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[PanTheSatyr]

Oh, i totally forgot that their is no pick weapon skill! (I thought there were and they would additionally profit by their mining skill)

I will test that again in a moment!

Edit:

Ok, new test:




Every dwarf had a complete steel armor set and shield.
Every dwarf was skilled in fighter, dodger, shield and armor user.

No weapon skills were assigned because there is no weapon skill for picks in the arena.



6 Rows, 28 columns, 168 duels, 336 Dwarves.

The top dwarves in each row were armed with a steel pickaxe.

The bottom dwarves were armed with, row by row,  steel swords, steel battle axes, steel war hammers, steel spears and silver war hammers.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Number of Survivors (the more the better)

Pickaxe vs Short Sword
Steel Pickaxe	18
Steel Short sword	10
Pickaxe vs Battle Axe
Steel Pickaxe	15
Steel battle axe	13
Pickaxe vs War Hammer
Steel Pickaxe	9
Steel warhammer	18
Pickaxe vs Spear
Steel Pickaxe	11
Steel Spear	16
Pickaxe vs Silver Warhammer
Steel Pickaxe	13
Silver Warhammer	15

I only counted the Survivors.

Note that sometimes both duellists died as the winner bled to death within a few frames afterwards.

Conclusion:

Pickaxes are definitely viable Weapons. They seem to penetrate armor thus being a bit superior to the sword and axe in a fully armored battle, but less so then spears and war hammers.

Edit 2:

Gonna test again without armor.

Ok, results for the same setup without armor and without shields on both sides:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Number of Survivors (the more the better)

Pickaxe vs Short Sword
Steel Pickaxe	11
Steel Short sword	16
Pickaxe vs Battle Axe
Steel Pickaxe	10
Steel battle axe	18
Pickaxe vs War Hammer
Steel Pickaxe	16
Steel warhammer	12
Pickaxe vs Mace
Steel Pickaxe	21
Steel Mace	7
Pickaxe vs Spear
Steel Pickaxe	15
Steel Spear	13

Second Conclusion:

The results i expected.

Pickaxes seem to be between Swords/Axes and Spears. Being closer to spears.

They can penetrate Armor and are superior to swords and axes if both duelists wear armor, but nowhere comparable to a war hammer.
They are inferior to Sword and Axe against enemies that do not wear armor. But in that case they still do way better then a hammer or mace and about equal to spears.


Edit 3:

I also made another Arena test, Grand master equipped with Steel shield and Sword against every other skill level equipped with steel amor set and steel sword + shield

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

28 x skilled with armor vs 28 Grand master without armor
I only counted the number of survivors of the unskilled.

Grand master vs not skilled at all	No survivors
Grand master vs novice	No survivors
Grand master vs Adequate	No survivors
Grand master vs Competent	No survivors - but the first Grand master has been slightly injured
Grand master vs Skilled	No survivors - three Grand master have been slightly injured
Grand master vs Proficient	First Survivor!
Grand master vs Proficient	1 Survivor
Grand master vs Adept	1 Survivor
Grand master vs Expert	4 Survivors
Grand master vs Professional	4 Survivors
Grand master vs Accomplished	6 Survivors
Grand master vs Great	9 Survivors
Grand master vs Master	7 Survivors
Grand master vs High Master	14 Survivors
Grand master vs Grand Master	21 Survivors

Being just one skill level better in everything seems to be about about as useful as a complete steel armor set. At least if its the last skill level, i don't know if they work linear or exponential.

Edit 4:

updated weapons page. Divided between blunt and edged weapons and added picks.

[Henny]

These series of images have been very helpful to me. Keep it up.

[Oort]

Very cool and extremely useful reference. I'd love if you did a gem chart too, that's one system I'm not as familiar with.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Beautiful!

Melee weapons of fortress mode ("choosing the right weapon" insert, bottom of page 30, fourth paragraph):

Should be "...thieves which you'll face quite early..." instead of "...thieves witch you'll face quite early..."

Love the level of professionalism.

[PanTheSatyr]

Thanks .

Today i added an introduction and index.

The index alone has become 6 pages long.

It would be nice if someones proof reads the first two pages.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

The only spelling/grammar issue I see is "...I would suggest you to read a complete...."  Native English speakers would likely write "...I would suggest you read a complete...."  Of course, the meaning is perfectly clear, and there's nothing wrong with having a distinctive voice, at least in my opinion.

[PanTheSatyr]

Changed it.

I added a new page today: Crossbows and ammunition.

[PDF urist master]

Great work so far. What do you think you target is after armor?

I think shielding might belong in a separate category.

here's the research material on shields and bucklers:

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=134779.msg4864812#msg4864812

[PanTheSatyr]

I think shielding might belong in a separate category.

Thanks for the research thread, that will be helpful!

You're right, shields are complex enough to deserve their own page.

Great work so far. What do you think you target is after armor?

I want to do a version of this flowchart: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/images/e/e6/FlowchartDF.png since the creator offered me to do it and it is a very helpful flowchart for a new fortress.

Illustrating that flowchart will likely take some time, so I may finish some simpler pages first while working on that, like some Aquifer strategies (each possible strategy to breach an Aquifer will get it's own page).

[fortydayweekend]

This is turning into quite a manual - very nice work!

My only fear is that the new version will be released *just* after you finish this

Typo on the crossbow page "... and your dwarves are relatively safe."

Is it also worth noting that marksdwarves who run out of ammo will charge at enemies (so it is advisable to make sure they don't have a path)?

[PanTheSatyr]

Don't worry, I will update it for the 2014 version anyway. This is from now on the inofficial dwarf fortress manual (wip) .

I corrected the typo, added a note and visually equalized the pages.

[Button]

Great work so far! But I noticed a potential problem on your crossbow page.

You say that because range is decreased by standing on a high place, building a high archery tower is a bad thing to do.

But shooting from a high position gives a great defensive bonus vs enemy ranged weapons. In my experience, placing your fortifications 2 levels up makes your dwarves impossible to hit except by Master Marksgoblins. This is very important as enemy marksmen will devastate lightly-armored dwarves, even through fortifications, if they're standing on the same level.

[PanTheSatyr]

You're right. What i wanted to say was that it is of no use to build a 10z level high archery tower, I will clarify that.

Btw. this is my current progress with the armor / armor layering pages:

[fortydayweekend]

Oooh pictures! I might finally take the time to figure out how it works if there's pictures to make it easy

[PanTheSatyr]

I just added 9 graphics to the album : ). Armor, Uniforms, Armor layering and charts of all possible armor.

Feedback is welcome!