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[Urist McScoopbeard]

So I've really been investing heavily in my fortress (my best one ever honestly) and it's pretty much the perfect embark--SANS an abundance of iron and flux stone.

I have enough to outfit most of my military, but I like to be as self-sufficient as possible--so in the interest of stretching my (CURRENTLY prospected) iron reserves without trading, would it be worth it to have a mostly iron suit of armor with a copper breastplate over it all (including an iron mail shirt)? I've got tons of copper, but I'm not sure if the added protection is worth the weight (in comparison to the rest of the iron armor)?

[anewaname]

In combat, it is beneficial to have any breastplate (or leather armor) over a mail shirt, but if the dwarf will only be training, they are better off without the extra weight.

You could make a stack of copper breastplates and stockpile them near the barracks. Then if a siege arrives, add the breastplate to the military uniforms and most of the dwarfs will equip them before they fight. I do this with breastplates and metal greaves (the military trains and hunts animals with no breastplate and with bone leggings, until there is a more serious threat, then they pickup breastplates and greaves).

[Cathar]

Basically, the heavier you are, the better. The extra weight penalizes you in long, extended fights, but wounds penalize you for any fight.

If you have absolutely no metal : go leather. Bone and scales are good if you don't have a meat industry. Be aware that any metal weapon will cut through any of the organic armors tho, but if you can downgrade a crippling wound into a recoverable wound, this is all the better. Plus : training in armor increases armor experience, which allows you to fight longer in extended fights.

If you have metal, litterally any metal is better. Iron and bronze are almost equal, so if you have a lot of copper, buy or mine tin. Steel is not a hard requirement ; if you can outfit heavy copper infantry, provided they are well trained, you should be able to win most of your engagements.

Keep in mind that breastplates only protect your body, and chainmail protect body, upper legs and upper arms, altho to a lesser extent. It is best to have both.

So I think the best advice is, first work with what you have, then slowly upgrade your gear. Leather is cheap and easy to come by even without trade, and can be made into almost any protection piece, including shields (wood become a limiting ressource midgame, you might want to save it if you can) so it is a good starting point. Then make copper sets, forge every copper bar you can into bronze and upgrade. Stopping at bronze is enough for most ennemies the game will throw at you.

[Eric Blank]

Definitely make sure they have iron helmets and mail shirts, and id give them copper shields Because of the weight i would only add copper breastplate, like anewaname suggested during a siege, and the rest of their gear you can make out of bone and leather. Make sure they wear leather trousers, cloaks, hoods and gloves, and socks, under their armor too; sometimes thats enough to save them taking a serious injury and theyre lightweight, too.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Thanks for the input! The full outfit right now is:

Cloak
---------
Iron Helm
Iron Mail Shirt
Iron Gauntlets
Iron Greaves
Iron High Boots
---------
Copper Breastplate
Copper Shield
---------
Silver Warhammer

[Cathar]

Looks super solid, you can replace the cloack by another chainmail when you have the means for it, but provided your soldiers are properly trained, they should be able to win against most of their engagements with that set.

Edit : For the weight, just train your soldiers until they are legendary armor users. 20-30 soldiers with that set will eliminate any goblin army before weight becomes an issue

[Urist McScoopbeard]

The cloak was more to just protect the face honestly, felt incomplete without one!

Also any idea on how to encourage sparring to up Armor User? I have some pretty LARGE barracks for each squad (and at a fortress population of ~60 they're not really full yet) and I'm a little worried that more space actually decreases the amount of sparring that goes on (for some reason).

[Cathar]

AFAIK, armor user is trained when the body is hit on an armored area, so when your people spar while in full armor, that skill goes up automatically. Just have them spar and train on their own for a couple of years, that shouldn't take a lot of micromanagement. A full squad in armor (even leather armor will do the trick) will develop the skill on their own by sparring.

Weight really was an issue once, and it was for a young soldier that was separated from his squad ; dodging like crazy was tiring for him, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't save him if it wasn't for his armor

[anewaname]

I suspect you can increase the amount of sparring by modifying the orders for the squad so instead of having one order to "Train 10", you will have three orders to "Train 3" or five orders to "Train 2" (see this wiki article's section on how to set up multiple training orders during one month for a squad, which another player recently pointed out for marksdwarf training but could apply to sparring also, as well as to having gate guards, patrols, etc).

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Aaaah, that is a nice find--I will reduce the minimum to 3 and see what happens!

[Sarmatian123]

Steel is somewhat lighter from iron to carry around, as it adds protection and all you need is charcoal bar and flux stone (+ charcoal bar for fuel).

I think you can use leather armor with steel breast plate and graves on top too.

Also on side note, you could ask caravan every year for animal leathers. They bring a bin of each type I believe. Make all cloth from leather too. Leather is cheap. It works except for socks and don't make any shoes because they collide with high boots. That helps for protection too.

[Cathar]

Steel is somewhat lighter from iron to carry around, as it adds protection and all you need is charcoal bar and flux stone (+ charcoal bar for fuel).

I think you can use leather armor with steel breast plate and graves on top too.

Also on side note, you could ask caravan every year for animal leathers. They bring a bin of each type I believe. Make all cloth from leather too. Leather is cheap. It works except for socks and don't make any shoes because they collide with high boots. That helps for protection too.

The rule is, only one shaped item per body part. Leather armor is shaped, breastplate is shaped, chain armor isn't. So you cant combine leather and breastplate, but any other combinaison goes

[Sver]

Steel is somewhat lighter from iron to carry around

Have to correct here: they're exactly the same. Same density - same weight.

So you cant combine leather and breastplate, but any other combinaison goes

On the other hand, leather armor functions exactly the same as, say, a leather robe. The only difference is that the robe would need to be replaced every couple of years even without any combat damage, but that't about it.

[mobucks]

I wouldn’t use a copper shield. Wood or leather shields block all attacks including dragon fire just as well and weigh a lot less.

[Bumber]

I wouldn’t use a copper shield. Wood or leather shields block all attacks including dragon fire just as well and weigh a lot less.

They'll break when used for shield bashing.