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[Jake]

My next project, once I get a PC that can run DF properly and the last few military bugs are sorted out, will be to make every single dwarf a reserve member of the militia.
I'll need twelve squads of marksdwarves to watch over the main gates, and I'll juggle the schedules so that one squad is on duty and another is training for each month of the year. The remaining dwarves, apart from the fortress guard and maybe ballista crews, I shall assign to melee squads to train all through the winter. The one exception to this will be medically-skilled dwarves.

This deserves the title 'megaproject' when you reflect that I somehow have to figure out guard details in a way that enables everything to still get done, provide a weapon and full set of armour for everyone, and not go completely round the twist in the process. The results if I get it to work, however, will be well worth it: a few years of this and I could probably steamroller any military threat short of the HFS, and even that would probably be survivable. Probably an extra reason to avoid tantrum spirals though.

[Urist Imiknorris]

You may wish to have half your growers train during the summer instead.

[LemonFrosted]

You will also want Dwarf Therapist, or at least spreadsheet where you census every member as they immigrate.

[Halykan]

What breakdown of weapons are you planning on using? I could see it going a few ways.

Myself, I'd probably aim for a compromise between simplicity and military effectiveness; make about 50% of the dwarves marksdwarves (probably mostly women), and then divide the remainder into axe and mace dwarves. Maybe swords instead of axes.

[Sir Finkus]

What breakdown of weapons are you planning on using? I could see it going a few ways.

Myself, I'd probably aim for a compromise between simplicity and military effectiveness; make about 50% of the dwarves marksdwarves (probably mostly women), and then divide the remainder into axe and mace dwarves. Maybe swords instead of axes.

Gotta be marksdwarves.  There's a story of a German commander visiting Switzerland,
He asked the Swiss commander, "How big a force do you command?"
The Swiss general confidently replied, "I can mobilize one million men in twenty-four hours."
The German asked, "What would happen if I marched five million men in here tomorrow?"
The Swiss general replied, "Each of my men will fire five shots and go home."

Probably a made up story, but badass nonetheless.  The Swiss are famous for their marksmanship and fine rifles, therefore, the military should be equipped with only the highest quality crossbows.  Bonus points if you get each dwarf to keep their crossbow in their room along with 50 bolts.

Also, try and synchronize the squads so that yearly every dwarf in the fort goes out for marksmanship practice at the same time.

[Jayce]

Arent the swiss famous for pikes and generally not taking part,and lets not forgot those tiny multi knifes.

[Cheese]

1 million? Seriously?
So, providing you get to 200 dorfs, the other 8 squads will be melee?

[Jake]

You may wish to have half your growers train during the summer instead.

I'm aiming to slot most of my growers into the gate-guard rota, spread out so that no more than two of them are on duty at once. And I tend to do better trading food for manufactured goods anyway.

What breakdown of weapons are you planning on using? I could see it going a few ways.
Myself, I'd probably aim for a compromise between simplicity and military effectiveness; make about 50% of the dwarves marksdwarves (probably mostly women), and then divide the remainder into axe and mace dwarves. Maybe swords instead of axes.

Not decided yet, but I'm going to need a force of 72 marksdwarves just to keep the gates guarded year-round. As for the rest, I'll probably focus on axes/swords and hammers, but anything salvaged from the battlefield that's useable will find its way into the fortress armoury.

Gotta be marksdwarves.  There's a story of a German commander visiting Switzerland,
He asked the Swiss commander, "How big a force do you command?"
The Swiss general confidently replied, "I can mobilize one million men in twenty-four hours."
The German asked, "What would happen if I marched five million men in here tomorrow?"
The Swiss general replied, "Each of my men will fire five shots and go home."

Probably a made up story, but badass nonetheless.  The Swiss are famous for their marksmanship and fine rifles, therefore, the military should be equipped with only the highest quality crossbows.  Bonus points if you get each dwarf to keep their crossbow in their room along with 50 bolts.

Also, try and synchronize the squads so that yearly every dwarf in the fort goes out for marksmanship practice at the same time.

Crossbows aren't the panacea they used to be, particularly not against armour. I might go for an all-marksdwarf army once my next modding project is done, however.

1 million? Seriously?
So, providing you get to 200 dorfs, the other 8 squads will be melee?

You misunderstand me. I plan on creating twelve squads of marksdwarves. Each of these squads will spend one month training and then one month on sentry duty before spending the rest of the year in their civilian occupations. Once I've created and manned those twelve squads -they'll probably consist of six dwarves each- I'll focus on training melee combatants.

[breadbocks]

The layout I suggest:
12 Marksdwarfs
2 Lashers (Essentially silver whips are supa-hammahs in the version. Will shred any armor. Have each squad man the gates 6 months, and train other 6 months. You need some full time army.)
1 Bare-Handed Monk (Boosted quite a bit in new version.)
2 Axedwarfs
3 Macedwarfs
Only use homemade weapons, use all the other weapons in weapon traps. If you encounter a squad of gobbo lashers, order everyone inside. Whips are freaking insane in .12.

[reborninthefortress]

Wait, marksdwarfship is fixed?

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

My next project, once I get a PC that can run DF properly and the last few military bugs are sorted out, will be to make every single dwarf a reserve member of the militia.
I'll need twelve squads of marksdwarves to watch over the main gates, and I'll juggle the schedules so that one squad is on duty and another is training for each month of the year. The remaining dwarves, apart from the fortress guard and maybe ballista crews, I shall assign to melee squads to train all through the winter. The one exception to this will be medically-skilled dwarves.

This deserves the title 'megaproject' when you reflect that I somehow have to figure out guard details in a way that enables everything to still get done, provide a weapon and full set of armour for everyone, and not go completely round the twist in the process. The results if I get it to work, however, will be well worth it: a few years of this and I could probably steamroller any military threat short of the HFS, and even that would probably be survivable. Probably an extra reason to avoid tantrum spirals though.

I did this in 30d, and it was worth it. Having everyone train some military skills makes your fort a *lot* more survivable -- nothing like having a random unarmored herbalist break up a goblin ambush solo.

[JAFANZ]

The layout I suggest:
12 Marksdwarfs
2 Lashers (Essentially silver whips are supa-hammahs in the version. Will shred any armor. Have each squad man the gates 6 months, and train other 6 months. You need some full time army.)
1 Bare-Handed Monk (Boosted quite a bit in new version.)
2 Axedwarfs
3 Macedwarfs
Only use homemade weapons, use all the other weapons in weapon traps. If you encounter a squad of gobbo lashers, order everyone inside. Whips are freaking insane in .12.

the above requires a choice be made between "2 squads of Lashers" or "Only use Homemade Weapons" in a vanilla game.

[breadbocks]

Jake, will this be Vanilla? If not, let dorfs make whips.

[Jake]

It's going to include my own minor tweaks, which involve fitting crossbows with bayonets (a temporary workaround until marksdwarves can carry backup weapons), giving dwarves the ability to make longswords and possibly some sort of two-handed axe for them. I'll organise a lasher squad if we accumulate enough from invasion attempts, but they don't seem a very dwarven kind of weapon to me.
Besides, I'm pretty sure the current super-effectiveness of whips -someone claimed they ignore armour completely- is a bug, and I'm holding out for 31.15 or so before I tackle the new version seriously.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Whips aren't bugged as such, they are just not modeled well. Their RAW entries are fine, the problem is that weapons are assumed to be rigid. Even leather whips would be excellent vs. armor since whips behave more like tiny supersonic hammers.

And yes, they deal blunt damage, which ignores armor.