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[BlackRat90]

I search over the forums and the wiki but with no direct answer to my questions of why my military isnt working.

I just updated my version of DF and in the older versions if you create the squads give them a barracks, then activate their squad but set their alert to train and they all gather around the barracks and train. but for some reason this newer version 31.17 (not .18 because i am using linux) they do not train their weapon skills instead they just do stuff like dodging and striking. but if i deactivate them then they do "individual combat drills".

Now i read on the wiki that new recruits need to do this until they become novices but my dwarfs arnt advancing up, just siting at dabbling and its been about a year now.

What am I doing wrong? This is how i made my very successful army in the older version before i updated.

[Quietust]

but for some reason this newer version 31.17 (not .18 because i am using linux) they do not train their weapon skills instead they just do stuff like dodging and striking.

They are training, just not in the way you want them to. If you want to encourage them to use their weapon skills, it helps to keep them in smaller squads and make sure at least one member of the squad is already somewhat skilled (whether from being a military migrant or from using a danger room) so that they'll be more likely to Spar.

[plisskin]

Make sure you specifically set them to use training swords, spears, axes etc as well instead of "individual choice X." This means they'll grab that and only that and use it to dink around with. If you give an unskilled dwarf his own choice of weapon, it'll be wrestling IIRC. Give them crossbows and no ammo if you want them to train the Hammerdwarf skill. You can also send them off to kill groundhogs, raccoons, goats and things with real weapons to train up their skills. Or throw them in a locked room with a cage-trap captured and unarmed goblin/kobold.

Training this way is slow and steady. It can take more than a year for them to get even competent. Wiki "Danger Room" if you want a faster, cheaty-er way to buff their defensive stats up.

[Quietust]

Make sure you specifically set them to use training swords, spears, axes etc as well instead of "individual choice X."

Tell them to use real weapons, not training weapons - sparring injuries don't seem to happen anymore (as long as they're wearing armor, anyways), and you don't want a soldier becoming attached to a training weapon.

[Uristisdying]

There is indeed no need for training weapons. My current fort is ten years old, with about 25 soldiers sparring all the time, and not once did anyone suffer injuries. Also -as already said - try to keep your squads small and adjust your schedule so that not every member of one squad has to attend training. Personally, my squads all number three dorfs, and two dorfs have to be active all the time. The third one gets to hang out, eat, drink, sleep, socialize... whatever. 

[Hyndis]

Training weapons are only useful for some live fire "sparring" practice involving caged goblins or cave creatures. Aside from that never use training weapons.

Give all of your soldiers full armor and weapons at all time. If they are on duty for training they will function as a soldier and conduct training in the barracks. If they are off duty they may or may not do individual training during their idle time.

I find the best way is to have a rotation. 1/3rd of dwarves in training. 1/3rd patrolling the battlements overlooking/surrounding the training area. 1/3rd off duty so they can do random civilian things. Crossbows are generally preferred. I don't do any archery ranges, they get all of their practice in live fire drills either with goblins or in the caverns.

Creating a burrow that covers all of the caverns and ordering squads to defend that burrow works exceedingly well. Give your dwarves the best steel armor and shields you have but wooden training weapons. You will soon have legendary soldiers and corpses.

Replace the losses in the squads. Send them back into the caverns.

Repeat this until you have only legendaries.

[BlackRat90]

First off thanks for all the input!

Secondly, my dwarfs have been training with their swords (im trying to build sword dwarfs) i have a squad of six people though none of them have any sword skill they are all still getting no where in any of their training, (dodging, strikes, etc) and i do have members of the squad who have some skill in this. usually if i just let the dwarfs be they train slowly but surly, but here they have been training for over a year and gotten nowhere but dabbling. This seems unusual....

Im going to try this "danger room" method to give them a jump start....it seems interesting enough to just try.

[plisskin]

Ah, forgive me for the bad advice. I didn't know that training weapons were obsolete for actual training in this version.

[BlackRat90]

Its no problem at all. I to am still learning.
So i tried building a danger room, but it crashes my game every time i try to activate it....

