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[AgentNos]

Okie dokie, so, this is the first time I've ever gotten brave enough to breach caverns, and luckily, I've manage to also find adamantine! I read on the wiki that first, before you can make anything out of it, you have to turn it into strands so it can be smelted. I've done that, but the second they become adamantine strands, Urist McHauler and his extended family run it off sown to the hospital! How do I stop them from doing that?

Also, what's the best use for adamantine (some stoneworker just made a figure out of the raw stuff... It was of an Ettin murdering an Elf, so it's not all bad, but still)

Thanks in advance!

[Skullsploder]

Okie dokie, so, this is the first time I've ever gotten brave enough to breach caverns, and luckily, I've manage to also find adamantine! I read on the wiki that first, before you can make anything out of it, you have to turn it into strands so it can be smelted. I've done that, but the second they become adamantine strands, Urist McHauler and his extended family run it off sown to the hospital! How do I stop them from doing that?

Also, what's the best use for adamantine (some stoneworker just made a figure out of the raw stuff... It was of an Ettin murdering an Elf, so it's not all bad, but still)

Thanks in advance!

OH MY GOD STOP STOP STOP. First of all: If that was a mood, then fine. If it was not a mood that produced that figurine THEN GET RAW ADAMANTINE ON THE RESTRICTED STONE LIST RIGHT NOW. Z-screen, stone tab. Find adamantine and hit enter until it is red. With regards to your hospital woes, you need to remove all containers from your hospital and replace them with stockpiles for the various hospital supplies instead. In the thread stockpile, disallow adamantine thread.

[AgentNos]

Don't worry, it was a mood! And thank you for the hospital thing, that's helped me out a lot!

[Skullsploder]

Don't worry, it was a mood! And thank you for the hospital thing, that's helped me out a lot!

My pleasure

[angelious]

Okie dokie, so, this is the first time I've ever gotten brave enough to breach caverns, and luckily, I've manage to also find adamantine! I read on the wiki that first, before you can make anything out of it, you have to turn it into strands so it can be smelted. I've done that, but the second they become adamantine strands, Urist McHauler and his extended family run it off sown to the hospital! How do I stop them from doing that?

Also, what's the best use for adamantine (some stoneworker just made a figure out of the raw stuff... It was of an Ettin murdering an Elf, so it's not all bad, but still)

Thanks in advance!

OH MY GOD STOP STOP STOP. First of all: If that was a mood, then fine. If it was not a mood that produced that figurine THEN GET RAW ADAMANTINE ON THE RESTRICTED STONE LIST RIGHT NOW. Z-screen, stone tab. Find adamantine and hit enter until it is red. With regards to your hospital woes, you need to remove all containers from your hospital and replace them with stockpiles for the various hospital supplies instead. In the thread stockpile, disallow adamantine thread.

hmm?what sort fun would this produce then?

[Broseph Stalin]

hmm?what sort fun would this produce then?

It's not that it causes fun it's that unless it's marked as restricted adamantine, the severely limited source of infinitely sharp and impossibly light metal is being used to create vendor trash.

[Loud Whispers]

Aye, adamantine is one of the rarest substances in game, and almost always the rarest metal in game - and always the most valuable, in terms of Urists and in terms of utility.
Focus on turning that adamantine into edged weapons, like swords, spears (axes I find are always great) and on occasion, pickaxes. Edged weapons made out of adamantine are unparalleled in their deadliness - they make by far, the best edged weapons in the game. Do not make blunt weapons out of adamantine, that is a waste - adamantine is too lightweight to be effective. When you have enough weapons made out of adamantine to equip your elite core of soldiers, start making armour. I personally prioritize:

• Helms
• Mail shirts
• Greaves
• Breastplates
• Gauntlets
• High Boots

(Never shields).
Helms get #1 priority because a Dwarf cannot fight without a head or a beard, and a helm protects both. Like edged weapons, adamantine produces armour of unparalleled quality.
Mail shirts get #2 priority because they cover a large area of Dwarf, from the neck to the upper arms down to the torso and upper legs. A Dwarf wearing a good adamantine mail shirt will find that goblin spears and axes glance right off them! Couple that with the fact that you can have your Dwarves wear a much cheaper steel breastplate over a mail shirt, for super protection at a good price, and mail shirts are a high priority. Mail shirts also protect a large number of vital organs, which a Dwarf will die quickly if it breaks them.

