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[vjmdhzgr]

On the topic of armor, it's generally best to just start with a mail shirt and helmet then slowly upgrade the armor as they get more skilled in armor user, and can handle the additional weight. At legendary armor user they could wear full slade armor and not be slowed down the slightest, so there's little point in intentionally lightly armoring skilled dwarves. Though notably, mail shirts are actually heavier than breastplates. Not by much, but they are a bit heavier if you ever check the numbers on them. I still think they're best for a lightly armored dwarf though because they cover significantly more area which is quite helpful when you can't armor everything. On a fully skilled dwarf it doesn't have to be a choice between chain mail and breastplate though, they can equip both. They can even equip 3 mail shirts and a breastplate.

Basically this.  You don't start the dwarf in full plate with 3 chain shirts and 7 cloaks... as its actually an ENCUMBRANCE penalty.  This doesn't just gimp their speed, but it gimps both their attack speed and endurance.  So if you over armor a dwarf he both attacks less and passes out sooner.  Its a huge mistake. 

Now I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure armor doesn't affect attack speed. I specifically recall Toady One specifically mentioning at one point that armor user was going to be less important for adventurer mode once attack and movement speed were split because armor no longer slowed attack speed. Now obviously armor can still easily slow soldiers down to a crawl meaning they're incredibly ineffective at responding to threats because by the time they get there they've already killed all the nearby civilians, but once they get into combat they'd perform about as well as normal. Carrying more weight does lower endurance as well.

[Niddhoger]

It showed up in the testing arena when someone !SCIENCED! it, but the "experiments" were years old.  It could very well have changed since then.  However, I doubt the encumbrance part changed, so it could very well still be "less attacks" when they fall over from exertion after a few swings.  I guess we'd need some updated data...

As far as giving soldiers time off goes... I think one month out of every four is enough to get them time to chat.  As far as useful duties... well... there is honestly only so much work that -needs- doing in a fort.  After your rooms are set up and equipment forged, the only thing left is to replace comsumables: food, booze, clothing, ammo.  30-50 dwarves will more than cover most industries (legendary craftsmen on standby -if- you need them again) as well as farmers, brewers, tailors, and a healthy amount of haulers to keep the wheels greased.  After that? Its all just slave labor for megaprojects or busywork that kills your FPS.  There really is nothing for them to do but mill around or get assigned to the library.

[arbarbonif]

It showed up in the testing arena when someone !SCIENCED! it, but the "experiments" were years old.  It could very well have changed since then.  However, I doubt the encumbrance part changed, so it could very well still be "less attacks" when they fall over from exertion after a few swings.  I guess we'd need some updated data...

In the .40 release he split walking and attacking speed.  That is when the gait tag appeared for creatures and recovery time for weapons.  I'm not sure if science has been done on the changes to make sure what exactly weighing down does.  I was noticing in my last fort that just adding gauntlets/helm/boots of metal and leather armor and leggings slowed my citizen-soldiers down about 50% whilst going about their tasks.  I'm not sure how badly it would impact sprinting/combat speed, top speed or endurance.  Dwarves run like the dickens when in combat...

[Kamitorrorga]

Whoa, thats alot of informations. Thank you all of you.

However, in one my more recent fortresses, there was a first invasion coming along. My troops were trained and I had already made a marksdwarve squad. I placed them behind one of the canals I put out to make some towers surrounded by water in pits. However, when I told them to attack, instead of using their crossbows correctly, they instead charged and tried beating a recruit to death with their crossbows. I ended up winning, but at a price of losing 4 dwarves, 2 of them being the entire marksdwarve squad and one of them being one of my speardwarves (Laiden in copper armor - had no iron to speak of). Did I make a mistake by telling them to attack through the squad screen?

[KillzEmAllGod]

Marksdwarfs

Sounds like they didn't have any ammo, its best to have no bins in your ammo stockpile and use a track stop with a minecart dumping into another stockpile. That's mainly to avoid the bug with bins. They'll also charge once they run out of ammo, if you have them training they might not pick up the combat ammo either. Its also better to to just use station orders and patrol. Overall Crossbows shouldn't be the first thing you start training first.

Make sure you setup alerts because they can contain different orders for what alert you want everything at, should be able schedule when they're inactive or at least no order.

[Purdurabo]

Putting crosbowdwarfs behind fortifications works best. Just make sure it has a roof on as I had all my crossbowdwarfs jump over my 4 story high fortificaions once they ran out of ammo. It is also best to make the gap behind the fortifications only one tiles so that they will all be right nexto the fortifications to fire through them.