death or happen to be very tough. I doesn't really bother doing anything fancy outside of feeding them live capatives to train on occasionally.

I prefer to stick to wooden or leather shields because they're light and easily avaliable.

[Bandreus]

Don't feel the need to meet the enemy head-on. In fact, you can pretty much out-live almost any threat and be fine with it.

As Automata said, be willing to accept some losses. The military is there to let your fort survive, and migrants usually are abundant enough to resupply you with fresh meat new recruits to make up for killed/incapacitated soldiers.

If you really feel uncomfortable about your military, consider bringing a proficient soldier or two as you embark, and be sure to give them a bunch of points in the Teacher skill. Those will act as trainers for the rest of your army. The 2-in-each-squad strategy is a very good one to make training go pretty swiftly, although other ways of making things go even faster can be exploited, but I rarely feel like those are strictly needed.

Ultimately, you should pair your military force with good fort design in order to make your defenses really effective. You want your dwarves to fight the enemy in a location which is favorable to you, not the other way around. Ultimately, consider using traps, fortifications and other architecture/machinery to soften the enemy before dealing with whatever survives with your squads. The most important part being to carefully pick your fights.

You are in no way required to send your sub-optimal military into a suicide mission, unless some serious !!FUN!! hit you with your pants down.

Many lost forts later, the acquired experience will make you much more confident in your setups.

[Dartungar]

Can you tip me on crossbowsquads? Or am I doing enough (crossbows, iron bolts, iron armor, archery targets, quivers, now go shoot some goblins dammit!)

[AutomataKittay]

Can you tip me on crossbowsquads? Or am I doing enough (crossbows, iron bolts, iron armor, archery targets, quivers, now go shoot some goblins dammit!)

Crossbow, quiver and shield's the most basic I goes, and more than enough for most basic purpose. Better armors in general are nice but I don't usually bother. Sounds like you're doing well enough with them as can be within DF, I'd advise giving them shields since it protects them from being shot somewhat.

[KingBacon]

Create a burrow (w) next to your fortifications, go to scheduling in the military screen. Edit or replace the training order to Defend Burrows (o), arrow over to the burrow, hit enter. Use - to set the number of defenders to be less than the squad size. Save the order (shift enter), copy and paste order (c & p.)

(With my forts, I usually do mass drafts of xbow squads, I set 2 to train and 1 or 2 to be on burrow watch duty. Everyone else is working.)

[edgefigaro]

Also, Remember: If you don't have your equipment set to replace clothing, your dwarves won't wear metal helmets. This reduces the viability of your melee dwarves tremendously, as in blows to the head --> Death. Check your active military's inventory to see if they are wearing the proper helm.

[Kolnukbyne]

I embark with one dwarf skilled only in combat techniques and teaching, this way I can more easily train up new recruits. Aside from this, though, I do very little out of the ordinary. I accept losses. Where's the excitement if nobody is going to die? I promote the "Run in and don't come back until one side is dead, doesn't matter who" policy. Also I never bother with Marksdwarves, because... well, I don't know.