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[Hanslineman]

Hello everyone! This is my first post, and indeed i've been playing DF for about a week now. I like to think i've gotten the hang of most everything up to building and equipping steel items, but the military bit is almost making me pull my hair out.

Right now i've got three squads of three troops. I'm trying to turn the first one into AxeDwarves, the second into HammerDwarves, and the third into MarkDwarves. I've got them all equipped in Iron armor, and the first three are wielding Training Axes, while the second six are wielding Crossbows.

I've pretty much figured out squads. I've figured out equipping, and I've figured out Barracks, and Archery Ranges. I know how to make them Kill things, and Move from A to B. But the scheduling/Alert system is really confusing. I'm entirely unsure of whether or not they are actually doing what I say. I think I have training set at 3 with a minimum of 2 Dwarves having to be present... But I have never seen my third squad use the archery range once. and the other two don't really seem to be hitting each other. Any advice? I think I can provide screenpics if neccesary.

Also a couple questions.

1. Should my squads be three dwarfs? I think I saw this on the Wiki somewhere.

2. Should my Hammerdwarfs be hitting each other with crossbows? I think I saw this there too.

[mrbaggins]

The archers will split training into archery stuff and melee stuff. This is unavoidable

As for numbers, pretty much personal preference. More squads = more versatility but at the cost of more hassle.

You can check they're training by going to the military screen, then alerts. #CIV# should be on inactive, and when you highlight "Active/training" there should be a blue "A" next to each squad.

Then go to schedule. Make sure all 3 squads have training for every month (with a break every now and then if you like). If they don't, pick a month with training and the right number of dwarves, copy it and paste on the other months.

Having separate squads for different weapons is personal preference. You can have one squad and individually assign a uniform to each member. (assign all the armor to the whole squad, then modify it and apply one by one). You can specify it from being "melee weapon-indiv choice" to "steel axe" or what-have-you.

Hopefully this makes sense and helps. Typing in an iPhone sucks

[mrbaggins]

Addendums...

Make sure you've set the archers to train in the archery range.

Hammerdwarves will pick up anything vaguely clublike, and I think this includes xbows.

Squadsize is purely up to you, although I'd go 4-6, not 3.

[Hanslineman]

Thanks guys. For the most part I think I have it figured out now. I just realized I hadn't assigned my archers any ammo, so that took care of one problem. The rest of your advice's helped me the rest of the way ^_^.

One more thing. What should I be doing with all of my caged goblins? I have a room hollowed out, filled with all the goblin cages. I've already undressed them I believe... I'm just trying to figure out how to make my men open the cage without having to use two mechanisms to constantly reattach levers and such.

[shlorf]

Channel away one tile of roof room from a room from above. Put a hatch cover on the hole. Designate a pit zone from the zones menu on the hatch. Station militia in room. Edit pit properties on the zone (P). Assign one goblin at a time  . Watch out for thieves tho, they tend to escape the pitting.

[Nameless Archon]

Channel away one tile of roof room from a room from above. Put a hatch cover on the hole. Designate a pit zone from the zones menu on the hatch. Station militia in room. Edit pit properties on the zone (P). Assign one goblin at a time  . Watch out for thieves tho, they tend to escape the pitting.

For thieves (kobold or goblin) I recommend building the cage in the room at the bottom of the pit and releasing them by lever for this reason. The effect is the same as at present, but less tedious - you're only doing it for thieves.