Four facepalms in one story:
Dug down to the cavern layer, looking for water. Found the water - and also a small tribe of cave swallow men.
OK, no problem. It's still early, so I don't have much more than a token fighting force of two. But animal men tribes are armed with wooden spears, and my guys are in iron, so this is just easy fighting experience.
So, create an airlock system, place the squad, pop open the doors and ...
The squad goes right into the middle of the tribe, as ordered:
Urist: Hey.
Cave Swallow Man: 'Sup.
(Facepalm #1)
Nothing. They don't launch into a fighting frenzy. They don't even try to poke each other. They just stand around, making small talk.
But my civilians won't go near the area, I need to scout the water source to make sure there's enough for a well, and there's a ton of cave spider silk just ripe for the taking. The "Z" menu indicates that, yes, the cave swallow men are enemies of my civ, so I have no idea why they're friendly. (Facepalm #2)
By this time it's been in-game days, and my military is getting a little bored. A station order isn't going to cut it.
So I tell the squad to attack each cave swallow man, individually. And every time they successfully kill one, they decide "Job's done!" and revert back to civilian status (Facepalm #3). But there are still ten, nine, eight cave swallow men still alive, so I have to s -> a -> k -> every single one, which reactivates the squad for "one more kill."
After all the cave swallow men are dead, my squad leader gets depressed. I open up the details screen on this dwarf, and notice two things:
- He felt horrified at seeing a cave swallow man die (x10). (Expected)
- Urist McSquadleader has complained about the draft lately. (Well, I wouldn't have to draft you ten times in a row if you would just engage the enemy!)
- He doesn't like fighting, and regards those who spend time learning fighting skills to be wasting their time. (Um, whoops?)
(Final facepalm, quit game, re-examine life)