Just finished reading the whole thread and would like to add my own experiments with combat. Cant remember if the dwarfs got loads of wrestling skill from these encounters.
I got my first fort started. After doing basic stuff like digging and setting stockpiles, I sented my fisherdwarf to check out the river. He however encounters a werewolf and is torn to pieces. Dogs kill the werewolf and live goes on.
Then, we get a pack of Foul Blendecs, who kill the dogs and go after a dwarf. They take their sweet time killing him (didnt check why or how they were killing him), so much time in fact that theyre showing signs of exhaustion. I created a quick squad of wrestlers who managed to take them down. Dwarf survives the onslaught and is taken to a hospital, only to die later on because of wound infection.
Later on, another werewolf shows up and attacks a jeweler dwarf. However, unlike the first Werewolf, he apparently decides to try the Foul Blendecs approach by trying to kill him veeeery slowly. Got bored again and created squadron of cannon fodder to take him down. However, as soon as I killed the werewolf, the jeweler seemed to die instantly. On a side note, he did manage to take down one of the attackers too.
Third werewolf appears and attacks at a novice miner/high master milker. Yet again, instead of ripping him to pieces quickly like the first one, he kills him rather sloooowly. This time I checked the combat reports and found out that werewolf was strangling the dwarf. This strangling message was repeated over and over again, about thousands of times I'd say.
Did the same thing again: Form a wrestling squadron and take him down. Just like with the jeweler, the miner seemed to die instantly when the stranglefest was over.
Other minor stuff:
- I've noticed that several people mentioned how water keeps melting dwarf. I've had rain couple of times and I didnt notice any kind of damaging effect from it. Or maybe its just me.
- I've made an target for archery practices, but my archer decided to just stand nearby it", rather than shoot at it. He's not idling, as his profile says that he's practicing marksmanship (or something). And yes he's got wooden crossbow and plenty of cow-bone bolts.
- So far I've only managed to embark once. Everytime I tried, I chose area bigger than the basic size and the game just doesnt seem to do anything once I chose "Play now".