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[Urist Imiknorris]

I thought that training them in wrestler/armor user would be a good idea, as it will make lives easier and give me free cannon fodder that might actually hurt the enemy.

wait...

Can you train armor user through hunting? Then I wouldn't have to worry about permanent enlistment.

[assimilateur]

Hunters use crossbows, right? So unless they run out of ammo and charge their quarry, then they won't train armor use, as far as I know.

If you've got the luxury of time, which you should have unless you want to avoid using traps on principle, you should first make heavy armor for them. Preferably using steel (but iron should be good enough if you have no flux or coke), forge for them chain leggings, chain mail, caps and helmets, high boots and gauntlets, and last but not least, plate mail and shields (I might have overlooked something, but you should be able to figure it out). Then you tell them to put medium armor on, wait until they're fully equipped, and switch on heavy armor for them. That way they will wear plate mail over chain mail, otherwise they'll omit the latter. Now I'm going to recommend making them reach legendary wrestling before giving them weapons, which should for training purposes be made out of silver.

That's not a surefire way to avoid injuries, but it's pretty close.

Disregard that, I thought we were talking about soldiers, not haulers.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Hunters use whatever the hell weapon I tell them to

And I wish I had iron. I have metric craptons of marble (dorf heaven) but no iron anywhere. I think I'll regen with magnetite set to appear in all stone. Maybe aluminum too... (incredibly light 12000db statues FTW)

[loser]

Hunters use crossbows, right? So unless they run out of ammo and charge their quarry, then they won't train armor use, as far as I know.

If you've got the luxury of time, which you should have unless you want to avoid using traps on principle, you should first make heavy armor for them. Preferably using steel (but iron should be good enough if you have no flux or coke), forge for them chain leggings, chain mail, caps and helmets, high boots and gauntlets, and last but not least, plate mail and shields (I might have overlooked something, but you should be able to figure it out). Then you tell them to put medium armor on, wait until they're fully equipped, and switch on heavy armor for them. That way they will wear plate mail over chain mail, otherwise they'll omit the latter. Now I'm going to recommend making them reach legendary wrestling before giving them weapons, which should for training purposes be made out of silver.

That's not a surefire way to avoid injuries, but it's pretty close.

Hunters will hunt with whatever weapon they are assigned.  They come with crossbows, though.

If I understand things correctly, dwarves will wear chain-set armor over leather-set armor, and plate-set armor over leather-set armor, but not plate-set armor over chain-set armor.  Also, they won't wear more than one thing on their legs, so you should make that greaves, not chain or leather leggings.

I buff my haulers with the single-tile meeting hall.  This makes them all highly social and gives them great stats.  With their high, high agility they can outrun anything but an ambush that pops up surrounding them.

Leaving your haulers with the Hunter labor enabled means they will wander around your map, at times.   They will sleep on the ground, drink water rather than going for alcohol, and endanger themselves.  They are less likely to be exposed to your Legendary Dining Room and other things that you are using to keep their moods up.

They will be armored, but there may be additional risks.

[kalida99]

I give them none, the training they get from spending 75% of the time off duty and learning social skills gives them the agility and strength they need for hauling. Most of the time my haulers never leave the fort, only for spoils of battle, caravans, and wounded. professional marksdwarves and siege operators are always on duty when they go out, so theirs no need for militia training.

But when the update comes i will give all dwarves at least competent training in all weapons, since talking will no longer turn your dwarves into the hulk. And there will be A LOT more threats than the occasional siege, or dangerous wildlife.

[assimilateur]

Hunters will hunt with whatever weapon they are assigned.  They come with crossbows, though.

Right. You see, I've never really used hunters since I realized that this wasn't sustainable, i.e. that you'd be able to depopulate your region thoroughly enough not to get any wildlife on site after a couple of years. Same goes for fishing.

If I understand things correctly, dwarves will wear chain-set armor over leather-set armor, and plate-set armor over leather-set armor, but not plate-set armor over chain-set armor.

That's not quite correct, or at least it wasn't in the last fortress I got anywhere far with. I had them use plate over chain mail no problem. The same is true for adventure mode.


