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[tehbrandon]

I've yet to make an army for my fortress yet, but I'm in the planning stages of it. I know how to do that, but I've questions on certain aspects of equipping my troops. At the moment, I have an abundance of silver and bronze--and I could potentially be seeing iron if I dig down a few more levels. But with what I've got I'm focusing on three different squads of soldiers:

Basic soldiers armed with a bronze axe (or spears for larger enemies) and wooden shields.

Marksdwarves armed with bronze/wood(?) crossbows (or normal bows, still seeing what I can make).

Elite/heavy soldiers armed with silver maces and wooden/leather shields.

My questions come in with armor, mostly for my basic and heavy soldiers. Should I give the basic soldiers full bronze armor or limit them to something like just a helm/breastplate combo? And then just give the heavy soldiers full bronze armor? Is there any inherent disadvantage to full armor on new recruits, even if they're just training? And also stuff like what sort of crossbow bolt material should I use and any other errors that I might be making with my army composition.

[Josher]

Heavy armor (breastplates and legplates) will slow down untrained dwarfs significantly, which will slow training. Recommend you hold off on handing it out until your dwarfs have had some serious training.

[Ulfarr]

First things first giving new recruits a full set of armor means that they'll move very slow and they'll get tired really fast which can (and will ) get them killed in combat and there are some suspicions that it can slow down training because they stop sparring too early or get too late for those demonstration. The common advise is to give them leather/bone armor until they gain some armor user leves and become stronger. With that out of the way let me gshare my thoughts on your specific army concept.

Basic soldier:

Axes and spears are fine choices for weapons. Shields are also very effective at protecting your soldiers but an unlucky hit (ie a werebeast's bite or a blow to the head) can mean the death of your soldier. I would consider giving them a helmet and/or a mail shirt* for some extra protection that won't slow them down that much. Wooden shield are as protective as metal ones but degrade faster in combat so make a couple more than your soldier so they don't get caught without one.

Elite/Heavy Soldier:
Assuming these are going to be experienced/well trained soldiers there is no reason to not give them a full set of armor. Silver is regarded as the best choice for blunt weapons so you'll probably be ok with that. I'm not sure about the mace as the weapon of choice. My experience is that maces require a lot of strength and mace user skill before they reach the same effectiveness** as other weapons. I would consider giving them silver warhammers or assuming these soldier are the veterans coming from the "basic" ranks maybe I would let them keep their previous weapons.

Marksdwarves:
I don't have a lot of experience with ranged weapons but it seems to me that making bolts out of bronze is a bit of a waste. Both copper and silver bolts can yield decent enough results if you want to conserve your bronze for armor.

* Mail shirts protect more parts of the body than a breastplate so I would consider it the first priority in body protection.

** Eventually your macedwarves will become just as good as any other "weapon"dwarf, the thing is that other weapons seem to be more likely to score incapacitating hits even at the hands of a inexperienced/weak fighters. To give an example, a weak macedwarf's blow is very likely to just "bruise the muscle/fat" when hitting an enemy while an equally weak axedwarf's blow is likely to cause a bleeding (which can shorten the fight to the axedwarf's favor) or if lucky it can chop off an arm/leg/head.

[Blue_Dwarf]

It's usually not worth the effort to make bronze armor. It won't be ready much faster than iron/steel even if you have to mine iron first.

Especially since it offers minimal protection anyway. If you get ambushed by goblins with iron weapons, or daggers, or crossbows, it won't make a difference.

[Bumber]

It's usually not worth the effort to make bronze armor. It won't be ready much faster than iron/steel even if you have to mine iron first.

Especially since it offers minimal protection anyway. If you get ambushed by goblins with iron weapons, or daggers, or crossbows, it won't make a difference.

Pretty sure bronze is on par with iron.

[anewaname]

I suggest going for "full coverage". This is when your dwarfs wear something of Armor Level 1 or more, on each body section. I use a mail shirt (or leather armor) for the torso, a bone helm, bone greaves, bone gauntlets, metal high boots (or leather high boots). This is the minimum for "full coverage", and it is surprisingly good, even against were-beasts. A "weapon and shield" uniform is good-enough for a squad that needs to exterminate simple wildlife, but only in the short-term. Your "rapid response" squad should have "full coverage", or a pack of crundles will maim or cripple dwarfs using cuts, bleeding, and pain.

About the weight of armor.... if you make a list of the armor items and estimate how much each item weighs when made of metal or non-metal materials, you will see that if you want "full coverage", the real weight difference is from choosing bone or metal for greaves, and from choosing to use a metal breastplate or not.

I use three vague types of uniforms:

Spoiler: "panic response" (click to show/hide)

With a new embark, I queue jobs for 4 wood axes and 4 wood shields. This means the equipment is available to beat up any wildlife that threatens dwarfs in the first year (dogs help, but not always). As the fort develops, I replace this uniform with "lightly armored"

Spoiler: "lightly armored" (click to show/hide)

This is "full coverage" armor, usually:
- mail shirt (metal)
- greaves (bone)
- gauntlets, high boots, and helm (metal or bone or leather)

Spoiler: "fully armored" (click to show/hide)

Like "lightly armored", but all metal and including a breastplate. This is for dwarfs that will be fighting against sieges and terrible foes.

In all cases, metal weapons are a priority.

