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[indyofcomo]

How do you all select who will be in your militia? In previous plays I would select anyone who had existing weapon skills, or someone who was in excellent physical shape. Except for me all-soldier attempts in which everyone who wasn't noble (especially doctors) was recruited.

On my next fort (probably in a few months, I'm a streamer and that's when I expect to get back to DF,) I plan on focusing only on their personalities. At the moment I plan to enlist every dwarf which is confident, high discipline, values martial prowess, respects skill development, and not low discord. I think that list is too long though and is going to leave me with very few candidates.

So how do you recuit?

[duckman]

I think discord only applies to fighting when they do it at the wrong times, like beating each other and civilians up while tantruming. You'll probably want slightly above average excitement seeking and violence instead, if possible.

[PetGreySquirrel]

I've been trying to focus on dwarves who handle stress well and are looking for excitement for my main military force. I do recruit anyone else who value martial skills and might be annoyed by not practicing a martial skill for too long into 'reserve' squads so they can get some training time in to keep that need from going unmet too long, though, which helps quite a bit if there's an emergency or I get a sige AND forgotton beast on the map at the same time.
Mostly, though, trying to pick dwarves who won't get too stressed out from the bodies and violence.
I've seen a few dwarves with things like 'Thinks the world should be in perpetual warfare' as well which I will usually take as a sign they should be in the militia.

[NordicNooob]

I'm very rarely picky about who gets drafted. Related attributes train up quick and aren't that important, and military training makes a great stress reliever so moderately stress-vulnerable dwarves do just fine as soldiers long as you treat everybody well, which should be done anyways. Also mental trauma from the years will change personalities a bunch anyways, so it's not really a big deal in the long run.  I'll normally avoid drafting useful dwarves and pick my soldiers from the leftover migrants, which is most of them. Dwarves with preexisting military skill will generally be squad leaders or second-in-commands, but that's ultimately meaningless as anything other than flavor.

There are stats that will make for slightly better soldiers, of course, but it's so laughably trivial compared to skill and equipment that selecting for them is nothing more than aesthetic and flavorful. But flavor is a good enough reason to do anything; it is Dwarf Fortress, after all.

[anewaname]

I have a rough method of sorting migrants based on "respect for martial prowess" against a mix up of "bravery", "excitement seeking", and "stress vulnerability".

It gets down to this... most dwarfs respect martial prowess and will get negative thoughts for not training. So if their respect for martial prowess is high but one of the other three beliefs is low, they go into squads that train a little bit each year but are not sent to fight. The precious metal-workers also go into these squads, and these squads are rarely activated for any real fights. The dwarfs that do not respect martial prowess become woodcutters, brokers, performers, scholars, or the like. The rest go into the professional military.

[indyofcomo]

Thanks for your responses so far. I'm taking it in and reconsidering what I might do, or possibly course adjustments once I get going.

Keep 'em coming!

[Schmaven]

I just pick any dwarf who will not go berserk.  The other forms of insanity are acceptable, but a berserk military dwarf is too dangerous.  Other than that, preference goes to dwarves who dream of mastering a skill, for obvious reasons.  I try to avoid drafting dwarves who already have a high skill level in something useful, like armorsmithing, cooking, planting, etc. unless the fortress' situation is especially bleak.

[Uthimienure]

Typically I pick them similarly to PetGreySquirrel and anewaname do. 

However, in my latest fort I'm trying something new. All squads train outside in the rain, and it rains almost constantly there.
So far, after 11 years of doing that there was only one outbreak of violence (during a sparring match), which resulted in 7 deaths.
In those 11 years, I have only sent 2 hopeless dwarfs to the magma bridge of doom, and there are 2 more that will go there soon.
Not bad for that much rain, n'est pas?
(but there has not been a LARGE seige yet, haha)
The bonus is they're all operating at peak efficiency above ground with no appreciable cave adaptation.

[SQman]

Early on I choose only the dwarves of above average strength so they can move at an acceptable pace with full armor and weapon. That way nobody stays behind when moving out.

In a mature fort with an established military I stuff useless migrants into new squads and patch holes in existing formations with dwarves with skills and/or attributes for it. Useless migrants a nclude lye makers, potash makers, glazers, animal dissectors, the usual suspects.

[Splint]

Bravery, excitement-seeking, and stress resistance are high on my list, personally, as others go by. Valuing martial prowess is generally a given with dwarves, so you don't need to worry about that.

Equipment gets determined by preferences first and thier stats after the fact if they don't come with skills or weapon preferences already. An agile but weak swarf will almost certainly get more use from a sword or spear than they will a mace or hammer and vice versa after all. Kinesthetic and spatial sense, endurance, toughness, and willpower being average or better is preferable, but not required, since most of those will be brought up to average at worst and often better than that through consistent training.

It makes them less likely to panic and run (or break down and cry from horror,) if they have to be sent out before they've had time to grind up their discipline, and some may even get good thoughts from being in combat instead of always being traumatized or otherwise being negatively affected by it.

After that I select for pre-existing skills and stuff them in squads that have open spots. For leaders, while offering no mechanical benefit, I often prefer to have confident squad leaders.

[PetGreySquirrel]

Not bad for that much rain, n'est pas?
(but there has not been a LARGE seige yet, haha)
The bonus is they're all operating at peak efficiency above ground with no appreciable cave adaptation.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I've taken to open-air barracks and archery targets to prevent cave adaption. My recent fort also had an open air temple and the tavern required passing through sun to keep civilians and emergency draftees okay being in the sun too,  but it only rained like 2 times in the badlands I was in so that wasn't a concern really.

[indyofcomo]

Not bad for that much rain, n'est pas?
(but there has not been a LARGE seige yet, haha)
The bonus is they're all operating at peak efficiency above ground with no appreciable cave adaptation.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I've taken to open-air barracks and archery targets to prevent cave adaption. My recent fort also had an open air temple and the tavern required passing through sun to keep civilians and emergency draftees okay being in the sun too,  but it only rained like 2 times in the badlands I was in so that wasn't a concern really.

I have considered digging out the roof of my barracks to make them "outside" or lit, whichever it is which changes, but since all my fighting *should* be indoors I decided not to slow things down with that. I like the 5z-high path lined with traps strategy, so my militia is usually waiting for invaders in a room at the end of that path. And then there's cavern opponents.

[George_Chickens]

DISCIPLINE. Nothing but discipline. If an Urist gets too traumatized because of their personality, I can always exile them. But discipline can be the difference between life and death in a battle with invaders.

I make sure to draft some useless dorfs in with disciplined soldiers, so they may learn discipline too. It seems to prevent "HORRIFIED!" spam and also seems to make dorfs a little more resilient to tragedy.

[duckman]

Emotional obsessiveness is another good one to have low if possible. A dwarf that does not have feelings of emotional attachment and has never felt even a moment's connection with another being won't feel a whole lot from seeing people die. That's the majority of the stress gone in each engagement for that dwarf. Kill 8 elves or lose 8 dwarves and Urist gets 8 stacks of anxiety or not feeling anything at all instead of horror.