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[Detrivus]

Wrestlers seem to train much faster, get hurt less often, and are much less frustrating to produce.  I.E., I set 4 dwarves to train with axes (making sure they're provided with them) and they gain skill as wrestlers faster than axedwarves, thus resulting in no legendary non-wrestlers.

So what should I do?  Do military dwarves re-assign their weapon selection when they rank up?  Do they drop their weapons and start training with fists while sparring?  Is there any actual advantage to having weapon-proficient dwarves?

[Walliard]

Because they'll use the weapons in addition to the wrestling (i.e. dodging) skill. Wrestling can only kill by strangulation.

[Detrivus]

Alright... Can dwarves who are already champions turn into weapon-wielding champions?

[AussieGuy]

Yes they can

[Detrivus]

Oh.  Sweet.  So that's probably the best (if more time-consuming) strategy, to train them as wrestlers before making them other things?

In that case, what's the advantage of wrestling by itself?

[Skorpion]

Any dwarf who gets to legendary is just made a champion. Just assign them weapons, and they'll train with them. Just hire some fortress guard as training dummies (unarmed, leather armour) to keep the casualties off the real military, and you'll have dorfs legendary with a weapon and wrestling in a year or two.
Armour and shield use will come with time.

Also, make sure you forbid the artifacts until AFTER they gain skill in weapons.

Also, my way doesen't need wrestling trained 'first', it just happens.
Granted, the fortress guard are half legendary wrestlers and half un-firable heroes with broken spines, but meh.

[Albedo]

More skills = more stats - that's a good thing, esp since wrestling is so fast.

But some weapons (esp spears, also short swords) can get stuck in opponents, and then wrestling is used to pry them back out.*

Also, if a critter gets a grip on a dorf with their jaws, wrestling is used to break free.

Lastly, dorfs can get disarmed - then wrestling is all they have.  Likewise, if you are cross-training with civie skills and one of your guys is out on their own and gets jumped, they aren't going to have time to go back and arm up and then address the situation.

(* Yes, but they're some of the more dangerous on the business end as well.  Each weapon has advantages and disad's.
http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Weapon)

The standard recommendation from "common wisdom" is to first train up some stats with mining, pumping, book keeping or engraving, then wrestling (in heavy armor and with shield activated!), then primary weapon.  Then more stats if you want.

[Aspgren]

Because they'll use the weapons in addition to the wrestling (i.e. dodging) skill. Wrestling can only kill by strangulation.

No I don't think so .. wrestlers in my fort seem to enjoy breaking goblin necks and spines.

However come to think about it they rarely if ever MANGLE a goblin's limbs ... while the macedwarves bash those limbs into oblivion. Swords and axedwarves cut them clean off. I'd say that's what makes them worth it.
They do MAD damage.

oh and something I've noticed? They gain wrestling skills pretty fast, you can have "trainers" as in guys that only wrestle and they're good at it. Soldiers who never go out in the field, they'll wrestle your speardwarf and your swordsdwarf, these guys will learn their weapon AND wrestling at the same time. It's awesome!
The only one you need to train separately as a wrestler beforehand would be marksdwarves. Actually scratch that you should train them to be hammerdwarves. This way they learn hammering AND wrestling, when in melee they use their crossbow as a hammer and with good wrestling skill they're a force to be counted with.

The dodging is also crucial in avoiding return fire.

... personally I don't like the micromanagement so I just accept the casualties.

[Albedo]

That's right - there's a theory that wrestling = dodge.  So that too.

It's also assumed (by some?) that wrestling works the same as it does in adventure mode, which does give the opportunity to disable limbs as well as choke.  It certainly can have those effects before the fight is over.

[Duke 2.0]

 Note there is a bug in the latest version that makes wrestling train super fast.

 But on a more practical note, wrestling never makes limbs and bodies fly as much as weapons.

[Skorpion]

oh and something I've noticed? They gain wrestling skills pretty fast, you can have "trainers" as in guys that only wrestle and they're good at it. Soldiers who never go out in the field, they'll wrestle your speardwarf and your swordsdwarf, these guys will learn their weapon AND wrestling at the same time. It's awesome!
The only one you need to train separately as a wrestler beforehand would be marksdwarves. Actually scratch that you should train them to be hammerdwarves. This way they learn hammering AND wrestling, when in melee they use their crossbow as a hammer and with good wrestling skill they're a force to be counted with.

The dodging is also crucial in avoiding return fire.

... personally I don't like the micromanagement so I just accept the casualties.

Indeed. Although instead of using dwarves as nothing but wrestling trainers, I use the fortress guard for that and kill two birds with one stone. Three, if you count crippling guards into uselessness.
Or even four if you count decorating the engraved barracks floor with blood.
And the walls.
And the surrounding stockpiles.
And the archery range.
And some of the bedrooms.
How much blood can they LOSE? It gets EVERYWHERE. Hell, it was like a damn sunburst pattern when someone picked up the goblin bone hammer.

[IceShade]

This is my refuse pile after a typical goblin siege.




Can your wrestlers do this? I thought so.


Note: To those unfamiliar with Mayday, the purple things are chunks bitten out of goblins by dogs. The red things are limbs, heads, torsos, etc.

[Greiger]

Wrestlers will punch as well as wrestle. Which means their only way of killing isn't neccesaraly strangling. 

However a punch does only as much damage as a whip(at best) so even with highly skilled wrestlers have difficulty doing damage to highly skilled well armed opponents.  Hitting the wrestlers would be like trying to hit a bee with a baseball bat, but offensively they are lacking. Eventually they'll get over exerted and fall to the ground where they will no longer be able to dodge.

If they are equipped with shields it seems diffrent though.  If they have a shield equipped they will do nothing but shield bash, they won't actually wrestle (I think it still gives wrestling skill though).  Shield bashes seem to be a bit more effective weapons than unarmed punching, but there are no actual damage figures anywhere for it. I think it may just take a dwarf's punching damage and add the usual materiel and quality modifier to it. 

Actual wrestling is useless on most undead, and when they start using that kind of wrestling they don't want to stop, so giving a wrestler a shield is a good way to make them marginally useful against undead.

High skilled weapon users can counter attack also though. I'm not sure pure wrestlers can. Which can go a long way to making one dwarf able to decimate entire armies.  They just need good armor and wrestling skill to back it up, because the enemy still gets the first swing, and if the swing actually does damage they cannot counterattack.

(P.S. All information presented here is from adventure mode experience and Dwarf Companion combat report logs from back when it worked fully.

EDIT: As for actually giving yer military some wrestling skill before arming them, I set them up to use whatever their final weapons are, then forbid all the weapons of that type before they grab them.  After a half year to a year I reclaim the weapons, and the military will go grab them.  You could even selectively reclaim the weapons to determine exactly what weapons they'll use.  Some will have more wrestling skill than others, but you can assume they are all at least proficient wrestlers. 

[zchris13]

Dwarven wrestlers, when they punch, can send goblins flying for quite a distance.  I have had some fly at least 6 spaces.  Although, I have had swords do better. Rather odd.

[Hyndis]

Maces and hammers will rarely kill or main during sparring. While they can cause a broken limb, the injuries will heal so the dwarf isn't disabled forever.

I usually start right off with wrestling, plate armor (they will upgrade to full plate as its produced, if not, they will use the heaviest armor they can find), and shields. Wood shields at first, but once I get steel or iron, I have the wood ones chucked into magma.

Once they reach champion status I give them a mace or a hammer. At this point the dwarf will also probably have full iron or steel plate, and they are now an unstoppable killing machine.