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[Fien]

I'm starting an army in my fort right now and for the first time I'm setting up a comprehensive training regimen. My dwarves are going to be axedwarves so I want to be sure they're toughened up a bit before I put an battleaxe in their hands.

First off I'm gonna train them up as wrestlers with full armor and shields. Once that's done it's off to the screw pump to get some muscles. Only then will they get an axe and proceed to maim one another.

What's your training regimen?

[Dunc]

i just put a lot of faith in plate armour, as I create new sets of plate armour I add new dwarves to the academy. The weapons are usually silver or copper but in my current fort my training weapons are iron.

it's better than the Charles Darwin School of Combat i used to put on.

[darthbob88]

First point, I assume you mean regimen, not regiment? A schedule of training and exercise, rather than a military grouping?

Second point, my regimen is simple enough; everybody without another job to do goes through the pumps, barring the bookkeeper(s). At the end of their time on the pumps, they go into the military where they train their wrestling and armour/shield using. When they achieve at least Great wrestling, they are given their new weapons, usually swords, spears, or hammers. The regimen for marksdwarves is simpler yet; if you have no other job to do, you get a crossbow, some armor, and go down to the range to practice your dwarven ass off.

[Shrike]

First: Get leather armor, and wood shields. This will dramatically reduce your injury rate, and let you get champions with some armor and shield skills before you have access to forges (for me, these come several years after the fort's establishment).

Second: If possible, buy wooden weapons from the elves once you have legendary wrestlers. However, vanilla DF elves will not bring wood axes, so you will want silver from the mountainhome (you can order silver bars AND silver nuggets, as well as galena, for this).

When possible (thanks to goblinite or iron deposits), make chain mail for your military and guards, but only upgrade to plate armor when you can consistently turn out * or better armor. Start producing full body coverage.


The thing to watch for is new recruits and artifact weapons. Be sure to layer armor for the newbies, leather and chain for training, and then plate when they become champions.  Artifact weapons will cause much death among the enemy and among your ranks if used in the barracks, and won't be set down. Forbid them, and use them only when you have sufficiently experienced/equipped dwarves. Else, the bits will fly and tantrum spirals will emerge.


In my experience (using the Dig Deeper (includes orcs) mod, I find legendary sword users destroy orc sieges using wooden weapons, and I've not had any problems with sparring-wounded recruits in the 15 years of military training.

(I have had to drop some constructed floors to stop the "sparring to slow death" bug, though).

[blue emu]

I use mass Plant Gathering to level them up a bit... it's pretty quick, and allows me to sell cooked food to Caravans. Masonry (building my Wall and Towers) also levels them up, but more slowly. Then I switch to "pumping air" to continue leveling them, then draft them.

[Derakon]

Keep in mind that once your wrestlers turn elite you won't be able to have them man pumps. But that's fine; just keep them doing wrestling. It gains experience faster than pump operating does, and that's all you care about since experience is what determines stat gain.

Generally I just leave my soldiers as wrestlers until enemies start to show up; then I shove whatever weapons I feel like in their hands and send them out to take out their targets. After that, they get to train with those weapons.

Blue Emu: the only masonry that trains skills is that which is done in a workshop. Building constructions doesn't gain skill. Still, if you have them making stone blocks, that will get them some experience and skill as masons.

[Grendus]

I wouldn't bother with pump operating, honestly. Stat gains are based on experience not skill ups, and they'll gain experience ridiculously fast wrestling, much faster than pump operating. Pump operating's main advantage as a gym is 'Great' pump operators aren't permanently drafted into the pumping corp. Plus, if you let them train up to legendary+5 or higher wrestler (past +5 skill doesn't effect anything anymore, but they'll still gain exp towards stats), so long as they're wearing armor and shields they'll train in those. A legendary+5 wrestler and shield user is damn near impossible to hit, they rarely die (and when I say rarely, I mean presuming you don't do something stupid like send them out solo, when they're exhausted they're much more likely to be hit), and a legendary armor user on top of that means they can wear full steel platemail and run at max speed, which from all the agility gains from wrestling will be damn fast.

