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[Toxicshadow]

The more I play forts in less-friendly areas/worlds, the more I'm finding an early military a necessity instead of just something to consider.

My last fort for example was abandoned after a megabeast came to visit. I was more than a year but less than two in. I had a few military units mostly composed of visitors to my tavern who decided to stay. This isn't the first time this has happened. In fact I basically expect an unfriendly visitor between y1-2.

Personally my biggest downfall is I wait too long every single time, I just hate starting with 6 useful dwarves instead of 7.

The point of this thread is to discuss early-game military. Do you find it as necessary to start one as soon as its possible? Any stories to share?
This isn't a "help me" post, but tips are welcome of course!

[Dunamisdeos]

I have found it absolutely essential to embark with a dwarf geared towards military training.

They have high teacher, and at least one in relevant military skills such as axe/dodge/fighter.

Soon as I have a migrant with the appropriate stats, they get drafted and these two dwarves spar. Usually get a pair of legendary dwarves within a year. This is generally enough to defend the fort from raids and titans until the first big siege.

[NullForceOmega]

I tend to be even more extreme, I embark with two  military dwarves and have them sparring as soon as I can get an armor rack made, usually providing me with legendaries before the end of the first year.

[Toxicshadow]

I have the worst luck with the caverns, every fortress of mine ends up discovering the caverns via the main staircase. Considering that by migrant wave 3 your pop will very likely be well over 20, the necessity to be able to defend against FBs is just as real as the above ground variant.

I tend to be even more extreme, I embark with two  military dwarves and have them sparring as soon as I can get an armor rack made, usually providing me with legendaries before the end of the first year.

Oh wow, your starts must be really slow at first. But having two legends before the end of year one? Nice :p

[NullForceOmega]

I wouldn't say slow, but I don't even attempt to cut down to rock in year one, I set up a temporary fort in the soil layers until I have enough dwarves to get to the real work.  But yes, legendary warriors in year one is very nice.

[mikekchar]

Not to derail the thread, but you can build a very efficient fortress in about 4 levels, so there is no reason to breach the caverns... ever if you don't feel like it.  The only time I've accidentally breached the caverns is when I had a really deep aquifer and the last layer was the first layer of the caverns.  I guess the main reason to dig down is magma, but if you're doing that, then it's really a choice.  The timing of when you are going to do that is up to you.

Having said that, assuming you want to play aggressively, does it make sense to have a few highly trained, full time warriors, or a whole group of reasonably trained warriors?  In adventure mode, my impression is that the most important skill is actually fighter.  But my recent testing with dual wielding leads me to believe that observation is quite important for getting good opportunities.  Also, given that you are unlikely to be able to afford metal armour at the beginning of the game, it seems like a combination of fighter, observation and dodging might be enough.  Novice shield level (which you can train up pretty quickly) seems to be adequate for the vast majority of what you are going to run into early-game).  You could give that to your starting seven and still have a fair amount of points left.

Lately I have been starting out with all peasants because there are virtually no skills that are worth getting on embark, apart from situational ones -- for example mining if you need to dig a safety hole quickly.  I can't remember if masonry/mechanic affects the speed of building, but if it does it might be valuable for getting a bridge up quickly -- still in those situations it's probably better just to embark with blocks and to wall yourself in immediately.

[Fleeting Frames]

Relevant: What's Your Military Embark?

As for how much it slows you down...Until summer migrant wave, using x military starting dwarves means you get x/7 less done, with lesser but still present effect afterwards, mostly disappearing when your fortress is big enough to afford idlers. (Rare hard-to-train skills like Optics Engineering excepted.)

That's about a month slowdown for 2 military dwarves until mid summer, with lesser effect - call it half a month 'till start of winter (by then you've gotten 2 migrant waves of 1-10 people, who aren't typically as skilled).

If you can get ready for second spring migrants by mid-winter normally, then you'll manage to get it ready with two dwarves training from embark as well.



As for those rare hard-to-train but not immediately useful skills...It might be worth consideration to sacrifice two weeks from Granite to embark with 7 dwarves with those skills elsewhere and then abandon(/retire) fort right away. Then your actual embark can get them as migrants.

[Toxicshadow]

Yeah on my next fortress Im going to embark in a hilly/mountainous area and essentially do a 'hollow mountain' style fort, with my goal to use individual stairs in various rooms. Im way too tired of using a central staircase and building my fort off that.

On another note I made some modifications to my game to allow me to train most domestic animals. War chickens? The goblins wont know what hit them :p
The point isn't to nerf the game though, its just something I thought would be fun.

Also my bad! Didn't realize we already had a thread for this.

[Thisfox]

I have the worst luck with the caverns, every fortress of mine ends up discovering the caverns via the main staircase. Considering that by migrant wave 3 your pop will very likely be well over 20, the necessity to be able to defend against FBs is just as real as the above ground variant.

If you breach them in the main staircase, it is possible to floor off the staircase a level or two above that, with b-C-f, or wall it off with b-C-w and FBs can't get through floors and walls. Later, when you're all soldiered up, you can dig a more sensible approach to the caverns. The main staircase can then have a short horizontal walkway (possibly through fancy doors and with engraved walls) to where it can restart heading down to the magma again, without going right through a cavern lake.

Alternatively, if you make an embark close to the edge of an embark map tile, it will have less cavern underneath it, and you might find the main staircase doesn't hit those pesky caverns.

[anewaname]

Do you find it as necessary to start one as soon as its possible?

A weapon in every dwarf's hands, that is one of my immediate objectives. A bottleneck, like a door or gate, is of equal value.

Usually this means, two miners, one woodcuttter, and 4 dwarfs with axe and shield (emergency response squad). Those dwarfs are busy crafting, building, or hauling, but can chase after some animal threat if needed. Sometimes they have starting weapon/armor skills; I often buy those skills on less creative dwarfs. The first summer migrants usually become haulers and the first fall migrants usually become career military.

If you are playing a "no closing of the gates" and "no traps" scenario, then consider extra war chickens, to occupy and tire the incoming enemy, so that unarmored and unskilled dwarfs can get close and swing without being the invader's first target.

[TheEqualsE]

My last few forts have been in untamed wilds, home of the giant animals.  My current one had two giant jumping spiders its first year, one almost on embark.

To deal with that I always bring one dwarf chosen for being agile to be a crossbow user.  Most of their points are spent on combat stuff including teacher.  I also bring one axe user chosen for strength.  My forts usually have steel weapons by year one and some training troops by the end of year one.  I've been way too nice to my military.  I have them train three our of four months year round giving them the rest of the time to do some work or visit the tavern, temple or library.  My next fort I probably won't bother giving them so much time off.  While the melee teams get lots of training I use caged cave creatures / invaders behind fortifications to train up crossbow teams.  Or, when giant flying mantises / whatever interrupt tasks, send a crossbow team or two to shoot them down / gain experience.  You get troops that are legendary in their weapon use by year 3 or so and troops that are great in armor and shield along the way.

I don't just have my crossbow guys shoot at the range, I let them practice with the melee teams too.  If I have ammunition but not much armor I might let a few crossbow guys hunt.  But I'd keep my eye on them make sure they're not running into dangerous caves or angering large beasts.  Every bolt that misses a duck counts so much more than one fired at a target range.  A few hunters managed properly - fed enough ammo and watched so they're not a danger to themselves or others - can level up their crossbow use extremely quickly.  Yes, I'm aware of the uniform conflict - once I have good armor for my crossbow team, no more hunting.  Lately my crossbow guy always gets a hunting dog to help.