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[FuzzyZergling]

Squad move commands. What is the difference between moving to a place/point and centering around a place/point?
Is there a way to tell a squad to stand in a particular fighting formation? like standing in a 4--Dwarf-width row, 2 columns deep?

No, moving or fighting in formation is pretty much impossible.

[agvkrioni]

No, moving or fighting in formation is pretty much impossible.

So if I station military dwarves from a squad individually in a pattern like this (where "@" is a dwarf, "_." is a blank tile, and "||" is a wall tile):
||@_.@_.||  <-individually stationed from squad menu, what might these dwarves do
||_.@_.@||     when told to stand like this and an enemy comes through?
||_._._._.||
||_.%_.%||    <--approaching goblins
and "%" is an enemy like a goblin or some such, would the dwarves just wait in their individual spots until an enemy came and then break rank to attack, or would they stand there and wait for the enemy to come to them? If they are marksdwarves will they stand there and fire or break ranks to run around and fire? Will stationed dwarves pursue the enemy?

[FuzzyZergling]

Two problems:
1. Dwarves don't stand exactly where you want them to when you station them.
2. They rush at any enemy in visual range, and do not break attack unless deactivated from the military.

Marksdwarves will stand and fire, but if they run out of bolts with an enemy in visual range they will rush in to bash them with their crossbow.

[monk12]

No, moving or fighting in formation is pretty much impossible.

So if I station military dwarves from a squad individually in a pattern like this (where "@" is a dwarf, "_." is a blank tile, and "||" is a wall tile):
||@_.@_.||  <-individually stationed from squad menu, what might these dwarves do
||_.@_.@||     when told to stand like this and an enemy comes through?
||_._._._.||
||_.%_.%||    <--approaching goblins
and "%" is an enemy like a goblin or some such, would the dwarves just wait in their individual spots until an enemy came and then break rank to attack, or would they stand there and wait for the enemy to come to them? If they are marksdwarves will they stand there and fire or break ranks to run around and fire? Will stationed dwarves pursue the enemy?

Activated military dwarves will charge an enemy as soon as that enemy enters Line of Sight. They won't move as a squad- the fastest dwarf will get there first. Marksdwarves will fire from where they stand, and when they run out of bolts it's anyone's guess whether they wade into melee or go back for ammo. Dwarves will pursue fleeing enemies, often contrary to orders. It is a good idea to hold a force in reserve to handle unexpected situations.

More complex military formations/orders/maneuvers is slated for the Army Arc, which is almost certainly more than a year away. Until then it is a good idea to use walls and gates to funnel enemies to strategically advantageous locations, because open field battles often get dwarves killed.

If you must fight in the open field, move the squad in short hops so they stay together right up until they make contact with the enemy. Keep melee units between your archers and the enemy- war animals make excellent meat shields, and war grizzly bears are deadly. Archers are most effective firing from atop walls behind fortifications. You can try to force a unit to retreat by deactivating their squad- this will cause them to become civilians and flee from the enemy, but you can't control their rout. Make sure everyone has a shield, as they are instrumental in surviving enemy archers.


EDIT: NINJA!

[agvkrioni]

1) If I'm creating a uniform for my dwarven military and I have both "SHIELD" and "BUCKLER" in the uniform, do they weigh themselves down by carrying both? before I had the uniform as 'individual melee choice" but they'd pick up two bucklers when I had perfectly good Iron Spears lying around. So I figured maybe they could do a spear and a buckler or spear and a shield. But I'm not sure if I have enough Shields and Bucklers to go around, so I put both on the uniform hoping they'd pick one or the other.
Does that make sense? How does that work?

2) Trying to build a tower. Built ramps on ground level so dwarves could reach 2nd Floor for building purposes (even though there is a stairway in the middle). Dwarves won't build on 3rd floor, can't get any ramps to go between floors 2 & 3, stairway exists from 2/3 on inside of structure. What am I doing wrong?
tl;dr how u build for tower?
N/M. Figured out second question. I have to build the 4 post corners that constitute my wall first, which also means building a floor at the base of each new level first so the carpenters and masons can walk to the corners and build the wall posts that "hold up" the next level.

In case anyone is interested, and let me know about your designs (via here or PM or whatever), but this tower I'm building is an archer's nest / lookout keep. It starts in my fortress below ground and goes above ground level. It is 5 tiles wide by 5 tiles long. At ground level it's just a solid wall surrounding the 5x5 floor. But on the second level their are only wall "posts" (individual wall tiles located only at the 4 corners) with fortifications built in between. Repeat this for each level except the top which won't have the 4 wall posts, just fortifications. There is a 2x2 square of up/down stairs running through each floor inside, and since the whole thing starts in my fort there is no above ground access to the tower.
At the top I'm going to try something I read about in the wiki, which is to chain a dwarf to the top as "look out". Or maybe I could just chain up a dog, although I don't know what their range of sight is. I suppose one could turn the top floor into a mini barracks for a one or two dwarf squad with a table, chairs, two beds, and a small stockpile of food/ammo nearby...

[FuzzyZergling]

If you assign a buckler and shield, they will pick up both.

[agvkrioni]

But necessarily use both, right?

[eastc]

Question, how does one get a decent sized siege (for story purposes  ) if your main civ is dead (two migrant waves only.) in fortress mode? I heard that only the number of people in your fort affects what kind or how many siegers you get.

