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[Rollory]

I have a 7-champion melee squad that has been on duty for most of the winter with no sign of unhappy thoughts yet.  I'm kinda wanting to push it to see how long I can keep them patrolling before they get upset - if they ever do, maybe champions don't mind it anymore.

[Awayfarer]

I only set my military on active duty if...

1: I suspect there's an ambush outside.
2: We catch so much as a babysnatcher in one of the cage traps. Often times there is an ambush nearby.
3: Traders are present. Gobbos love to siege and ambush when the traders arrive for some reason.

I also have a ton of traps at every entrance to my fort. The one major advantage to the traps is that all the gobbo garbage gets dropped in one spot. Champions are messy. The last siege I had took all winter to clean up.

[Doppel]

In my current fortress (3 worldtiles large) i have magma, a good amount of lignite, lots and lots of magnetite, lots and lots of marble (basically, STEEL!!!), oh and a legendary weaponsmith early on. (second year or something)
So what i'm doing is making masterpiece steel weapons (not too many, wana have masterpiece armors too, and they ask for lots of more steel)
For every piece of masterpiece weapon i have a clone of no quality copper. (copper wich i need to import)
I currently have a masterpiece steel spear, mace and axe, all other weapontypes will follow when i trained some more dwarfs. (don't need it, yet)
In training are a axedwarf, (legendary in shield, great in armor i think, currently still in leathers though, high master wrestler and almost high master axedwarf, so still elite wrestler)
A speardwarf (still holding out of letting him become an elite)
A macedwarf (same as above)
2 marksdwarfs and one hunter marksdwarf wich took down an aligator and great eagle with bone bolts. (one of em is in constant training, he gets the artifact platinum/steel crossbow)
And a couple wrestlers to get shield/armor to a good enough level.
So yea, i like this plan, having one champion in each weapontype (a couple marksdwarfs though).
My fortress is capped at a 100 dwarfs though. (and i still need some traps on vital places for when ambushes strike, lethal because its such a small map wich basically has zero defenses still, only just end of second year now)

[Tormy]

I keep a standing army because traps are no fun. Dwarves are fun.

Dwarves in plate armor weilding massive hammers that send Gobbos flying halfway across the map > a stone falling from the ceiling that insta-kills everything, ever.

I agree, military action is just plain awesome. I tend to maintain a big military. I would say at least 25% of my dwarves are always in the army. 

[John Johnston]

My current fort has two military squads.  The first is composed of "named" Champions with very high skill levels, armed and armoured.  The second squad is composed of trainees and as someone mentioned above, they are training with armour but with no weapons.  When they get good they'll be given weapons to play with.  Anyone who develops a spinal injury is retired out of the trainee squad and replaced with a random Engraver or Planter.

The main squad is set to patrol from the Trade Depot to the fortress entrance.  Whenever a caravan arrives, I activate the squad and they bimble backwards and forwards, killing thieves and snatchers as they appear and dealing with any ambushes.

In the event that a vile force of darkness arrives, I have three choices with this fort:
a)  Raise the drawbridges.  Done if I just can't be bothered.
b)  Leave the drawbridges open, and let the goblins wander into cage traps.  Done if I don't want to deal with huge amounts of goblin clothing and armour as goblins can be hurled into the chasm fully clothed.
c)  Leave the drawbridges open and activate the main squad.  Cue carnage.  Done if I want to watch goblins being chopped into tiny pieces and/or hurled across the map in a spray of gore.  The only serious threats are bowgoblins and they're not a match for ten steely champions.

[Shakkara]

I usually have armed and armored hunters running around, which get recruited if trouble breaks out. And every dwarf that doesn't have mining gets assigned woodcutting and an axe, so that in case of emergency they can get activated and are already armed, even with no axe skill they are still a danger because most of my dwarves have all those social skills and thus very high attributes..

[ShadeJS]

I keep a standing army.

I usually aim to have 10%, or more, of the population in the army starting from the first batch of migrants. I try to keep them in squads of about a half dozen, of similar skill. Having a Champion wrestling with N00bsor ends badly. I set new recruits to wrestle in light armor, and I try to get dogs assigned ASAP. Then I usually set them to train crossbows. I generally keep then stood down, or not active and hauling after a siege.

I will always put a squad on duty:
-When a caravan arrives
-When gathering Gobbo loot

Because you can count on ambushes at the worst times...

Peasants go to the Army, useless dorfs and or the spine / brain damaged and limb missing go to the Fortress / Royal guard. I don't like to have a completely gimped fortress guard, but Urst McCan'tRememberHisOwnName needs something to do, and the military is unreliable enough even if they have waterskins, rations, and will sleep on the ground while on duty...

[pavlov]

In my last fort I had awful luck with bowgoblins - nearly every ambush/siege was comprised almost entirely of archers. And I had no champions yet, just a bunch of elite wrestlers with various weapons and iron armor. So to deal with them, I built hatches right inside my main drawbridge, with a room underneath. I would station my soldiers there and unlock them the second the bowgobs approached.

[Jerimy]

My current fort has a standing army is made of 54 dwarves (out of 144)

-5 legendary swordsdwarves
-10 marksdwarves
-18 elite speardwarves
-21 speardwarves

At the end of each season, relieve the guys who are low in experience and have any sort of spinal/head injury, and hire more. Usually, my military count is around 50% of my population, but most of my dwarves are handicapped from already being in the military 

[Lalandrathon]

My current military? 1 woodcutter with skill in axedwarf. I just started a new fort, heheh.

[Moon Label]

I usually have too much food and idlers, so a military comes naturally.
I try to organize them into squads of 5-8, all of one type.  The first squad I make is usually marksdwarves.  I always have too much stone, so I build an above-ground barracks complex.  I only place them on duty when I'm sieged, traders are coming, when I need my woodcutters to have bodyguards, or when I draft immigrants into wrestlers -- but don't want them to tear each others' clothes off when the wrestle since I don't have shields for them yet.


What I will enjoy when Toady has developed the army arc is managing an expeditionary force!  All the services a military requires I will need to provide with non-combat skilled service military dwarves (so I can actually move them where I want.)  Want to utilize catapults against a city?  You've got to draft Siege Engineers/Operators.  You can't haul supplies in a wagon of your own (yet), so you'll need woodcutters to harvest lumber on-site.  Feeding the army?, two rations and a waterskin won't bring them far.  Gotta bring along some herbalists.  Or -- if you want to move in steps rather than continually -- bring a farmer.  Travel a distance, and once you eat too much, establish a camp, farm/gather/brew, move along.


Once you get there -- what happens if goblins ambush you?, nature attacks?, or worse yet; their fortress comes under siege while you plan on attacking it? --  Better bring some miners/masons to create makeshift Alesia-esque fortifications!

And Armok help you if the target lays in or between vast deserts or a glacier!

It'll be amazing!
It'll be fun!