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[nanomage]

imo steel is not worth the effort it takes.
unless you have a huge military (say 50 dwarves) which i have no idea how you could use you can armor everyone with better stuff with the same amount of work invested.

i only use it later on when i make some oscillating spike trap halls or decide to draft&armor the entire fortress to reduce civilian deaths.

If "same amount of work invested" implies "gen worlds with 100+ z levels of semi molten rocks, reveal where exactly to dig, dig around all possible hostiles with perfect tunnels, safely tap on lava on the way and manipulate moods for legendary smiths" then indeed, steel has a more complex production chain then spoiler rocks.

i was judging by the time you need to start producing armor. for me, its near the end of first winter for both steel and spoiler. i wasn't taking moods or worldgen into account at all.

[Psieye]

Yeah different playstyles have different times when Steel and SpoilerStuff become available. For me, Steel is accessible by the end of the first spring and I don't touch the SpoilerStuff until an unknown time later - I don't want to waste any of it with low-grade armoursmiths, whereas Steel is so abundant (though labour intensive).

[Chocolatemilkgod]

Steel is just awesome. I always try to have a ridiculous amount made because you can use it in all sorts of armour and weapons.

[shmelse]

Another thing to consider is that caravans often bring huge amounts of wood for very little cost and love it when you buy it all off of them. 

I'm on a map with few above ground trees, so initially I was pretty stingy with wood and kept a lot stockpiled (no sedimentary layers either; it's a volcano map, so I was worried about my ability to mass produce steel).  Because of the stockpile, I wasn't getting any wood from the humans/elves.  The solution was to forbid all the wood I had in stockpile around the time caravans show up.  The caravan doesn't recognize that you have any wood, so they bring tons.  It's a good way to keep wood on your stockpile but still get more, if you're some kind of paranoid crazy wood stockpiler... or something.

[Qinetix]

Steel is good for blunt weapons and armor , i think you should go with another metal for the edge weapons.
Anyways its the best common metal you can make ,
Don't take the risk to take the *cotton candy* and release the *clowns*

[shlorf]

I was utterly disappointed when my masterwork steel maces would glance of some oversized bronze statue.

[Zaerosz]

Well, maces are, in my experience, underpowered hammers, so that's understandable.

[Sarudak]

Forbidding wood makes caravans bring more??? OMG that's awesome I had no idea! Does it really work?

[ElthMysterius]

Steel is good for blunt weapons and armor , i think you should go with another metal for the edge weapons.
Anyways its the best common metal you can make ,
Don't take the risk to take the *cotton candy* and release the *clowns*

Actually, steel makes better edge weapons than most other metals. Blunt weapons would be best made out of silver, since it's the heaviest metal you can use for weapons without a mood.

Steel is still excellent for armour though.

[ChairmanPoo]

 Steel isn't strong, boy, flesh is stronger! Look around you. What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?


Contemplate this... on the Tree of Woe

[Lagslayer]

Steel does make good blunt weapons. It has a higher critical wound chance than silver, but silver is better at penetrating armor, which is the whole reason you want blunt weapons in the first place. Maces are smaller than war hammers, so I think they can be swung faster, but with less force per hit.

[AngleWyrm]

I've got everything needed for steel making, but, how good is it, exactly?

It is better than Iron and worse than Adamantine. That is exactly how good it is.

[Xenos]

I've got everything needed for steel making, but, how good is it, exactly?

It is better than Iron and worse than Adamantine. That is exactly how good it is.

In armor aspects your comparison is more accurate.  But, for weapons it is better than bronze and worse than Cotton Candy. 

[Johnfalcon99977]

I currently don't make steel because I am learning the ropes and need to get the hang of certain things before I start pumping it out. However, I have a "Always have magma at surface" embark policy right now, so flux is rare for me and steel is imported.

[Johnfalcon99977]

I've got everything needed for steel making, but, how good is it, exactly?

It is better than Iron and worse than Adamantine. That is exactly how good it is.

In armor aspects your comparison is more accurate.  But, for weapons it is better than bronze and worse than Cotton Candy.

Yes, Bronze is better than Iron now.