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[PatrikLundell]

I must have accidentally created a captain of the guard squad when I tried to create a regular one. I should probably change things around to get a single (weak) dorf captain of the guard squad equipped with a featherwood crossbow, and move the current regular militia into a regular squad.
I know you manually appoint a sheriff, which I had chosen not to do, which is probably what Alexander is referring to.

When it comes to metal, I've actively avoided embarking in places with metal (world gen metal abundancy set to 80000), in order to rely on goblin donations only (I'd accept kobold donations as well, but they seem to be AWOL), with the exception that I have to bring some kind of metal on embark to satisfy moods, and top up that store from caravans as it gets depeted. It seems I have to revise that to handle mandates as well.

When it comes to melting yields, I'm in favor of "exploiting" it so far as to compensate losses if I get a donation based stock and want to keep trying to melt and reforge in order to create masterworks gear, but not to get a profit (my choice, others may have other preferences). In my current situation, I think I just have to accept that I'll make a profit out of melting down picks, and just let the excess bars sit around for eventual mood usage. It's not as if have any problems buying stuff from caravans (I gave them something like 15000 in exchange for 900 the last time). Actually, worn socks will probably be sufficient to cover all my buying needs from the next two years on (I'm about to receive my 3:rd caravan, so the worn sock production is not up to speed yet).

[Niddhoger]

Near 100% positive that any existing militia squad leader becomes a "captain of the guard" once you get a mayor.  You may be able to form a 2nd squad then replace your old militia captain with the "leave vacant" option.  I just use this time to make a crossbow squad and appoint my captain of hte guard the head of it.  Xbow beatings aren't very dangerous. 

[Deboche]

Near 100% positive that any existing militia squad leader becomes a "captain of the guard" once you get a mayor.

I'm near 100% positive that doesn't happen. I recently had a fortress grow enough to have a mayor and I still have no guards. The option is there but the 1st squad is still just a squad.

[Aslandus]

According to the wiki, the leader of the first squadron of militias become captain of the guard if you don't have one. I always appoint a sheriff so I can get tantruming dwarves under control before I reach that level, so I can't verify if that's correct or not... Guess in the future you'll just have to appoint a flimsy sheriff before you get to population 50 to avoid skull-crushing beatings... or just never start a military...

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Captain_of_the_guard

[PatrikLundell]

Well, my first "squad" (consisting of the dorf nominated carpenter after embark, but with no training) did not become captain of the guard [No, wait, he became king, so I replaced him as emergency axe wielder, but that still was before I got a mayor]. However, I DID get a captain of the guard when I created the second squad, which happened AFTER I had been saddled with a mayor. My conclusion is that existing militia are not automatically elevated, but generation of new squads after getting a mayor will get you one. I was holding off getting a sheriff until I get a proper jail (with metal chains, as I've read strong dwarves can break fiber ones).
However, it seems my squad shuffling worked, so my Captain of the Guard is now a featherwood crossbow equipped weakling with no military training, and the actual militia (which is under training) has been moved to a new squad.

There are (at least) two reasons I want a military even though I want all enemy killing done via devices:
1. I want to be able to explore caverns while keeping the civilian population from swarming out into them to collect various creature remains (i.e. restrain the civilians with a civilian alert).
2. At times my device killing isn't perfect, and I need someone to mop up. Ballistae, for instance, rarely, if ever, kills. Instead the enemies are knocked unconcious, and I've never seen any of them being hit while prone.
3. Shit happens, and someone is needed to take care of it to save the rest of the fortress (buy time to close the gates).

[Larix]

According to the wiki, the leader of the first squadron of militias become captain of the guard if you don't have one. I always appoint a sheriff so I can get tantruming dwarves under control before I reach that level, so I can't verify if that's correct or not... Guess in the future you'll just have to appoint a flimsy sheriff before you get to population 50 to avoid skull-crushing beatings... or just never start a military...

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Captain_of_the_guard

The one time i nominated a sheriff, her position disappeared and she was _not_ auto-promoted to captain of the guard.

Anyway, the info on the wiki was odd and clearly misleading, so i edited it.

The captain of the guard's squad is an _emtpy_ squad that appears in the squad roster when the fort becomes eligible for a fortress guard. You need to "c"reate it, assign a leader and draft members into it for the squad to actually come into being. The mere spawning of an empty squad also doesn't shuffle ranks, titles or duties of extant militia around.

Creating a squad will only give you a captain of the guard if you choose the "captain of the guard" squad to create If you don't want one, create a squad headed by a militia captain (if necessary, view the militia commander's squad and create squad under this "l"eader to spawn a new captain slot).

[Niddhoger]

When it comes to melting yields, I'm in favor of "exploiting" it so far as to compensate losses if I get a donation based stock and want to keep trying to melt and reforge in order to create masterworks gear, but not to get a profit (my choice, others may have other preferences). In my current situation, I think I just have to accept that I'll make a profit out of melting down picks, and just let the excess bars sit around for eventual mood usage. It's not as if have any problems buying stuff from caravans (I gave them something like 15000 in exchange for 900 the last time). Actually, worn socks will probably be sufficient to cover all my buying needs from the next two years on (I'm about to receive my 3:rd caravan, so the worn sock production is not up to speed yet).

What's the point of intentionally picking a low-metal area then just cheating your way to huge metal stockpiles?  If you want the metal reserves then settle in high mineral areas.  If you like being frugal with your metal and forced to rely on goblinite and caravans don't abuse exploits.  You won't sell them, but will sure as hell use them to get full masterwork steel, eh? Trading is so easy to make money that is giving up nothing.  You can train on items that add up to full %.  You can create 2 war hammers (90% yield) for every 1 pick (120% yield) while training a weaponsmith.  This gets you a net 100% return on bars (which is reasonable... metal has always been infinitely recyclable).  Armorsmith is a bit tricker since the items are either made in multiples (boots/guantlets) or take multiple bars (breastplate), but you can still get a system going to recycle bars to train WITHOUT going cheaty. For training a blacksmith you can endlessly make and smelt buckets. 

[PatrikLundell]

@Niddhoger: It seems we have a miscommunication here. What you suggest is exactly what I mean, i.e. use 110% yield to compensate a 90% yield, ending up in a net result of 100%, just because I consider metal to be basically 100% recyclable. In my view getting more than 100% is cheaty, though, so the 110% compensation should really never have been possible. The "profit" I refered to was to get more than 100% back, not selling to caravans. I'm dumping stuff on caravans at a ridiculous profit for them (20000 to them in exchange for 1000 to me).
Thus, it seems we actually are in agreement.

[Deboche]

I don't think it's too exploity to make more metal than there should be at this point. If the economy worked well and you managed to place good orders on the caravans, then sure. But at this point, the trading system is pretty silly. You can buy whole caravans with worn clothing, that's pretty exploity as well but who cares? It's not like you can get amazing stuff from caravans anyway