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[Steevis]

So, I love to play DF, but I just can't get the hang of the new military system what-so-ever. I don't get it; I'm used to soldier or laborer. I know there's probably a post or video about this. If someone knows of one, can you please post the link?

[Noble Digger]

It's not as scary as it seems. The key concepts are:

Squads\Squad Leaders
Alert Status
Schedule Status
Equipment

You choose a squad leader and create your first squad. It asks for an armor type (Metal Armor) which by default lets the dwarf choose the best weapon and armor he can think of. Equipment settings are complicated to deal with and do have some bugs, but the default "Metal Armor" setting has served me just fine so far.

Once you've created a squad, you only need to do one more thing to make them operate. Get out of the military screen and press 's' to bring up the squad interface. You'll see a bunch of confusing shit. Press 'a' to select your first squad. Press 't' to change this squad's schedule status. It should now show as "Active\Training" - your dwarves are now active and in the military. If you have a barracks, and you've enabled (T)raining at its building, they will now practice there.

Now that your military is active, leave them that way. They receive a significant unhappy thought from being set back to "Inactive", so if you have enough dwarves to get all your work done, I recommend a permanent military. However, once set to "Inactive" all your dwarves should be capable of being given civilian jobs again.

To actually order your military around, there are 2 major easy options. One is to use 's', 'a', 'm' and then press enter--this issues a movement order. Your soldiers will go to that location and stay there, fighting anything they feel is appropriate to fight. The other option is to use 's', 'a', 'k' and then select an enemy unit and press enter--this issues a kill order. Kill orders can be buggy and sometimes don't work, so in general I'd recommend using move orders instead.

When your military is done dealing with threats via either method, you must remember to cancel their active orders by opening the military interface and pressing "c". This will delete the active order and let them return to training, eating, etc. If you forget to do this, your soldiers will dutifully obey you unto the point of going berserk, melancholy, or dying of hunger\thirst.

There is a lot more stuff that can be customized, to set the size of active squad staffing at various guard posts, patrols, uniforms, and much more. But until it all works a bit more fluidly, I'd recommend doing as I have done--learn to make them function in the basic ways that are necessary to protect a fort, an otherwise don't fuck with it.

[Carpman]

Also, I've had trouble changing uniforms after the soldiers have been training for a while. I suggest that the only changes you make to your uniform after you set it up is adding items. For example, changing a soldier to wear leather pants instead of metal ones may lead to some wonky shyt.

[Noble Digger]

Once your fortress population reaches 20, you can assign the Arsenal Dwarf who will automatically keep track of the military's weapons and armaments. (Provided he has an office) For example, any dwarf whose equipment is listed as "Metal Helmet" or whatever, will automatically go get a new steel helmet if he's currently using iron. The arsenal dwarf does this automatically. This also works for weapons listed as "Indiv. Choice" or "Metal Axe", etc.

There are a few particular options in the equipment screen that I haven't figured out yet. One is "Inactive = Uniformed" which can be changed to "Inactive = Civ Clothes"; this option doesn't appear to change anything for my military no matter for whom I toggle it. None of the 3 soldiers changes any pieces of equipment when I make them Inactive.

If you put cabinets (boxes also work, for ammo) in a room designated as a barracks, and then toggle the options for that barracks' building (I)ndividual Equipment and s(Q)uad equipment, the dwarves will try to store military-assigned goods in those cabinets and boxes. Each of your soldiers should have his own barracks room containing his personal weapon rack, armor stand, and some cabinets and boxes. Set this one for (I)ndividual equipment and he should move his civilian crap in there when he's set as inactive, instead of leaving it in the forge\armory areas. Keep a common barracks for (T)raining and s(Q)uad equipment.

[Steevis]

Yea, I had a sasquatch run into my base and knock out my jeweler in the living quarters--interrupting everyone's jobs, and the only thing that would fight it was a dog; they couldn't kill each other... i felt so pathetic. I had some military set up from the 'm' screen, but I didn't know about the 's' screen. I feel pretty stupid. Thanks for the help--much appreciated. Now only if I can get them to save the baby someone left in my well...

[TomiTapio]

I like to select the agile non-flimsy dorfs (average toughness or better) for the military.

Remove the indiv-choice weapon from Metal Armor uniform and add sword or axe to the uniform (due to blunt being too weak as of 31.08). Then create the squad and never order a uniform change (due to bugs). You don't want them to individually choose "all your picks" or "your only axe".

Free the barracks building to get them to stop training.

[Steevis]

Will they automatically choose to spar with training weapons if they're available? Or do they have to be assigned? Will the arsenal dwarf do this?

[jjdorf]

Will they automatically choose to spar with training weapons if they're available? Or do they have to be assigned? Will the arsenal dwarf do this?

They train with what the uniform says they carry.  So if you set up your uniform with training axes instead of actual battle-axes... yeah they will.  But they also won't be ready to take on the enemy with those training weapons, so I don't even bother.  Just slap real battle-axes on 'em and let them do their individual combat drills.  I've never even had a need to set up a schedule or alerts or anything like that.

[Steevis]

How do you go about setting up individual combat training? One of my dwarves 'delightfully' killed another during sparring--accidentally of course. lol

[jjdorf]

How do you go about setting up individual combat training? One of my dwarves 'delightfully' killed another during sparring--accidentally of course. lol

I'm not absolutely sure about that, but In general, I try to make sure my dwarves train up Dodge and armor user before weapon skills.  This is done by not making any battle axes available initially, though my most recent squad had two steel axes available from the beginning.  Good thing too, since they took out the Giant that attacked my fort.  But, not giving them weapons until they have their armor user and dodge up to a higher level will increase their survival rate quite a bit.  Especially in "field maneuvers".

That said, I've never seen my soldiers do any sparring or demonstration training.  Just individual training.  =/  I set up a big barracks (11 by 11) and make sure that the squad has training rights in the barracks.

One final note... I always make sure my arsenal dwarf cross trains as bookkeeper and manager and is NEVER recruited into a squad.  The bookkeeper is far better at developing record keeping skill, and the manager is far better at developing Organizer skill, and both of those are vital to a speedy arsenal dwarf.  Also, try to look for a dwarf that doesn't have focus problems or procrastination in his personality, but, really, that applies to all of the administrative positions.