And im back to square one, my troopers arnt training. Is it a requirement for a squad to learn a weapon skill that they need to have a member in the squad that has experience?

[FuzzyZergling]

I believe that version .17 has a bug that causes the game to crash when traps are activated, so no danger room for you.

Personally, I usually get fresh dwarves up to novice weapon skill in a little under a year. Are your dwarves training year-round, and what is the minimum number allowed to train?

[Hans Lemurson]

I would highly recommend the "Beat up unarmed prisoners" training method.  Equip your squad with training weapons and full protection, and then order them into a room where you have some prisoner-cages, then lock the door and pull the lever that deconstructs the cages.  If you're working with raw recruits, make sure that they outnumber the goblins and preferably that there aren't any experienced military-goblins in the mix, just snatchers.

It's quite impressive just how many whacks a leather-clad goblin can take.  I had my 4 recruits all become swordsdwarfs fairly quickly and everything was going fine until one of them got his brains bashed in by an axe-goblin's shield.  Oops.  I then realized to my horror that the goblins weren't locked in with my trainees...my trainees were locked in with the goblins...and were now outnumbered. (it was a 4v4 at first)

Lesson is, don't fight battles you might lose.

[Bognor]

I would highly recommend the "Beat up unarmed prisoners" training method.

 
There's a neat trick for disarming prisoners while letting them keep their armor here.  Given what Hans said, I guess you might want to strip their shields as well.

I've also found slugmen and snailmen to be great for training newbie soldiers.  They take lots of hits to kill with training weapons, but are near enough to harmless to armored dwarves.  Most above-ground creatures are either too dangerous or too fast and timid, able to run away from melee soldiers.

[BlackRat90]

good news! I tried looking again, and .18 was actully on linux this time. Time to try danger room again
FYI: im trying for a super project so i have invaders turned off, so no prisoner. and so far my traps in the cavern have turned up nothing

[BlackRat90]

danger room works like a charm!! but i would like to have my dwarfs training to get their skills up, now that most of them have basic skill in sword player and stuff im going to let them train

[Fredd]

Training weapons are still useful. When you begin your fort, it never hurts to have any non miners, woodcutters assigned to squads under the Inactive schedule,(actually the militia) assigned practice weapons. In their free time, they will do individual combat drill. Since it does not matter what value the weapon is, they still gain skills. This is especially nice, when your fort is poor. I like to assign them shields, before weapons. The shield skill is a lifesaver.Putting them on an alert to train, is a waste of time.
 Creating a new alert,sets up a new menu on the military scheduling screen, as well as the squad menu screen, that takes priority over both the Active/inactive schedules. In this case, for emergencies.
 For example, you have a squad of axe dwarves, set to train 2 months, patrol 2 months, off 2 months, repeat same cycle each year. Also, you have a squad of rookie archers, under the Inactive schedule, just goofing off, and practicing when ever. Being a smart manager, you have set up a civilian alert, where they can go cower in terror somewhere safe. But the axedwarves, and trainee archers need to get to work.
 So on the military menu, make a new alert . On the military schedule screen, a new screen will be added, named after that alert. Then give new orders to each squad, what you want them to do,how many to appear, for that alert. Copy and paste that order, for each month of that alert, for the squad. Same for the orders you want the other squad to obey.
 If you go look at the squad menu, you now have the options, besides kill/move/active/inactive, will have the option to put on alert which squads you need. So if you activate the alert, if your axedwarves are patrolling, they will obey the alert orders. Once the emergency is over, use the squad menu, to put them back on the Active schedule,according to the schedule they were on previously. When you alert the archers, they will quit cowering in terror, and go to where they are supposed to be during that alert. Use the squad menu to then place them in inactive status, and if its safe, unalert the civvies.
 Alerts have the nice quality to activate those under the inactive schedule, to disregard burrow restrictions.
 So, in short, use the active/training schedule to assign monthly dutys to your full fledged soldiers. And use the alerts, for emergencys