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[Seconis]

Up until now, I've had my dwarven soldiers training with training weapons.  To do this, I told them to equip Training <Weapon Type>.  I've recently had a dwarf go on a rampage punching dogs and civilians alike and to deal with him I sent my dwarven soldiers to kill him.  Unfortunately, I forgot to tell them to equip real weapons so they pummeled him for quite some time with their training weapons.  My question is, if I tell my dwarves to equip Battle Axes, will they also equip Training Battle Axes for when they're sparring?  Or do I need to have them equip both Battle Axes and Training Battle Axes and they'll intelligently switch between the two?  Or must I go about forbidding/claiming weapons based on what each dwarf should be using?

[AncientEnemy]

the military is the polar opposite of intelligent currently. I very much doubt it would work. I avoid demonstrations and sparring altogether, and just let them do individual combat drills till the end of time.

[Narmy]

Make one alert level for training and one for actual combat?

[AncientEnemy]

but you can't make them change their gear based on alert level :/

[Smitehappy]

but you can't make them change their gear based on alert level :/

What? Yes you can, it would be pointless to have different alert levels if you couldn't. I have a training alert level where my dwarves equip wood weapons and when a siege show up I switch to "Battle Station'. They then go and switch out their training weapons for steel weapons.

[AncientEnemy]

huh, i tried that several times, didn't work, asked on the forums and was told it wasn't possible. i guess they can, it's just another hit-and-miss bug.

how do you set it up in regards to the alerts (the weapon switch)?

[Smitehappy]

Ugh, I'm rather dense tonight. You CAN'T associate uniforms with alert levels, I was just so use to the few keystrokes to change uniforms that I didn't notice changing uniforms a squad equips and alerts level are different actions.

If you DO need to have them change quickly just make two uniforms. One with training weapons and one with real weapons. When you do need them to switch to lethal just go to the military screen, push e then U and select the appropriate uniform. If you have your weapon stockpile near your barracks (Preferably IN your barracks) it should only take a few seconds for them to swap out and head towards the threat.

But yeah, like AncientEnemy said, there is no direct way to make them use the right weapons for the right target.

[EddyP]

Training weapons are a mixed bag. They're great for training (!!!) but if a sudden situation comes up you're screwed; my dwarves always used training weapons on enemies if they had them in the inventory, even when they had iron and steel battleaxes as well. And it's hard to make them let go of them too; despite marking them all for dumping, three dwarves still hold on to their training axes (one has become attatched) and use them against gobbos, with unfortunate results.

[Jhoosier]

I've never had my dwarves spar or do anything where they might possibly hurt each other, so I don't even bother with training weapons.  If you set their schedule for training, but leave them on Inactive alert level, they'll just stand around doing individual combat, honing their weapon skill.  I've noticed, however, that this doesn't up their armor or shield skills.

Has anybody had any luck with the training alert?  Will they get better at dodging/using armor/shields?

[Starver]

As yet, I've still not managed to get anyone training or fighting on command/by schedule/etc...  Even after reading some of the guides on how to do it.

The number of (potential) Kobold thieves I've had to let slip (or let the as-yet-untrained dogs attack on their own initiative, and without guidance) in my test fortresses, apparently unable to even insta-enlist the passing woodcutter or miner to deal with the problem at the risk of a small unhappy thought, never mind getting anyone to switch to training with the training equipment I brought along with me...  Though so far I've taken none of them beyond Year 2, I'm too busy exploring other things and frankly needed most of my populations to get the fortresses in ship-shape[1].


[1] Everything from almost entirely above-ground wooden castles to ones with partitioned off cavern areas being almost exclusively used for accommodation.   Boy, am I having fun experimenting!

[Jhoosier]

Using the schedule for training is really easy.  Set it up to train (and reduce the min number of dwarves to 2 or 3) then build a barracks and allow that squad to train there.  I've got one full squad of legendary axes and another well on the way.  Of course, this is like 7 years in or something, but with full steel gear they tear through trolls.

[Narmy]

but you can't make them change their gear based on alert level :/

Seriously? That sucks.

[Starver]

Using the schedule for training is really easy.  Set it up to train (and reduce the min number of dwarves to 2 or 3) then build a barracks and allow that squad to train there.  I've got one full squad of legendary axes and another well on the way.  Of course, this is like 7 years in or something, but with full steel gear they tear through trolls.

