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[Weizen1988]

Weizen, you really don't have to kill your king unless you really hate his likes (and thus his mandates). The arrival of an existing king only occurs when a fort becomes mountainhome, and that is the only way to turn your fort into a mountainhome. When an existing dwarf ascends to the position of monarch, that's all that happens--your fort has not prematurely become mountainhome. As far as the code is concerned, there is a mountainhome that exists somewhere out in the ether (even if said mountainhome no longer has a monarch, or even if the "mountainhome" doesn't -really- exist. Hence, for example, the outpost liaison saying "greetings from the mountainhome" even if your fort houses the king). The only thing you might potentially miss out on by not having the monarch and their entourage arrive is the legendary +5 warriors, which frankly aren't that impressive. Training an actual militia to the same skill would also raise the rest of their melee skills, yielding much more rounded and effective fighters. Trust me, you -really- don't need to kill your king, lol. Your fort can and still will become a barony, as it's one of the stepping stones to becoming the official mountainhome, which is still an open option for you.

I remember in one of my forts I gave one of my dwarves some level in social skills, thinking that he would eventually declare himself mayor. I'm pretty sure he ended up declaring himself king instead, before I'd even hit a population of 50 in my fort. If the regicidal bloodlust is due to your monarch having bad likes or the fact they're a cheesemaker, then I understand. But you really won't be fixing any gameplay mechanics for your fort or anything. Dwarf Fortress is already ridiculously complicated and this is one thing that has been accounted for and will still properly work for you.

Nah, king just mandates that I make bracelets a lot and never sell them, which is irritating, but on the scale of things, not so bad, just make them out of cheap crap. I was just worried id somehow managed to screw myself and never get a baron, and thus champion, which i was I guess wrongly thinking was the dwarf who leads demonstrations and make my army less bad, and thinking these dwarves in his entourage were the best way to get decent soldiers, as it stands my fortresses survive until a military would be needed, then I die horribly first wereanything or horde of goblins that get past my gates, im not very good with military, so I was hoping these automatically skilled dwarves might turn things in my favor. I guess i may not kill him. Just see what happens.

[rhavviepoodle]

Gotcha. I totally support dwarven regicide for legitimate and/or trivial reasons, but I mostly feel you might as well be doing it for the right reasons instead of the wrong ones. 

Are you having any success at all with military training? It can be pretty obtuse and definitely takes energy to figure out. For example, putting together a squad and giving them a barracks won't force them to train unless you set up an active training schedule for them (m->s).

[Weizen1988]

Gotcha. I totally support dwarven regicide for legitimate and/or trivial reasons, but I mostly feel you might as well be doing it for the right reasons instead of the wrong ones. 

Are you having any success at all with military training? It can be pretty obtuse and definitely takes energy to figure out. For example, putting together a squad and giving them a barracks won't force them to train unless you set up an active training schedule for them (m->s).

I only just figured out how to arm them, made a bunch of crossbows out of what I could grab (featherwood) got some bolts from i think some dead goblins I found near one of the dead elephants, got them from somewhere, and i didnt craft them in any case, before two necromancers and an army of undead showed up, now im huddling inside my fort working out building an archery target for them to practice at until im confident they can actually kill anything with them. Am I correct that undead, and most likely necromancers, arent armed with ranged weapons? If so I can probably pick them off pretty easily from an attempt at a defensive structure ive made consisting of fortifications, a raising bridge to block line of sight if i start getting overwhelmed, some grates (read something about how enemies can climb through fortifications, so I wanted to find something I could shoot through that will slow them down if it came to that while i shut that previously mentioned bridge.) and a pit. My goal eventually is to get a necromancer in a cage or otherwise trapped so I can make one of these fancy live training rooms ive read about, since it seems im going to get a wave of these guys every couple years, might as well find a use for them.

[Thisfox]

Forgive me if I'm wrong (I don't fight the undead very often in this game) and hopefully someone will correct me, but last time I checked, zombies and reanimated beings derived from Necromancers required bludgeoning rather than puncturing methods of fighting. For example, a good heavy silver hammer, one of my favourite weapons in this game. Although I don't doubt the Necromancer himself won't be arrowproof, I think the zombies could be somewhat more immune.

[Weizen1988]

Forgive me if I'm wrong (I don't fight the undead very often in this game) and hopefully someone will correct me, but last time I checked, zombies and reanimated beings derived from Necromancers required bludgeoning rather than puncturing methods of fighting. For example, a good heavy silver hammer, one of my favourite weapons in this game. Although I don't doubt the Necromancer himself won't be arrowproof, I think the zombies could be somewhat more immune.

Unfortunate, which metal makes the best bludgeon, silver? I might have none, ill look around, but ive got iron if I dont, which seems like a good default metal. Will crossbowdwarves still improve from shooting the undead, even if they arent harming it? Or do they actually have to be doing damage?

[rhavviepoodle]

Yes, puncturing damage is almost useless against zombies (its main draw is it can damage organs, but that won't work on zombies). I think blunt damage does eventually do the trick (you have to pulp its head, but your dwarves are just as likely to pulp every other body part first), as does slashing. I remember reading that if you cut off a zombie's hands and head, it is dead for good, but that might not be the case in a reanimating biome (I never bother with them because they're more grief than the sliver barb is worth). Either way, I can highly recommend battle axes, and they'd especially be good made from the iron you mentioned. You could even process the iron and make steel, which is the best mundane weapons-grade metal in the game.

I haven't really tried live training in fortress mode, but regular training (sparring in particular) seems good enough in recent versions that I really haven't found it necessary.