• Greaves get #3 priority because they cover nearly everything high boots and mail shirts don't, at least when it comes to the lower half of a Dwarf. The legs are a #3 priority to protect because if a Dwarf loses a leg in battle, they're likely to begin losing more if they don't make it to safety.
• Breastplates get #4 priority, but realistically you could bump them down and place priority on gauntlets. Adamantine breastplate provides less blunt protection than steel breastplates, but provides superior defence against edged attacks. If you have the wafers to spare, get adamantine breastplate. If you don't, you're not losing out on much if you get steel breastplates.
• Gauntlets are pretty important, if your dwarf loses their hands they'll be doing not much fighting. They'll still be able to bite and kick though, which should never be underestimated.
• High boots at last place. Very important, but greaves by and large fulfill their role. Steel high boots are a must if you don't want to make adamantine high boots. Feet must be protected too.
• Shields never - a wooden or leather shield is just as good as a steel or adamantine shield. Quality matters most, not material.

Also while you're digging up all that adamantine, make sure you have a good military set up. Adamantine is highly valuable, and weapons/armour dozens of times more so. This will boost your Fortress value and possibly increase the size and aggression of goblin sieges. Good luck!

[StagnantSoul]

The optimum uses for adamantine goes as follows:

First: Make two axes, picks, swords, and spears, all from adamantine. Then, a silver war hammer, and a steel war hammer. This will give you the best possible setup of a squad, able to kill anything that comes at them, unless they go shaft and pommel bashing, which is where the picks and hammers come in handy.

Second: Make ten copper shields. Copper is the densest armour metal, and you'll have enough light armour pieces to afford this.

Third: Ten adamantine mail shirts, twenty steel mail shirts, twenty steel breastplates, ten adamantine helms, ten adamantine greaves, ten steel high boots and gauntlets. This provides optimum spread of adamantine and steel in good amounts, while not wasting precious adamantine.

Fourth: fifty leather cloaks, fifty leather hoods, ten leather mittens. This is a bit time consuming, but five cloaks and hoods in the way of a flying iron arrow or a soldiers' iron spear can save a dwarf, before the helmet is even needed. The mittens will somewhat make up for the lack of adamantine on the hands.

Dividing each number I gave you by ten gives you, per dwarf: 1 adamantine mail shirt, 2 steel mail shirts, 1 steel breastplate, 1 adamantine helm, 1 adamantine greave, 1 set of steel high boots and gauntlets, 5 leather cloaks and hoods, 1 pair of leather mittens, 1 copper shield, and a weapon. This will keep any dwarf immune to anything but poison gas, with enough skill.

[Loud Whispers]

First: Make two axes, picks, swords, and spears, all from adamantine. Then, a silver war hammer, and a steel war hammer. This will give you the best possible setup of a squad, able to kill anything that comes at them, unless they go shaft and pommel bashing, which is where the picks and hammers come in handy.

Get some crossbow dwarves set up and it's absolutely perfect, as you'll also probably want archer dwarves to deal with goblin archers or anything that flies.

Fourth: fifty leather cloaks, fifty leather hoods, ten leather mittens. This is a bit time consuming, but five cloaks and hoods in the way of a flying iron arrow or a soldiers' iron spear can save a dwarf, before the helmet is even needed. The mittens will somewhat make up for the lack of adamantine on the hands.
Dividing each number I gave you by ten gives you, per dwarf: 1 adamantine mail shirt, 2 steel mail shirts, 1 steel breastplate, 1 adamantine helm, 1 adamantine greave, 1 set of steel high boots and gauntlets, 5 leather cloaks and hoods, 1 pair of leather mittens, 1 copper shield, and a weapon. This will keep any dwarf immune to anything but poison gas, with enough skill.

As a side note, cloaks, hoods and mittens offer additional protection, but you will either want a booming textiles/leather industry or go without them, as they will wear and break down unlike armour. Replacing them will be time consuming. There's also the whole issue of fire, namely that flammable clothing will kill a Dwarf if whatever started the fire doesn't - but either way, there's no wrong choice here.

[StagnantSoul]

Important note: Get a full-steel and silver war hammer squad at the ready as well, or else zombies with a necromancer would kill you, adamantine or not.

