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[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I'm going to hide my marks dwarves behind a wall of spear dwarves.
Not exactly planning on facing anything specific but have gobos near by I think and not much else.
Was planning on sending my spear dwarves into training for a few years and get a few hunters out into a meat bone leather industry while the others train so I will have half decent marks dwarves and well trained spear dwarves for them to hide behind.


With this, marks dwarves can fire 'around' 'over' friendly people in combat right?
And the question still stands is silver better than copper, or the other way around, for making spears?

[StagnantSoul]

Copper is better for spears. They said that silver is the worst. How is that not clear?

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Sorry
Nevermind

I wasn't sure if it was good for puncturing or not I don't think that was mentioned though

[Niddhoger]

I've never had swordorfs that I've deemed more effective than axelords is the problem. 

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I usually use swords or axe dwarves but I'm trying something new with spears

[Niddhoger]

With this, marks dwarves can fire 'around' 'over' friendly people in combat right?
And the question still stands is silver better than copper, or the other way around, for making spears?

Yes, marksdorfs can safely fire through/around friendlies

No no no no no.  Silver is the worst material for all weapons except blunt.  Then its the best (standard metal).  Spears aren't blunt, thus they should be anything but silver.

For the same reason, DO NOT USE SILVER BOLTS.  Wasting your silver.  Use copper for those too. 

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Ok

And what about silver helmets or something then?

[StagnantSoul]

A longsword is better against everything than a battleaxe. The battleaxe is the strongest axe dwarves can get, so if you get a longsword artifact, that dwarf will be better than any axe dwarf. Also, the battle axe can't stab. A short sword is good enough to stab right to an elephant's heart.

Silver can't be used for armour, and would be bad for it anyway. Bad quality and too cumbersome.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

And I don't much want hammers except for one , one for the leader of my military...
So I guess my dwarves will get to experience fine silver furniture then

[Splint]

Figure I'll provide my own input on this matter since I usually stick to militiadwarves to deal with anything short of toxic blood/gas, webs, and fire.

Spoiler: The soldiers and thier weaponry (click to show/hide)

Swordsdwarves: True all-rounder weapon users, being able to stab like spears and cut like an axe, but not excelling as much in their role. They can also do pommel strikes and blade slaps with the flat for blunt attacks, but unless the dwarf is extremely strong it's generally useless. A good swordsdwarf can be an absolute terror against living things due to the sword's versatility, and can at the least make undead less threatening by slicing off limbs and stabbing bones.

Speardwarves: As said before, excellent giant monster killers thanks to the deep penetration of thier weapons. All it takes is one nicked heart to kill something within a few turns (though they may take the offending dwarf with them before they go.)

Axedwarves: For when you need something cut down to size fast, these are our go-to dwarves, since they'll usually chop off an arm or leg in the first few rounds, leaving the foe vulnerable and bleeding heavily.

Hammerdwarves: Many people swear by these dwarves for facing humanoid opponents and it's hard to blame them. Most enemies don't bring full armor making them extremely vulnerable to hammer strikes and those that do just delay the inevitable. However they fail to cause much blood loss directly, and against larger creatures it can take a considerable amount of effort to kill things, and in general serve better as a  support weapon to soldiers using edged weaponry, inflicting crippling pain on the target so the dwarves with choppy stuff can make a quick kill. But against undead enemies, these along with the mace are a dwarf's best friend.

Macedwarves: For killing armored enemies or undead, these and hammerdwarves are the go-to troops. Since they rely on crushing bones and pulping, any enemies they take down will generally be reduced to a pile of mush ill-suited to resurrection. However through trade with humans and combat against goblins or humans, you can also get morningstars which while generally of poor quality, give macedwarves an excellent piercing weapon; not as solid as a sword or spear, but still good enough to punch through armor and cause organ failure in lightly armored foes.

Marksdwarves: Unmodded, I'd say stick to wood or bone, especially if you have excellent bowyers sitting around, to reduce encumberance. At present rate of fire is tied to agility which is penalized by heavy equipment. If modded to have a bayonet attack though always go for metal just in case stupidity overwhelms them and they rush down  to poke things with thier bayonets.
However if you have an excellent weaponsmith with nothing better to do, then go for metal crossbows for the quality.
Quality matters more for crossbows than material.
They are a deadly powerful support troops in the current version, but that's it. They're using support weapons until the game models organ damage properly. Smaller targets can potentially be cut apart, but those targets are general things only slightly bigger than kobolds and smaller. If you need to arm everyone and have an excess of bones or silver/copper to make ammo, this is also the weapon you want, though there is risk to it since the dwarves will try to fire on the enemy rather than flee usually.

Spoiler: Armor and Metals (click to show/hide)

Training Armor: This doesn't need to be anything spectacular, just a bone or leather armor will do for training purposes until you crank out enough metal armor for everyone. You'll need at least leather or bone because without it dwarves can be killed or injured in wrestling accidents.

Marksdwarves: I personally, again to save on weight and thus improve rate of fire, outfit them with a mix of leather and chain armor with rigid metal helmets and typically don't give them a shield, though the shield is more out of a semi-roleplay and weight conservation thing since caravan marksdwarves and enemy archers never bring shields.

