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[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

My army is rather haphazard.
They wrestle in a suicide squad for a long time until most of them are dead and the few remaining are slightly harder than granite.
Then I give them whatever mis-matched old armour and equipment I've blagged off traders or I've made for a noble in a hurry.
Then they train.
Generally I have a "First Squad" composed of macedwarves led by a hammerdwarf that I've trained for ages and ages as well.

[tefalo]

I don't.

I use two houses with a draw bridge one z-level up.

[Deadmeat1471]

I work on a conscription model.

I usually have 2-4 guards with crossbows and armor, but when gobbos attack i conscript everyone, and they charge to the armory to pick up their crossbows and get to the ramparts.

Surprisingly this is rather effective, the simple number of dwarfs i have in battle, combined with the sharpshooting trained guards, makes mincemeat of the gobbos.....

...then again, theres like 50 dwarfs with crossbows firing at them 

[Slappy Moose]

I try a different setup every game.

I've recently been experimenting with very dedicated and specific squads of dwarves; each crossbow squad has a specific tower or area to shoot from, and then I have one reaction squad for adapting to anything I hadn't planned for and supporting melee dwarves.
Then I have one or two massive squads of axe dwarves (only axes, I like the mess they make) to deal with breakthroughs of the perimeter walls, insane dwarves, etc.

I also love using 30+ plate armoured marksdwarves as executioners for trapped goblins and stuff, even though it takes a shitload of iron and steel to supply them with ammo (I cheat for it)

Cheat? Why in the world would you have to do that?

Melting down all of the iron equipment from goblins usually gives me such a steady supply that I never run out.

I have to cheat to get the coal. I cut down every tree I see, make everything out of stone, trade for wood and only wood, and still run out of coal. So, I use a custom smelting reaction that turns stone into coals.

[Time Kitten]

Military?  Oh, right, I have one of those now!

Alright, embark with my usual 2 miner/wrestlers and 1 woodcutter/wrestler/axedwarf.  woodcutter takes out everything the first couple years, and throws martial trances all over the place while waiting for my miners to arrive if ambushes come early.

Most recently, I was training an axedwarf and swordsdwarf with goods I confiscated from the merchent guard, trainging them both to adept wrestler with shield, full plate, and copper weapons they made themselves.  Later, swordsdwarf went champion, and the axedwarf was retired to the prestigious position of woodcutter.  Two more wrestlers and a marksdwarf training now, so I'll end up with training one champion, and one combat skilled civilian at a time, along with just keeping one marks dwarf.

[overlordFT]

Mmmmmmm. Pressureplate in front of kitten which seals door to trap chamber. Poor goblins, I hope none of them are claustrophobic

Why not design the room so you have to worry more about how well they breathe water?

I don't like using water to trap, it's not as efficient as just starving crap to death, or throwing them down a chasm.

[Martin]

One marksdwarf until the children in my immigrantless fort grow up. That marksdwarf is breaking 80 strong orc sieges with the help of 3 weapon traps, 3 cage traps, heavy drawbridge management, and recruiting caravan guards as needed.

310 notable kills so far. She's somewhat legendary. The orcs stopped coming for 3 years after she wiped out a full siege of 80. Trapped them behind the outer drawbridge and shot 2/3 of then and bashed the hell out of the others with her artifact iron crossbow.

[Yami]

I check every dwarf's preferences.  Any who like weapons, get to use them.  If I feel the need for more bodies, those who like armour may also be drafted.

I then use sealing and unsealing my fort and a liberal application of my champions to deal with problems.

I sometimes have a few Anti Air Crossbow squads, either due to crossbow preferences, or immigrating hunters. I only ever use against flying creatures, or to pop up behind mine enemies after they begin fleeing.

[Aspgren]

The military?

Since animals (including fish) are extinct on my map all civilians (except miners and woodcutters) are issued spears and leather armor. Everyone is told to hunt and will thus carry their weapons on them at all times. It might not sound like much but it it means alot when a goblin arrows come flying or you stand face to face with a thief and he draws his knife.

A friggin farmer speared a goblin before running away screaming. I'd say it works.
Oh and fishers, hunters and woodcutters.. anyone who works on the outmost corners of the map is issued war dogs.

As for the actual military I divide between meleedwarves and marksdwarves. The marksdwarves are grouped into groups of 3. It became incredibly frustrating when I position them and no one shows up because the commander decides to have a snack or a nap. The commander uses up alot of ammunition and when he goes for extra the underlings abandon their post.
So that's why they are small squads .. the marksdwarves are also issued war dogs since they can't defend themselves very well.

