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[Hyndis]

I've found that communist style fortresses generally get stuff done far more quickly than specialized fortresses.

Where skills matter and resources are limited I do make specialized dwarves, but for other stuff I just let everyone do everything else. Masonry and craftsdwarf skills often times are bundled in with the farming and smelter working skills. This leaves only mining, engraving, architecture, metal working skills, and jeweler skills as needing to be specialized.

Also I'll have a few woodcutters double as carpenters and bowers, only because having everyone else wield axes can be too dangerous!

A tantrum spiral in a fortress of 150 dwarves with 90% of the population being armed with masterwork steel axes gets...messy.   

[Fedor]

So I ask you, Forum, how do you assign tasks to dwarves. IE: How many on each job (Carpentry, mining, hauling, etc.) and how many overall? (assuming you don't have access to magma.)

The short answer is that I see labor-assignment as not merely a way to get work done, but also as the means of boosting skills.  I don't think of dwarves as doing a particular job; I see them as the repository of a particular skill set.  Every single available dwarf in my fortresses has some interesting skill, even if its only dabbling, just in case he gets moody.

The skills of my immigrants can make all the difference in how I play the fort.  The arrival of a highly-skilled blacksmith, say, may turn my focus away from stone furniture to far more valuable metalwork.

The skills I work hardest to build up naturally depends on what I want to do.  Do I want to dig out vast caverns, erect massive stone temples, build a mighty wooden castle, pave the streets in gold and set gems in every corner, muster and equip a mighty military, or just fool around and see what happens?


These things said, an adult, civilian workforce of 50-60 dwarves might be divided something as follows:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

3-5 dwarves skilled in mining

3+ dwarves skilled in masonry
1 dwarf skilled in mechanics
2-3 dwarves skilled in engraving
1 dwarf skilled in architecture (I like well-designed buildings), plus something else.

1 dwarf skilled in carpentry
1 dwarf skilled in bowmaking
1 dwarf skilled in siege engine building
1-2 dwarves skilled in woodchopping

Few or no dwarves skilled in animal training, hunting, or trapping.

1 dwarf skilled in cooking and farming, with a sideline in some craft (just in case...)
1-2 dwarves skilled in brewing and farming (+craft)
1-3 dwarves skilled in some mix of milling, threshing, and/or farming (+craft)
<= 1 dwarf skilled in butchery (+craft)
<= 1 dwarf skilled in hunting or fishing (+craft).  If, say, more fisherdwarves arrive, I just retrain them.
0-2 dwarves skilled in some combination of burning and potash making (+craft)
0 dwarves skilled in tanning or various other things (+craft)
1 dwarf skilled in dying (I like to dye stuff) (+craft)

1+ dwarves skilled in each of the four metalworking fields
3-5 dwarves skilled in smelting

1+ dwarf skilled in gem setting
0 dwarves skilled in gem cutting

1+ dwarves skilled in clothesmaking
1+ dwarves skilled in weaving
1 dwarf skilled in leatherworking
1 dwarf skilled in bone carving
0 dwarves skilled in woodcrafting or stonecrafting
2+ dwarves skilled in glassmaking

... and a whole bunch of haulers (each having an interesting skill, with preference for something that matches their preferences)

[Fedor]

I've found that communist style fortresses generally get stuff done far more quickly than specialized fortresses.

Strongly disagreed ... if we assume the use of Dwarf Therapist at least.

Specialists gain skills faster, which means faster work.  They don't have to wander from job to job; if you arrange things right, they can stay in place for long periods, cranking out goods uninterrupted.

[Hyndis]

Communist forts let you easily switch from one thing to another.

Want to build a wall really fast? Done!
Want to burn 2,000 logs into charcoal? Done!
Want to cook thousands of roasts? Done!

Also everyone gets all sorts of attribute bonuses, which means every dwarf is pretty much maxed out as far as attributes go.

[Fedor]

Communist forts let you easily switch from one thing to another.

Want to build a wall really fast? Done!
Want to burn 2,000 logs into charcoal? Done!
Want to cook thousands of roasts? Done!

This is a very good point, but a) it's rare that I want only one thing done, and b) when I do, the numerous haulers I keep on hand make the perfect surge force, getting a big job done quickly while not distracting the specialists from their gainful work.  A few clicks in Dwarf Therapist is enough to mobilize the horde.

Some additional points: 
- Many jobs require multiple steps.  Assigning a horde of dwarves to do a multiple-step job is tricky at best.  It's quite all right to tell the horde to use up an existing pile of materials (like blocks for a wall), but having them first plant, then harvest, then cook gets you an awful lot of dwarf-hours wasted, quite apart from the lack of effectiveness per dwarf and low final product quality (why feed my dwarves, or try to sell, crappy food, when a skilled cook can do so much better?)
- Having the horde do jobs that affect strange moods ruins any plans you had for encouraging desirable moods (like armorsmithing) instead of just getting legendary engraver #8.

Also everyone gets all sorts of attribute bonuses, which means every dwarf is pretty much maxed out as far as attributes go.

   (ignore the following; Hyndis has noted that this is a bug, now fixed) Unfortunately, this no longer applies in recent versions of Dwarf Fortress.  Most skills (possibly all skills other than military ones) don't affect attributes.  I'm not sure of the particulars, I just know that you can't just train dwarves in civilian skills and expect them to get stronger, tougher, or more dexterous.

[AtomicPaperclip]

40 dwarves is more than enough to take care of basic neccesities such as farming, brewing, making the 3 B's, metalsmithing etc.

So 40 + however many dwarves you want in the military, building megaprojects etc.

[sjaakwortel]

im running DF on a 2.8ghz celeron cpu,(wich is bad, 40FPS BAD) so i have only 20 dwarves,
2soldiers wich i use for hunting
2farmers
3miners(i mine quite a bit)
2Metalworkers
1brewer
2cooks/butchers
1maon
and the rest with random multiple jobs
they all have hauling on btw

[Hyndis]

Civilian skills not getting attributes is a bug which has been fixed in the latest release.

[Fedor]

Civilian skills not getting attributes is a bug which has been fixed in the latest release.

I'm glad to hear that! 

[Fatty Limes]

the real question is : say i have 3 dorfs with armor making turned on(one legendary, others not so much), noones working and i assign some armor to be made at the blacksmiths, who does it?

This is what always gives me problems when I'm assigning labors. Yeah, maybe i've got a dwarf who's pretty solid in armor, weaponsmithing, metalsmithing and furnace operation and another dwarf who's a god at armor and nothing else. I'd like to have both of them with all of the labors on, in hopes that a task is generally taken over by the dwarf with the highest skill. That doesnt happen, does it?

[Hyndis]

I use custom reactions and a classroom custom workshop, where dwarves can learn about various skills. Often times it takes years. To get a peasant into a legendary+5 blacksmith takes 2-3 years, at least, of constant schooling. To get legendary+5 in all smithing skills probably takes a decade of doing nothing but working in the classroom.

Once the dwarf has graduated from his schooling I then allow him to work in the forge.