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[Thisfox]

Lead crutches covered in steel spikes help with that. It's remarkable how much damage a heavy crutch can do.

I've seen crutches wielded effectively even by civilian dwarves caught up in melee.  Definitely get rid of all wooden crutches, metal is the way to go.  Platinum is the heaviest normal crutch material, but lead is also an excellent choice.  The steel spikes are a fantastic addition!

Yeah, we did a lot of !Science! on it back in the day. I don't always have access to platinum. As far as I can tell the spikes are decorative and storyteller rather than effective, but they make me smile.

[Schmaven]

Lead crutches covered in steel spikes help with that. It's remarkable how much damage a heavy crutch can do.

I've seen crutches wielded effectively even by civilian dwarves caught up in melee.  Definitely get rid of all wooden crutches, metal is the way to go.  Platinum is the heaviest normal crutch material, but lead is also an excellent choice.  The steel spikes are a fantastic addition!

Yeah, we did a lot of !Science! on it back in the day. I don't always have access to platinum. As far as I can tell the spikes are decorative and storyteller rather than effective, but they make me smile.

I'm not sure if decorations add any weight to the object or not.  If so, that would increase the whacking damage, but even if not, it's definitely more fun to imagine a crutch menacing with spikes of steel used to strike down a zombie than just a plain crutch.  I hope that one day, items decorated with menacing spikes will have increased piercing damage though.

[Thisfox]

Lead crutches covered in steel spikes help with that. It's remarkable how much damage a heavy crutch can do.

I've seen crutches wielded effectively even by civilian dwarves caught up in melee.  Definitely get rid of all wooden crutches, metal is the way to go.  Platinum is the heaviest normal crutch material, but lead is also an excellent choice.  The steel spikes are a fantastic addition!

Yeah, we did a lot of !Science! on it back in the day. I don't always have access to platinum. As far as I can tell the spikes are decorative and storyteller rather than effective, but they make me smile.

I'm not sure if decorations add any weight to the object or not.  If so, that would increase the whacking damage, but even if not, it's definitely more fun to imagine a crutch menacing with spikes of steel used to strike down a zombie than just a plain crutch.  I hope that one day, items decorated with menacing spikes will have increased piercing damage though.

If that happens, a lot of my randomly-decorated mugs are going to take out some eyes. And the occasional random artifact item of clothing is going to do some gelding...

[Schmaven]

- Urist McFarnswackle puts on a fancy new loincloth and is later found unconscious due to bloodloss. 
...It was a gelding garment.

[Dwarf_Fever]

What are y'all doing for military management?

Once fortress population is high enough, it seems very difficult to sort dwarfs into specialized squads from basic militia training. Is there anywhere we can see dwarfs' capacities for different varieties of violence other than in their individual info pages?

I do not find myself using Dwarf Therapist for labor now, but I sure am missing it for military and livestock management.

Am I missing something obvious, or am I just a spoiled, pointy-eared, woodmonger?

You can get Therapist to work in v50, though? Get the most recent download and poke around for the memory layouts for .07, or whatever those files are called, they're all on the github. Just drop those in and replace the others.

As far as my process, I simply do this:

In Therapist, filter out nicknamed dwarves. This removes anybody who has a better use elsewhere, as I name them stuff like "Weaponsmith," etc. (If I feel like caring, stressy dwarves get a nickname along those lines too.)
If I only want a few military dwarves, I use Therapist to sort by strength, control-click a few dwarves at the top, sort by weapon skill, rope in a few of those, etc, until I have enough.
Next, simply right click the group and batch nickname them all "Speardwarf" or whatever weapon that group will train in.
Lastly, make squads and use Therapist to add them to the squad so you don't have to poke through DF's unwashed lists.

[JRHaggs]

Thanks, Urist.

I got it working a week or so ago. What a relief.

Irrespective of DT's availability, I was interested in how others approach military stuff without extra tools. I just get paralyzed and give up. Then a beastie shows up and my poor little guys get smooshed.

But yeah. Super easy with DT.

[Aloriel]

I'm in a similar position, but even more extreme LOL. Since DT wasn't available when I started this fort, I have too many people to go through to resolve all the things I would normally manage with DT (much more than just military). I get paralyzed just thinking about setting up 100+ dwarves all at once.

My whole fort is far more "free range" than I would normally do!

[muldrake]

I've seen crutches wielded effectively even by civilian dwarves caught up in melee.  Definitely get rid of all wooden crutches, metal is the way to go.  Platinum is the heaviest normal crutch material, but lead is also an excellent choice.  The steel spikes are a fantastic addition!

I've often found it funny when a dwarf gets horribly mutilated and becomes even MORE dangerous.

I remember having one blind, one-legged, one-armed dwarf that would personally take out dragons.

[Salmeuk]

since I never use therapist, only DFhack embedded labor tools, my method for 'vanilla' military management remains fairly unchanged since the new menus were implemented (what, like a decade ago at this point?):

Review all migrants . Those with military skills are manually re-named "Axefighter" or "Swordfighter" etc, and usually become squad leaders. All the other wax workers and gelders (and similarly useless types) are re-named "Recruit" or "Militia" and are eligible for drafting.

This method creates a labeled subset of your population that can be manipulated with vanilla menus. These soldiers, when off-duty, make great haulers and I tend to give them crafting skills as well to keep up morale.

The biggest issue is the chore of re-naming dwarves but. It's totally worth it.

I still use this method in the premium version since, somehow, the military interface became even less legible..

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

How do you filter out emotionally weak dwarves?

By reading the personality descriptions. You're looking for things like "doesn't handle stress well," "cracks easily under pressure," "is often nervous," and the like. It's a bit tiresome, but do-able.

Hmm, my militia commander is a nervous wreck, but she can handle stress.

Yeah... If you check each dwarf when they arrive, you only need to go through it once for most dwarfs, and then revisit dwarfs who are getting stressed out.

Hehe, I feel that. I never thought to actually read about the dwarves before putting them in the army. What I usually do is go to the embark point and go a quick V+G to see who has military experience, then throw them in 1 by 1. when my migrant waves are 30+ people, I just get lazy, throw in however many military dwarves I want, then I see who washes out from stress in a year or so.

[pganon]

I might have the wrong strategy, but I draw the weakest dwarfs into the military. Haven't seen any better cross-training yet, and nothing frustrates me more than some "unquestionably weak" planter collecting a discarded breastplate or a cage with a camel in it.

Once they're legendary in one melee and in crossbow, I dismiss them, and they do civilian work. After some time the entire fortress can run away from anything happening on the map, avoid werebeast bites, dodge fist fight attacks, and so on. My medical practitioners have very little work.

[muldrake]

I might have the wrong strategy, but I draw the weakest dwarfs into the military. Haven't seen any better cross-training yet, and nothing frustrates me more than some "unquestionably weak" planter collecting a discarded breastplate or a cage with a camel in it.

Once they're legendary in one melee and in crossbow, I dismiss them, and they do civilian work. After some time the entire fortress can run away from anything happening on the map, avoid werebeast bites, dodge fist fight attacks, and so on. My medical practitioners have very little work.

I put everyone other than absolutely essential dwarves (weaponsmiths armorsmiths the rare actually useful nobility) into the military, at least having them train 3/12 months every year. 

I put anyone with actually impressive military skills into the full-time military, and anyone with mediocre skills into one-month-on-one-month-off military.

It can be useful to be able to mobilize virtually every dwarf in the fortress at a moment's notice.