[Sarmatian123]

I do not use uniforms, unless for some rare cases of suicide squad or lets new immigrants drop the part of clothing I refuse to produce.

My military starts without any weapons or armor. Wresting is basic combat skills and it is good all your military Dwarves get it. This military solves some solitary Kobolt at the start, despite the tiny Kobolt's knife. For more dangerous situations with wild animals I assign to positions temporarily some shields. I deal with invasions through cage traps and mass pit. I leave military for unexpected things to deal with (like guarding entrance from kea invasions) and for missions.

With time I get better craftsdwarves. I start making master quality chain mails and weapons. I then assign the master quality items to squad positions. In end I have fully plated Dwarves in iron or most of the time in adamantine. Permanent assignment of master quality metal shields I keep as last item to add.

[tehbrandon]

Just a minor update on my army, I've been following all of your advice as much as I can and uh.
I spotted a troll in one of my caverns and I sent my Gilded Doors (axe/speardwarf) squad to kill it.
One axedwarf, Solon, arrives before all the others.
She manages to severely wound the troll with her axe before it gets a lucky hit in and breaks her axe wielding arm.
She is currently beating the shit out of it with her fists, feet and wooden shield.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

God I love this game.

EDIT: Update, another axedwarf walked over and decapitated it.

[janamdo]

I do not use uniforms, unless for some rare cases of suicide squad or lets new immigrants drop the part of clothing I refuse to produce.


 I deal with invasions through cage traps and mass pit. I leave military for unexpected things to deal with (like guarding entrance from kea invasions) and for missions.

Interesting to build this, such pit building from the WIKi is not possible , because it is sketch
Is there more detailled info about a pit construction to find ?

[Bumber]

Interesting to build this, such pit building from the WIKi is not possible , because it is sketch
Is there more detailled info about a pit construction to find ?

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Mass_pitting

[tehbrandon]

Update, my dwarves killed a Titan.

Zero losses, zero injuries.

Combat logs + other screencaps to prove it:

The titan:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Them near my guard dog:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The combat logs:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Sarmatian123]

Interesting to build this, such pit building from the WIKi is not possible , because it is sketch
Is there more detailled info about a pit construction to find ?

You need to make mass pit underground, because freezing may cause issues with liquids. I build mine on first floor bellow surface. It looks like this:

Code: [Select]

+++++++++
+C++C++C+
+++++++++
+C++C++C+
+++++++++
+C++C++C+
+++++++++

+ - animal stockpile (forbid all animals, all empty cages and accept only from links)
C - floor hatch forbidden and tightly closed for pets
I usually place lever beside mass pit for the bridge on bottom. The mass pit is fed from 22x11  animal stockpile, so all 200+ invaders fit on it.
From side the masspit looks like this:

Code: [Select]

_+C++C++C+_
W         W
BBBBBBBBBBW

_-floor
+-stockpile
C-hatch
W-smoothed or constructed wall
B-lowered bridge, when lifted it becomes side wall like this:

_+C++C++C+_
W         W
B_________W
It is handy to have an entrance in form of yet another bridge to enter its bottom. To station suicide squad for example, or to pasture new arrivals' pets.

Code: [Select]

WWWWWWWWWWWW
WB+++++++++W
WB+++++++++W
WB+++++++++W
WB+++++++++W
WB+++++++++W
WB+++++++++W
WB+++++++++W
WB+++++++++W
WB+++++++++W
WAWWWWWWWWWW
W+W

W-smoothed/constructed walls
+-smoothed/constructed floor
B-main bridge 10x9
A-entrance bridge 1x2
Why bridge "A" in corner like that? So units trapped inside can not dodge out from trap through wall.

Does it help?

[janamdo]

Why bridge "A" in corner like that? So units trapped inside can not dodge out from trap through wall.

Does it help?

Thanks
I try to build this and is it one of the 3 defences without direct military support
- basic defense ( deep moat + bridges + walls? )
- burrow
- masspit
Right now, the fortress has a only defence a moat in a mountainentrance
 without a ramp ( straight wall of 3m heigth ?)
Architecture skill is not ready for the (new) bridge and i builded one and lost this , but the dorf with the archetecture skill seemed to be vanished for the initial bridge building.

[Sarmatian123]

To deal with cleaning and re-setting up 200+ cage traps I like to keep up to 10 engineer Dwarves. All engineering jobs enabled on them. I also slap architecture job on them too. This makes easy access to 10 architects for everything. Building lots of paved roads goes very fast for example. I like my engineers. Them going into depression is the hardest loss in my fortress, despite having 10 of them. Toady needs to do something with this god damned rain imho.

I pick for this assignment not Dwarves coming with engineering jobs (though I try). I look instead at their strength and pick ones who are with normal strength or stronger, then I look for other attributes: +intelligent, then +creative, then +intuition, then + memory. Usually strong intellectual types get the jobs, but other attributes are a good get too, specially when you set them all 10 engineers as scholars in your library.

Usually I pick scholars from medics and engineers. I still have no idea how to deal with performers tbh. They can create some interesting books too, when set to be scholars, but I never have spare Dwarves for performing arts. Particularly I didn't figure out how to get dancer instead of poet or singer instead of story teller... or particular instrument musician. Or how to form in Fortress Mode artists' groups.