How is a dead civ defined? I started a game (not knowing about the dead civ an migration). The Legends indicate 0 members in the civ but there does appear to one ?transmorgafied? leader/hero alive who is roaming around killing humans.

[monk12]

Medical emergency!

Does anyone have an idea how to force dwarves to recover wounded? My mayor was brought to a barracks bed instead of the hospital, and after some initial treatments her doctors no longer speak to her at all.

I have tried:

-Deconstructing her bed
-Reconstructing her bed
-Building tables and traction benches next to her bed
-Activating alerts that restrict dwarves to the barracks
-Activating alerts that pull dwarves to a single unrelated room
-Toggling the Recover Wounded job back and forth on a dozen idle dwarves
-Reassigning the Chief Medical Dwarf to someone with an iron will AND a great sense of empathy
-Activating all Healthcare labors on the other two doctors

I know:
-The floor the mayor is lying on is accessible. Dwarves are training in there (and leaving for snacks and sleep) and the haulers that removed the bed the mayor was on had no problem getting there.
-There is plenty of soap, water, thread, and cloth
-There are multiple free beds in the hospital
-There are idlers with the recover wounded labor active, and they've had plenty of time to go about it (in particular, the 3 doctors have no other labors at all)
-There are no parties going on
-There is something that should be treated- according to the z health screen, the mayor has an outstanding Setting, Suturing, and Immobilization requests


I'm at wit's end- this mayor has good preferences, dammit!

[BoogieMan]

I have three quick questions please.

Where can you go to see how long it takes a creature to mature into an adult? I looked on the wiki under creature raws, but either it's not there or I am missing it.

 I have some Tigers, but while in the time I think I might have had 3 generations of dogs mature, I still just have tiger cubs. So it seems they might be a poor choice because it takes so long to replenish any losses. I probably should have taken the Grizzly Bears.

I also have a legion of saltwater crocodile hatchlings. But sadly they seem to prefer to flee from enemies rather than shred them with their numbers. Is that just a racial thing or because they're hatchlings? They seem to take several years to mature as well.

I'm not sure but I *thought* in a previous Fortress I had some Cave Crocodiles which were aggressive and would attack enemies on sight instead of fleeing. Is that correct?

[FuzzyZergling]

Medical emergency!

Does anyone have an idea how to force dwarves to recover wounded? My mayor was brought to a barracks bed instead of the hospital, and after some initial treatments her doctors no longer speak to her at all.

[...]

I'm at wit's end- this mayor has good preferences, dammit!

Have you tried making the barracks a hospital zone?

[monk12]

Medical emergency!

Does anyone have an idea how to force dwarves to recover wounded? My mayor was brought to a barracks bed instead of the hospital, and after some initial treatments her doctors no longer speak to her at all.

[...]

I'm at wit's end- this mayor has good preferences, dammit!

Have you tried making the barracks a hospital zone?

A good idea, but no sooner had I designated the zone the mayor died of infection 

[Graebeard]

In case anyone is interested, and let me know about your designs (via here or PM or whatever), but this tower I'm building is an archer's nest / lookout keep. It starts in my fortress below ground and goes above ground level. It is 5 tiles wide by 5 tiles long. At ground level it's just a solid wall surrounding the 5x5 floor. But on the second level their are only wall "posts" (individual wall tiles located only at the 4 corners) with fortifications built in between. Repeat this for each level except the top which won't have the 4 wall posts, just fortifications. There is a 2x2 square of up/down stairs running through each floor inside, and since the whole thing starts in my fort there is no above ground access to the tower.
At the top I'm going to try something I read about in the wiki, which is to chain a dwarf to the top as "look out". Or maybe I could just chain up a dog, although I don't know what their range of sight is. I suppose one could turn the top floor into a mini barracks for a one or two dwarf squad with a table, chairs, two beds, and a small stockpile of food/ammo nearby...

That design sounds like it will serve, but you may want to read up a bit on <a href="sentients ">the mechanics of using sentients to spot enemies[/url].  TLDR: having your spotters too high may render them useless.

You're on the right track with the fortifications.  You may be interested to know that because the support system is very simple (an entire castle in the sky can be supported by one block of soap) you do not need the corner tiles of your tower to be solid walls.  Replacing them with fortifications your marksdwarfs can shoot through will increase their sighting and shooting area.

Chaining a dwarf would certainly work, particularly if you've a deserving subject in mind, but chained dwarfs, unlike dogs, still need to eat and drink.  Be prepared to give them easy access to vittles or someone to wait on their wants.

[gahyoujerk]

what does it mean it you toggle the avaibility of an animal in the stocks screen?  you can make the animal available or unavailable, but i don't notice any differences.

also how can I train a dog, i have a kennel, an animal trainer and a dog that is no ones pet. but it won't let me train it.

[monk12]

what does it mean it you toggle the avaibility of an animal in the stocks screen?  you can make the animal available or unavailable, but i don't notice any differences.

also how can I train a dog, i have a kennel, an animal trainer and a dog that is no ones pet. but it won't let me train it.

Marking availability's in the animal screen toggles whether the animal is eligible to be adopted as a pet. Dwarves with a liking for that particular animal may adopt it if it is available.

No idea about the dog training, I'm afraid- just to be clear, your stray dog is an adult, you kennel is accessible, your animal trainer isn't otherwise busy?