Daggerdepths entered the year i've been waiting for, 520, or 19 year old. I've been waiting for this year because it's the year I designated my inter-military tournaments would begin.
Using Runesmith, on a separate copy of my fort I might add in case of corruption I pit my melee dwarves against each other in 4 large tournaments to determine who will be in my elite squads. Each tournament is for a specific weapon class. I don't use maces so it's just hammers, axes, swords and spears.
6 dwarves competed in each tournament which were done in round-robin style. Every dwarf had masterful steel equipment so they were on even keel. Sort of... My original 10 military dwarves have years (and I mean YEARS) more combat experience then everyone else so it was no suprise that they dominated and were the top dwarves in each weapon class. The champions of each weapon class are to become my elite squad of which i'm simply calling Elite Squad 1, and the runner-ups becoming Elite Squad 2. All elite dwarves get to use candy coated equipment.
I also plan on making this tournament a ritual in my fortress every 2 or 4 years, I haven't decided. The candy-coated equipment will also be passed down to the new elite dwarves should they not defend their positions or are dead. Hopefully the bulk of my military will be better trained by then to make it more competitive.
I also plan to train dwarves who have already mastered their weapon in other weapon types so they can compete in multiple tournaments. Arena mode doesnt fully duplicate an experienced dwarf with earned attributes so it would be interesting if I can find out more about what characteristics better suit certain weapons.
Saying who won the tournaments won't really mean anything to anyone, but I can say that the dwarves I expected to win won, except for one. I've recorded the attributes of all my dwarves aswell to see who is the fastest, strongest and things like that. The hammerdwarf who won has the highest average attributes in my fortress, but they're lopsided in a manner that you wouldn't think him to be a good hammerdwarf. His toughness and endurance are the highest of all my military, but he is the absolute weakest and very nearly the slowest. I couldn't have called him to dominate the way he did.