As mentioned previously, 1-2 squads of crossbowdwarves is recommended, maybe elect to give each an adamantine helm or mail shirt. Give them copper crossbows, copper shields, and steel bolts. Each dwarf should have, in a perfect squad: a leather armour, an adamantine mail shirt, an adamantine helm, a copper shield, a copper crossbow, five leather hoods, five leather cloaks, a leather quiver, steel bolts, leather leggings, leather high boots, leather gloves, leather mittens.

This will give them good enough protection to last until a melee dwarf can retarget to their aggressor, and potentially, with enough hammer dwarf skill, maybe kill a goblin or two once their ammo is out. Against demons, keep these guys behind fortifications. 

Another special note: keep all military dwarves from woodcutting, mining, and hunting labours, as this will strip them of their uniform every time they're off duty. Think of giving your legendary smiths and other important, non-military dwarves a full set of steel armour, complete with two copper shields. If invaders get through, order your legendaries to a safe zone. Maybe post 2-3 crossbowdwarves with them, or give a retired hunter a role in that squad, as escort. Keep these guys away from fighting.

Another note: The fortress guard should be crossbowdwarves, armed with wooden crossbows and shields, but following the same setup as the crossbow squads mentioned above. This makes them give weak beatings, but still remain efficient fighters in an invasion.

Another, challenging note: If you have the time, resources, and the drive, put everyone in a militia. This gives everyone basic protection, and keeps all but miners, hunters, and wood cutters safer at all times.

A militia uniform would consist of: 1 wooden shield, 1 leather armour, 1 bronze mail shirt, 1 bronze helmet, 1 weapon of either a bronze cutting weapon or silver hammer, leather leggings, leather gloves and mittens, 1 leather cloak and hood, leather high boots.

Maybe put each squad on a rotating training time, one month a year, each squad having a different training month. They'd be light enough to not lose any speed, and could fight back against any goblin who comes charging at them.

This leaves woodcutters, miners, and hunters pretty much the squishy meat shields. A legendary miner, though, is deadly with a pick.

Follow this set up for your military, and your fort will be ready for any attack. I used a similar setup to fight hell, and actually beat it, with only losing 19 dwarves out of 120.

[NW_Kohaku]

Spoilers, seriously. 

You should change the title of this thread, and include a [SPOILERS] warning on it instead of a reference to the actual spoilers if you're going to openly discuss the spoilers.

[AgentNos]

Wow, thanks for all this! I'm gonna make sure I put this adamantine to good use. Also, all this info about good military is amazing, it's gonna help a load when I'm getting a bit more of a serious defence up!

How would I go about adding [Spoilers] to the title?

Done it, don't worry

[StagnantSoul]

I specialize in military mostly, and how to make stone and gem industries perfect together. If you need military advice, even where to put your fortress tactically, I can give you advice.

[Max™]

I thought it was better to go candy breastplate steel mail shirt because the steel has more mass and thus passes less impact through while candy just goes deflect/ignore making it ideal for hard armor pieces.

[Skullsploder]

I thought it was better to go candy breastplate steel mail shirt because the steel has more mass and thus passes less impact through while candy just goes deflect/ignore making it ideal for hard armor pieces.

It's the exact opposite of this. Basically:

DON'T USE ADAMANTINE FOR RIGID ARMOUR PIECES. Rigid armour protects against blunt damage based on the armour's rigidity AND mass. So adamantine, while incredibly rigid, has next to no mass; while steel, although less rigid, has many times more mass. This ends up meaning that it's better to have rigid armour made of steel than rigid armour made of adamantine, as you never fight enemies with weapons better than iron anyway and so you don't have to worry about edged weapons piercing steel plate. If you have steel, all you need is the maximum possible blunt protection - which comes with steel plate.

However, since non-rigid armour doesn't protect against blunt much if at all, it's alright to make mail shirts out of adamantine. Any other armour made being made of candy is non-optimal, unless you intend on fighting enemies equipped with adamantine swords.

Basically, turn everything into edged weapons, make mail shirts if you have plenty of candy left over, and if you're using DFhack's "pure bugfixes" then you can turn it into robes or dresses as well for a ridiculously strong garment for your military dwarves that WON'T wear away (provided you've modded the raws slightly or are using those DFhack bugfixes, which are enabled by default in the Lazy Newb Pack).