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[VerdantSF]

I read that in older versions mining was a special civilian skill that also translated into combat prowess as long as a pick was equipped.  Can anyone confirm if miners can still bring the pain if the regular militia needs some extra oomph?  I have a legendary miner who wouldn't mind the glory of dorfy battle.

[kg333]

From what I understand, miners are pretty bada$$ right now, especially since marksdwarves are currently broken.  I haven't been able to get my military working on enough of a level to try that, though.

KG

[Hyndis]

Mining picks work a lot like spears (piercing damage), and its very easy to get a miner to be legendary, so you basically get a free legendary speardwarf in terms of damage done.

How squishy he is I'm not sure, depends on what sort of armor you can give him. He'll have no combat training but assuming the goblins are busy hitting someone else he should be able to dish out a huge amount of damage. Piercing attacks aren't useful against undead or constructs, but still better than wrestling.

I'd still recommend using regular military guys though. They're much more reliable and expendable.

I have most of my dwarves do all farming tasks as well as furnace operating. These are my general purpose grunts who also serve in the military. If one dies, no big deal. There are always more soap makers. Create a bunch of 10 man squads but only have 5 dwarves active at any time, give them plate armor and swords or axes (far more effective than mining picks), and they will just tear things up. Having only 5 active at a time instead of all 10 means that while 5 are busy stabbing things, the other 5 will be hauling away the spoils of battle.

[Paul]

Picks still use mining skill, and they can be quite effective in the hands of a good miner.

To get them to use the picks you have to assign them though, and they are considered an exotic weapon. You'll also want to make them good picks - perhaps steel - so they can penetrate armor. Copper picks won't do much against iron armor

You can even train miners by having them fight with picks. I lost my legendary miner in one game and trained a new one by giving him a copper pick with steel armor and having him fight an unarmed goblin with iron armor.

[LordSlowpoke]

In my game, miners are the only good soldiers.
So yeah, they're not just a decent reserve militia, if you give them proper picks they can be your royal guard.

[VerdantSF]

Sweet!  This has to be one of my favorite aspects of DF.  What about an artifact pick, like the fishbone one created in Capnduck's tutorial game?  Would the artifact's legendary quality supersede the normally paltry material status and make it a dreaded fishpick o' goblin death?

[Wolfen]

Miners have been the saviours our several forts for me. While all others die like dogs, while the militia get stuck doing combat drills in their barracks, while the wardogs get themselves burchered in droves and the traps gently tap our enemies on the heads, I send out my two legendary miners to remove some ramps (so they take their picks and stay out there) and watch them counterstrike goblin ambushers into the next world. B)

[Proteus]

Well, they are the ones I usually use to kill beasts like nasty kobold  thieves, dark gnomes or macaques.
One only a few strikes and they are dead...
totally different from normal dwarves who need a whole month to srangle enemies to death 

[Schilcote]

One miner I had took down a massive neck-snapping troll with a single hit. She just mined its leg right off and watched it crawl away and bleed to death. Then she and her husband channeled themselves down 5 Z-levels while setting up the cistern on a mostly-freezing biome...

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Actually, I am wondering seeing all these discussions about miners: Are they really so much better than woodcutters? I usually prefer to draft my woodcutters as they already have axes in their hands ready to cut off all those unnecessary limbs from invaders and forgotten beasts. And in that incident with my first/only forgotten beast (invaders turned off most of the time, which prevents them from coming) it worked quite well - although the beast seemingly bled to death because one of its toes got hacked off (^_^;;

Deathworks

[Shiv]

Yah Miners are still pretty good.  Had to recruit mine to deal with a goblin ambush, though I did lose two (no armor seems to be painful), and they (group of 6) only fought 4 of the goblins.

[Lord Shonus]

Sweet!  This has to be one of my favorite aspects of DF.  What about an artifact pick, like the fishbone one created in Capnduck's tutorial game?  Would the artifact's legendary quality supersede the normally paltry material status and make it a dreaded fishpick o' goblin death?

I don;t think anyone knows for sure, but I think that material is much more important in the new version than quality, as (I think) that's what determines the ability to penetrate armor.

[beorn080]

At least from the old version, artifact > everything else. Even an artifact cabinet was about equal to a masterwork steel axe I believe.

As for the new version, I'd still go with the artifact. A champion leading the charge wielding a leather pick is much more impressive then your normal steel ones.

[Paul]

Hi!

Actually, I am wondering seeing all these discussions about miners: Are they really so much better than woodcutters? I usually prefer to draft my woodcutters as they already have axes in their hands ready to cut off all those unnecessary limbs from invaders and forgotten beasts. And in that incident with my first/only forgotten beast (invaders turned off most of the time, which prevents them from coming) it worked quite well - although the beast seemingly bled to death because one of its toes got hacked off (^_^;;

Deathworks

Woodcutters are effectively just drafted peasants with axes in regard to their fighting ability, since axes don't use woodcutting as the fighting skill. Picks use the mining skill for their combat skill, which gives a skilled miner an edge.

A legendary woodcutter might work good as a fighter, but you might as well just draft any old peasant who migrated in since they would have equal skill in using the axe in combat. On the other hand, legendary miner is already a legendary pick user and can really do some damage with a good pickaxe.