EDIT: I must have been half-asleep when I made my first post in this thread, as I only now realized that this was about buffing up haulers and not soldiers as I had previously thought. That makes my advice about having them train up wrestling till they're legendary not just useless, but outright destructive.

To buff up haulers I build pumps and have them "work out" on them. What loser said about them gaining a lot of stats from socializing holds true as well, especially if you sploit and give them a 1-tile meeting hall, as he suggested.

[Retro]

What Kalida said. Gaining a stat from each social skill increasing makes the buggers tough enough. Almost my entire fort is legendary in all social stats at this point, which makes them uberdwaves as-is, no further training is necesary. 1x1 meeting zones ftw.

[assimilateur]

1x1 meeting zones ftw.

I imagine that must be going ridiculously fast, because even with a comparatively large meeting zone of 7x7 or something, I'd have some masters after 2 or 3 years.

[Tallefred]

What Kalida said. Gaining a stat from each social skill increasing makes the buggers tough enough. Almost my entire fort is legendary in all social stats at this point, which makes them uberdwaves as-is, no further training is necesary. 1x1 meeting zones ftw.

That works out wonderfully until the first guy gets hammered. Then you have hundreds of supermen going berserk.

[assimilateur]

That works out wonderfully until the first guy gets hammered. Then you have hundreds of supermen going berserk.

If we based our knowledge on hearsay and in-jokes, then perhaps. I have yet to see a single death not be compensated for by a legendary dining hall, nice rooms and good food and drink.

[loser]

That works out wonderfully until the first guy gets hammered. Then you have hundreds of supermen going berserk.

If we based our knowledge on hearsay and in-jokes, then perhaps. I have yet to see a single death not be compensated for by a legendary dining hall, nice rooms and good food and drink.

Not quite so, in my own fortresses.

When deaths occur along with other misfortunes or player mistakes, I've had to take a few more steps to keep things from getting worse.  The main mood-restorative step, though, is just to use Dwarf Therapist to find the least happy dwarves and take them off their duties.

They go to the meeting zone, talk with their friends, make new friends, and talk with Legendary Consolers.  Other than the time a tantrumming mother killed the Countess Consort -- I had left her child's corpse forbidden & it rotted -- I haven't had any serious problems in my most recent fortress.

EDIT: Other things that have gone wrong at the same time deaths have occurred have included switching my double-legendary planter/brewer & planter/cook to strictly planters.  While the new brewer and cook are skilling up, the happy-making qualities of consumables are not always available.  Evictions, vermin encounters, and eliminated pets can also stack up on the unhappy side.  A dwarf might already have complained of hunger or thirst recently due to being trapped in unfortunate but recoverable accidents in construction, channeling, or ramp-removal.  Authoritative dwarves might have blown off a meeting with the already-somewhat displeased dwarf due to job-queuing complications.  Finished goods intended for melting might get decorated with masterful bits of whatever before being melted down.  I'm sure more experienced players can list more things that can go wrong.

[smjjames]

But when the update comes i will give all dwarves at least competent training in all weapons, since talking will no longer turn your dwarves into the hulk. And there will be A LOT more threats than the occasional siege, or dangerous wildlife.

Are you sure about that fact? The talking part I mean. Anyways, sounds like a good idea, plus the demonstration stuff will help with training and reduce sparring injuries/fatalities.

[assimilateur]

(...) I haven't had any serious problems in my most recent fortress.

That's exactly what I meant. I've seen the occasional red down arrow, but I have yet to see a tantrum unless I'm barely starting out. If I lost a larger number of dwarves at once, that would probably be a problem as well, but the way I'm running things most of the time*, people are liable to remain ecstatic even after the death a family member, let alone a friend.

*That's not to say that I'm a competent player, rather that I'm pretty cautious.

[Skorpion]

Haulers? Why would I train my haulers?

I don't bother. I enable the standard labours on them, and leave them to work hauling shit.

[assimilateur]

Haulers? Why would I train my haulers?

To make them faster when hauling shit (due to higher strength and agility) and more resilient if there's trouble (toughness). Granted, you don't generally need them to train since they'll most likely have buffed up stats from socializing, but it's not useless in itself, only bordering on the redundant.