[Thisfox]

Iron or steel hammers are okay, basically you want as heavy a hammer as possible. I'm told someone lucked out and got an Artifact gold hammer once, which in short order became Named. It stove in the head of a Giant, a Forgotten Beast, and numerous other things. But you can't usually make gold hammers, so I live with silver, which is a relatively easily obtained heavy metal which can make a hammer if you want it to without resorting to Artifact levels.

I keep trying, but the last gold Artifact I got was a sodding useless toy axe. Goddamn weaponsmith with a new baby, I don't know....

I remember reading that if you cut off a zombie's hands and head, it is dead for good, but that might not be the case in a reanimating biome

Don't use a slashing weapon in a reanimating biome. The body parts reanimate when removed. Heads especially can continue to be an issue, biting their way through your fort. I presume they move about using their tongues or something, but they are deadly and practically unkillable. Plus, there is the practically legendary story of the bulls skin which reanimated and chased someones first seven dwarves into a tree before slaughtering them. Cutting stuff to bits in a reanimating biome is nasty. Hell, if you cut off the hands, you end up with Thing running around, and you know how dextrous Thing is in the Addams Family....

[PatrikLundell]

The "snow blob something" was probably a Forgotten Beast. It's unlikely the magma pool would be involved in its potential demise as FBs composed of snow still seem to be magma resistant. However, snow FBs are really flimsy, so it can easily have been killed by some cavern critter.

To kill an undead you have to pulp it or remove its head, as stated above. Necromancers can reanimate the parts that have hands (anything that can grasp) or heads (including severed heads), just as a reanimating biome can. Due to a bug (small) heads and parts thereof are near(?) unkillable.
The standard weapon type against undead is the blunt one because of the pulping.
Live training against targets immune to the attack still works as live training. However, normal practice is sufficiently easy that you'll get legendary warriors fairly quickly anyway.
Any weapons grade metal will produce a useful pulping weapon, although silver is recommended as it's a little bit better than the others. Thus, use what you have.

Undead armies usually contain missile users as well, so I'd take that into consideration.

I'd advice against "my private random questions thread" threads (there's currently another one in the forums) as they have a tendency to be more convenient for the person asking than for those helping, especially if there are many questions. It's better to start a new thread and let the old ones sink away into oblivion.

[Weizen1988]

The "snow blob something" was probably a Forgotten Beast. It's unlikely the magma pool would be involved in its potential demise as FBs composed of snow still seem to be magma resistant. However, snow FBs are really flimsy, so it can easily have been killed by some cavern critter.

To kill an undead you have to pulp it or remove its head, as stated above. Necromancers can reanimate the parts that have hands (anything that can grasp) or heads (including severed heads), just as a reanimating biome can. Due to a bug (small) heads and parts thereof are near(?) unkillable.
The standard weapon type against undead is the blunt one because of the pulping.
Live training against targets immune to the attack still works as live training. However, normal practice is sufficiently easy that you'll get legendary warriors fairly quickly anyway.
Any weapons grade metal will produce a useful pulping weapon, although silver is recommended as it's a little bit better than the others. Thus, use what you have.

Undead armies usually contain missile users as well, so I'd take that into consideration.

I'd advice against "my private random questions thread" threads (there's currently another one in the forums) as they have a tendency to be more convenient for the person asking than for those helping, especially if there are many questions. It's better to start a new thread and let the old ones sink away into oblivion.

Alright, thank you, I was worried about forum clutter, as im undoubtedly going to end up with many stupid questions. Ill start another thread next time though. Thank you all for the help.

[Goatmaan]

We all have stupid questions sometimes, that's why we have the forums!
If you have a question check the wiki first, then the forums. Still didn't find an answer? Start a thread!  Don't expect a fast response.
Do expect stupid answers. Such as 'just use magma!!"
Do expect your  thread to "derail" into an unrelated topic. Sometimes quickly. Such as me not talking about nobles. 
Have fun with the rest of us trying to figure out this monstrosity called Dwarf Fortress.

 Good luck,
  Goatmaan

[Werdna]

While practice training is pretty easy and effective for melee dwarves, it is much slower for marksdwarves.  Live training, particularly on targets that don't die easily such as undead, can be very fast because of the xp difference and the massive difference in priority between a live hostile and an archery target.  Live training will also take far less ammo and micro to generate Legendary Marksdwarves. 

[Weizen1988]

Ok, got the barony offer, is there anyone in particular I should pick? does it only impact mandates?

[rhavviepoodle]

You can pick pretty much whichever dwarf you want. And yeah, you might want to choose a dwarf whose likes are tolerable, since they affect mandates and demands. Picking a dwarf whose preferred metal is platinum means they're liable to demand furniture made of platinum. If you have no access in your mines or from trade, this could be a problem.

[Weizen1988]

You can pick pretty much whichever dwarf you want. And yeah, you might want to choose a dwarf whose likes are tolerable, since they affect mandates and demands. Picking a dwarf whose preferred metal is platinum means they're liable to demand furniture made of platinum. If you have no access in your mines or from trade, this could be a problem.

So, ideal noble is someone with no preferences, or who likes something easily obtained. Bit confused now though, I got the popup to pick someone to be baron, i picked a dwarf, nothing showed up on my nobles menu, the caravan left, still nothing changed. Does it like, take until next visit?

[PatrikLundell]

When selecting nobles I mostly ignore material preferences and instead target dorfs who have no preferences for any items. If they don't have item preferences they can't make mandates for them. Materials can still result in demands, but failure to meet demands are do not result in the murder of random productive members of the fortress by the injustice system (should you be brave enough to activate it).

If my hazy memory is correct, the appointment takes effect when the liaison returns to the mountainhome. Since the bugger is now boozing for a season or so in the tavern it can take some time.