The meleedwarves are typically grouped together in squads of 6. "Strength in numbers" is the philosophy but as they train and become champions I'm putting them in groups of 3. Basically the weak dwarves band together while the strongest ones flesh out. Just for fun I got a little note where I "promote" them to higher statuses. Like warrior, knight, paladin, high paladin. Basically the strongest guys can fend of a goblin squad single handedly but no one ever goes alone.
Goblin bowmen are a pain.

But wait there's more. I have a few large rooms where civilian guards gather if they're drafted... in the case of an emergency the entire population except the military and the FES take refuge deep in the fortress.

The "FES" as I call them are the "Fortress Efficiency Squad" who do necessary things like pull levers, man ballistas, haul the wounded and treat the wounded. They were practical in the beginning but after 3/8 fell to goblin arrows and the military grew so strong they don't need the FES to back them up they've been unused.

Granted they still fire the ballistas but they rarely kill anything since the goblins scare the living hell out of 'em ... I do shoot elves with them though. Whenever they come and tries to trade with me, last time I only killed a Muskox but I've got a good feeling about this year!

[Remalle]

I currently have my military arranged in squads according to profession for ease of training, but I'm planning on rearranging the whole thing into squads of four, with a melee dwarf as squad leader, a spearman or miner/wrestler to destroy organs, a wrestler to disarm and disable, and a marksdwarf/hammerdwarf to provide cover fire if necessary.  I'm also planning to have two- or three-marksdwarf squads, with dogs assigned for a bit of melee protection.
Of course I'll probably forget all about this until my first siege, at which point I'll be slaughtered.

[sweitx]

Currently I'm trying this setup.
1. I separate incoming migrant with no useful skills into male/female hauler, both with pump-operating and siege-operating turned on, they are my main hauling/mass construction work force.
2. When some of them start flashing (legendary in pump most likely), I draft them with the following rules
  a. If I have no decent armor (only leather), I draft females and make them marksdwarf.
  b. If I have decent armor, then male get drafted into axedwarf/hammerdwarf.  And female into hammerdwarf, and when I'm satisfied with their armor/shield skill, I switch them to marksdwarf.
I try to keep a balance military between melee and ranged.

(Have orc mod).

[Vilien]

Current Fortress:
-1 Squad with one Legendary Hammerdwarf and one Legendary Swordsdwarf (first two soldiers conscripted, who've been in the army for twenty years)
-2 Squads of three Marksdwarves (for rapid response)
-2 Squads of six Marksdwarves (for melee support)
-2 Squads of six Swordsdwarves (core of the army)
-1 Squad of six Axedwarves (shock troops)

All of them are outfitted in full steel plate and weapons. I also have an armory near my main dining hall filled with 100 sets of iron spears and iron shields. I've grouped my non-legendary civilian dwarves into 10 dwarf militia squads (ready to activate), in case the shit really hits the fan. I've never had to use them, but if I do, I predict a lot of dead dwarves.

[Skid]

I use an L-shaped entrance tunnel with moat and fortifications running down either side and filled with scattered weapons traps.  I chain an animal in it right before the inside drawbridge.  Usually there are about 6 champions trained up in wrestling and their weapon of choice on standby waiting to rush out and attack once the visitors have made it far enough to kill the animal and are getting bored.  All military dwarves are in their own squads due to some bad experiences with lunch breaks.  When I have time civilians are all trained up a few levels in wrestling and marksdwarvery.

Of course, this doesn't seem to be enough now that I have the Orc mod.  Applications of magma will have to be considered.

[Lord_Shadow]

I start small (one squad of sword dwarves, 5-7 they will form the core of my military, until i really start building), then i follow with two squads of marks dwarves (3 apiece). Next come my hammer dwarves (squads of threes, they are made miners earlier to make them tougher and more agile before entering into military service). In the end i largely create hammer dwarves, with about twice as many marks dwarves. The sword dwarves are destined more mundane tasks fortress guards, royal guards or the last line of defense for my fortress.

[Vattic]

I usually run quite small forts with low popcaps, roleplaying mining outposts trying to get rich and similar. As I have small populations my military consists of around ten full time soldiers with mostly slashing weapons, axes and swords, with a couple of hammers/crossbow used sparingly sometimes some pure hammers/macedwarves. Then my 20 or so haulers all take it in turns training in my pump gym then training with their weapons and acting as a militia. I send my miners to take out megabeasts if need be. All bearing arms get armour and shields and train wresting until they are around master level then I carefully make them their weapons, annoying to micromanage.

Using such a small major force and having Orcs invade forces me to use tactics to defeat them, funnelling my enemies into a narrow place to fight like in 300, or that's how I imagine it anyway.