Melee: Full copper or bronze armor. Minimum. Copper if there's literally nothing else available, bronze if you have the tin to make the alloy. Make the shields out of wood to save a little on weight and always use shields, don't bother with bucklers unless you're setting up some kind of skirmish force. Iron is roughly the same for armor from what I've read, but still it's a step up. Steel or adamantine is obviously the best choice, though I advise not letting the armorers touch either one until they're good enough to consistently crank out exceptional quality armor.

As to metals that's been said to death here but there is a stipulation to consider: Massive surplus of silver and copper and a good weaponsmith but middling or poor armorer? unless you need that silver for some noble's accommodations or trade goods, send it to the weaponsmith to make bolts and blunt weapons and use the copper to train the armorer (melting down or selling off the fruits of that currently shitty armorer's labor.) Although also note you can sell shity silver edged weapons for a decent price.

If you have literally nothing better, always use copper for your serious melee combat duty and gradually build up stocks of steel, iron, and bronze armor by melting down enemy equipment and metal garbage from caravans. I advise waiting until you have enough for everyone so you don't have dwarves going out into a fight with mismatched copper and steel armor or something else ridiculous. Also always pick copper over silver for edged melee weapons

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I'm assuming silver is better than bone or wood for bolts?

[Splint]

Any metal's better than bone or wood, but  bone and wood bolts are good for training so the combat ammo isn't gobbled up at the range.

[Niddhoger]

As far as training armor/weapon smiths on a budget.... don't forget you can melt down your end products to keep going.  Now... this can be -very- exploity if you make things that melt down for MORE than they cost (menacing spikes return 150%).  No armor/weapon smithing item smelts down for a reasonable 100% (metal is infinitely and easily recyclable... why doesn't everything just melt down for 100%!?), however they smelt for 90% and 120% often.  When I settle on metal-less embarks (sometimes flux stone/coal give false positive on "deep metal") or embarks where you get no good metals (all nickel, lead, and tin without copper), I am forced to level off imports.  I tend to make 2 90% melt items for every one 120% melt item.  So long as you make the 120% first, it should be fine.  Fractions of a bar are saved in the furnace.  Just always use the same smelter for melting to save all those fractions up.  When you melt 1 120% and 2 90% you complete the cycle and are returned your 3 bars.  Just never deconstruct this smelter and try to always use it for melting.  Also keep in mind that melting down all of a dorf's Masterwork weapons and armor will cause him to tantrum.  Destroying (melting) down a dorf's only masterpiece will make him LIVID.  Use workshop profiles to only use low level weapon/armorsmiths for this, or simply keep the masterworks saved for military use and melt down all lesser qualities.  You could also trade away the masterwork copper pieces- they should be valueable enough to trade nicely and leaving the map edge doesn't count as being "destroyed."  It would also be useful for training your army of haulers into weapon/armor smiths to prime them for strange moods.  Just get them high enough to change profession and they might churn out an artifact steel/addy armor/weapon for you.  Just remember that addamantium BLUNT weapons are beyond worthless.  Blunt weapons rely too much on weight (which candy has none to speak of). 

Now... maybe swords are better than I let on.  I've always had tremendous success with using axes as my default weapons.  I also consider them far more "dorfy" than human swords.  You also mentioned LONGswords being able to shear limbs at legendary just like an axelord, but the thing is dorf's can only forge SHORTswords.  I've never played adventure mode much (and always did so as a dorf), but maybe long swords at legendary are as good as axes, but short swords? I've never had but one squad of them in a mature fort for the hell of it.  I typically just rely on warhammers or axes (depending on how much silver I have) with a squad of spears for forgotten beasts and other big baddies.  However.... I have seen a single war hammer user take down a flesh-based FB in only a couple of rounds (unharmed mind you) in my last fort.  *shrugs* Maybe the differences aren't as much as we think. 

Oh yes! A link for melting ratios- please use responsibly:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Melt_item

[Niddhoger]

I'm assuming silver is better than bone or wood for bolts?

Silver is better than bone for bolts, but copper is a huge step up from silver.  Bolts actually do rely on weight as well as shear strength to puncture armor.  For this reason, silver has decent weight that can overcome its low edge.  However... copper is half as heavy but far sharper (and wood/bone have neither weight nor shear strength... making them terrible).  Curiously, adamantium bolts (feather lite) are just as good as steel for puncturing anything but candy armor (steel bolts are better than addy for fighting addy armor).  Their MASSIVE shear strength overcomes their weight.  Still better to just use steel bolts due to addy's rarity. 

Come to think of it, was the sword advocate thinking of CANDY swords when talking about how they are just as good as axes for shearing limbs? Addy is so sharp I'd believe it.  However for lesser metals like steel... does this still hold true? I've never bothered to forge candy swords.  Just candy armor, axes, and spears. 

[Splint]

I tend to use swords pretty extensively, hence my advocation of them. Copper, Bronze, Iron, steel, they all tend to perform fairly well for thier materials. To me though there's no such thing as a dwarfy weapon, since they make use of the basics so to speak, and use them as extensively as humans do.

Steel-grade metal swords are excellent for lopping off limbs. I do admit ability goes down for everything except blunt weapons the worse the material gets though, but a good copper sword will do at least as well as an iron one thanks to quality modifiers in my experience.