[Untelligent]

I prefer a simple approach.

Melee recruits are immediately trained in wrestling until they become champions, then hand them a weapon. I don't bother with leather at all; metal plate mail and shields for everyone as soon as I can make or buy them. Anyone who gets a spine or brain wound gets promoted to the Fortress Guard.

Crossbowdwarves don't get wrestling practice.

[balath]

My problem seems to be adding new recruits to an already established military.  I've got a half dozen Legendary Wrestlers/Armor User/Shield User/Hammerdwarf champions for a melee force.  They've got ten years worth of stat increases, and between 20 and 50 named kills each.  When I add a couple new recruits to the mix, I strip the veterans of their weapons and deck out the newbies in plate mail, but there seems to be about a 50/50 chance that the green soldiers will get a spinal injury from wrestling.  I've started putting the vets on duty while recruits train up.

Notes on the next release say that sparring will be changed to a leader-lead squad activity.  I'm looking forward to that.

[MrFake]

All new recruits come in as wrestlers with full plate and a shield.  Once they are legendary in wrestling (which gets them maybe halfway to armor and shield user) they get a weapon.  No spears!  Then they stay in training until they are legendary in all four critical skills: wrestling, armor, shield, weapon.

That last part takes forever, and I'm sure some of them will never get legendary armor user, but I can get by with three champion wrestlers defending the entire fort, so there's no rush.

Marksdwarfs get the same regimen, except they train to legendary on the archery ranges, then train wrestling, armor, and shield in the barracks until whenever (I train them, but I've never actually used my marksdwarfs.  They just end up dead ... somehow).

Everyone trains with iron weapons and steel plate.  Deaths occur once every two years or so, and that's acceptable.  Usually it's one of the guards that gets hacked to pieces in the barracks, so I don't mind.

[hitto]

I make them wrestle "naked", then steel plated and shielded (obsessive everything-must-be-masterwork player), never remove them from the military. Crossbowdorfs get a bit of mace training just in case.

On a 200-dwarf pop maybe eight champion military will be really useful : 2 active squads of two patrolling your outskirts in opposite directions at all times, two inactive squads of two to replace the unhappy/drinking/sleeping and their squadmate is watching them sleep. Hell, that's even a luxury.

[Fisherdwarf]

Mace training for crossbowdorfs is useless, as whacking something with a crossbow uses hammer skill. 

[Canadark]

Will allowing the dwarfs to do wrestling training cause them to level up faster as (weapon)dwarfs when they are given their weapon?

Also, I've found that marksdwarfs train much much much faster shooting at real targets than ranges, apparently because then they shoot more arrows over a given period of time. I set up a range with a hole in the roof that civilians drop caged orcs through (playing with dig deeper). Since I've been getting multiple sieges every SEASON I now have a dozen of the most badass marksdwarfs I've ever created. Now I'm applying the same strategy to my regiment of hammerers, though they are progressing a bit slower.

[Urist McDepravity]

Depends on my current needs, but generally there are 3 patterns:
Start with crossbows + plate till elite/champ, then wrestling with shields till legendary, then hammers till legendary.
Start with wrestling with plate and shields, then hammers, then crossbows in peace time.
Start with wrestling, then crossbows, then hammers.
When theres enough military already, all go through 1st route due to safety concerns.
Resulting forces are always universal, so i can adjust ranged/melee numbers freely, and ranged ones are legendary with crossbow-melee warfare.
I dont bother with training weaps, so worst weaps are ≡Iron hammer≡/≡Iron crossbow≡, and most are masterpiece steel.

[Skooma]

I equip my dwarves with the best armour I can and have them wrestle until they are champs. Once everyone is a champ I start handing out weapons and hope they don't kill each other.