Well, in the game I'm currently playing, I'm only in Spring of the second year (just received my fourth batch of immigrants[1][2]), so I suppose I can't expect miracles.  Though some of them came along with decent starting combat skills already (mostly non-specific fighter/dodger/biter, but I got a decent pike-dwarf) up to and including...  whatever level 6 is (by my measure).  The one above proficient.  Sorry, mind like a sieve[3].

Still, schedules I thought I had worked out.  I've both set up separate schedules to train sub-groups of dwarfs in months 1,4,7,10 in one, months 2,5,8,11 in another, the rest in a third, and made a single schedule encompass all units.  And set the minimum number down to just 2 (although I suppose I could have set the crossbow units down to single?).  Technically, a third of my dwarfs should at least be considering training at any one time.

Ideally, and especially if they this schedule brings on complaints about the draft, I need to make select individuals into permanently military and use the schedules to put them on a two-third/third ratio of training and patrolling, or similar.  Maybe that's what I need to do, i.e. remove them from all other duties or set up an alert other than the default training one (though what I've read on or around here seems to suggest that this is sufficient for the most part).

Honestly, though, I'm very much feeling like I did when I first started with DF, a few years back, unable to grasp something that (since) I've found so trivial to work that I hardly think about it.  Except that back then I stumbled quite quickly onto the good and bad ways to militarise my population, and instead it was farming that I just couldn't get to work[6], hence this forum monicker that I adopted.



Oh, and while my cages are trapping the wildlife quite nicely (looks like I'll be getting another elephant hareem, in this particular game, to go with my canine brood that's rapidly outnumbering my dwarfs[5]) I note that they singularly fail to trap Kobold Thieves, these days (either before being spotted or once they start running away) so it really does look like I can't use this old lazy backup-defence of 40D times...


[1] Including the original founding group.  Nobody arrived (or was heralded as not arriving) in the first Winter, but I forget if that's usual in this latest verison.  And the spring 1052 lot more than doubled the previous population, to over 40...  Now I need some to make the beds[4].  (Not a maid!)

[2] Filled most of the gaps in my skill-set, although looks like my hope for someone competant with leatherworking to arrive was...  ahem... on a hiding to nothing.

[3] Though after typing in so many character birthdates into my spreadsheets, since DF2010 came out, I've started to think in Dwarven months...  Obsidian for December, and all that.

[4] Tempted to implement a burrow to stop my expert carpenter from casually building my above-ground wooden walls, that can be accomplished by any otherwise unoccupied schmuck, and get back to the business of making the cages, barrels and beds that this fort currently needs in abundance.

[5] I always did plan to butcher the weaker dogs (or at least cage them away for the duration) to see if I could get the enourmous and muscular genes to propogate.  I now have enough dogs at or near the top end of physical fitness to consider doing that and also breeding for the aesthetic features I favour...  But it does get a bit more difficult to work out who the father is (and possibly work out the rules for stuff like paw colour that doesn't appear to be directly from either parent) if they're mostly the same, so maybe I ought to aim for variety instead.  Or start with peas, instead.

[6] And now that underground farming is working differently, I've had to revise my carefully developed agricultural development to account for needing to add water before/after placing fields!  Still, it's all fnu!

[Starver]

Since I posted that I couldn't get people training, I now can't seem to stop some people.

My guys scheduled for one month of training (minimum of two) and two months without orders switched to training after about half a year of ignoring the schedule, and are now continuing to train[1] (individually) and refusing to come back to normal work.  Even when removed from the military structure altogether.

Also, my initial hopes that such a 'reservist' approach would assuage bad thoughts about draft (and/or being dropped from the military) turned out to be false.

Anyway, I can at least get my semi-drafted guys to chase after hostiles, , although they've not yet caught any due to the distance they have to travel from the training area (and I'm reluctant to insta-enlist the ones who aren't military but actually stumble over the hostiles, for the above reasons!).  I'll continue to practice, though.


[1] Or were.  That fortress elsewhere on this forum described as crashing after bringing everyone up to full status and sending them towards a cyclops.  But the roll-back that I'll employ is still after the point where some of my legendary workers are trapped in a military training cycle.