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[krenshala]

I use them, but only because normal assign-dwarves-to-a-barracks-and-wait training is almost completely useless.

Same. If regular training improved dwarves faster than one skill up a year I would probably just use that, but as it is regular training is sometimes so poor it doesn't even prevent combat skills from rusting. It's really bad when you see half your dwarves have rusting [Weapon] skill or Shield User after 5 years of regular training, yet it happens every time I try to go without a danger room.

In .22 I trained two dwarves, nine months of sparing with training spears and wooden shields -- end result : lvl 5 and 6 spear dwarf, lvl 5 armor and shield users.  In 3 to 6 months of sparing they usually go from zero experience to lvl 2+ in my playing experience.  I never use danger rooms.  I think the key is to set your minimum number of soldiers to less than or equal to the dorfs in the squad (e.g., if you have 6 military dorfs, but training is at the default of 10 minimum, they won't do carp ... drop the number to six or lower and you get nice steady training experience).

[Patchy]

I'll occasionally build them, but for the most part I let them train normally. My traps do the heavy lifting and the soldiers are only there for mopping up what makes it through the traps, and wildlife hunting. So I really don't care how long it takes them to reach multi-legendary soldiers.

[Newbunkle]

I haven't tried them yet, but I probably will. The military is a feature I dislike. The few times I've bothered to make squads and barracks, I haven't noticed any significant improvements in their skills with regular training. And it seems pointless when a lucky hit could put it all to waste. Weapon traps and bridges seem like a much better investment of time and resources. If I bother to try it again I'll probably build a danger room first.

[Maklak]

Simple, efficient, glorious.

[Urist Imiknorris]

You stab your dwarves until they get good at not being stabbed. I love them.

[Mushroo]

I use and love danger rooms. I like to think of them as a sort of Shaolin Monastery for Dwarfs. If real-world humans can become total badasses by waxing a car or chasing a chicken, why can't fantasy Dwarfs become badass by being constantly poked by 10 spears for a year?

Furthermore I find that military as it's currently implemented is one of the less Fun parts of the game for me. Therefore I prefer to win a fight as quickly as possible (using my legendary hammerdwarfs) so I can focus on craft, farming, mining, etc. aspects of the game that I find very enjoyable.

[Chocolatemilkgod]

I use them for two reasons:

1. The majority of the time I'm pre-occupied with building. I like building and planning more than I like fighting so using danger rooms is a way to sidestep the annoying problem of having to keep a track of military.

2. Military skills don't increase as much as they used to. I feel that using danger rooms is good because, at the moment, military skills just don't increase fast enough.

So...basically I use them but I don't like using them particularly. We just need Toady to do some military tweaking. And also fixing marksdwarves TO TRAIN!!!!...Sorry I had that in my system .

[agatharchides]

I use them, but only because normal assign-dwarves-to-a-barracks-and-wait training is almost completely useless.

Same. If regular training improved dwarves faster than one skill up a year I would probably just use that, but as it is regular training is sometimes so poor it doesn't even prevent combat skills from rusting. It's really bad when you see half your dwarves have rusting [Weapon] skill or Shield User after 5 years of regular training, yet it happens every time I try to go without a danger room.

In .22 I trained two dwarves, nine months of sparing with training spears and wooden shields -- end result : lvl 5 and 6 spear dwarf, lvl 5 armor and shield users.  In 3 to 6 months of sparing they usually go from zero experience to lvl 2+ in my playing experience.  I never use danger rooms.  I think the key is to set your minimum number of soldiers to less than or equal to the dorfs in the squad (e.g., if you have 6 military dorfs, but training is at the default of 10 minimum, they won't do carp ... drop the number to six or lower and you get nice steady training experience).

That's interesting too. I have level 12 swordsdwarves from sparring but they are only level 2 in armor using. I'd like to research what gives these radically different results but I'm not sure how.

[Khift]

I use them, but only because normal assign-dwarves-to-a-barracks-and-wait training is almost completely useless.

Same. If regular training improved dwarves faster than one skill up a year I would probably just use that, but as it is regular training is sometimes so poor it doesn't even prevent combat skills from rusting. It's really bad when you see half your dwarves have rusting [Weapon] skill or Shield User after 5 years of regular training, yet it happens every time I try to go without a danger room.

In .22 I trained two dwarves, nine months of sparing with training spears and wooden shields -- end result : lvl 5 and 6 spear dwarf, lvl 5 armor and shield users.  In 3 to 6 months of sparing they usually go from zero experience to lvl 2+ in my playing experience.  I never use danger rooms.  I think the key is to set your minimum number of soldiers to less than or equal to the dorfs in the squad (e.g., if you have 6 military dorfs, but training is at the default of 10 minimum, they won't do carp ... drop the number to six or lower and you get nice steady training experience).

I, admittedly, have not played a lot of DF as of late; I had one ~3 year old .19 fort which I lost on a reformat and have yet to settle into a new fort since. Most of my forts were around .12 and .13.

So far, my experiences have been this:
In one fortress, roughly 5 years of training, 10 dwarves in a squad full steel equipment, didn't alter the 10 minimum, almost no improvement. Highest was IIRC around competent. Some dwarves had rusting combat skills.

Second fortress, 8 years of training, 10 dwarves only bronze equipment, 8 minimum, again almost no improvement. Highest was one expert swordsdwarf. Almost all dwarves had a skill or two marked as rusty.

Third and fourth fortresses, 3 to 5 years of training, 3 dwarves per squad 2 minimum, training did actually progress and I don't recall seeing any rusty skills, but it was still astronomically slow. I don't feel that it should take 5 years of training to reach master fighter. With how expendable dwarves are and how likely even the most ridiculously well trained dwarf is to die from a freak blow it should not take that long just to become more than competent.

Ever since then if I've founded a fortress it had a danger room.

Honestly, the largest issue with training -- and something which I DO consider to be a bug -- is that larger squads train exponentially slower with each additional member to the point where full 10 dwarf squads don't even train fast enough to keep the rust off. THAT is an issue. That is what most people encounter and why most people give up on the military.

And don't tell me I'm doing it wrong; that's just insulting. There's nothing more to do beyond assign the dwarves to a barracks, assign equipment, and watch them crawl along at a snail's pace.

[Lovechild]

I don't use danger rooms since they seem unrealistic. But I can understand those who choose to use them, military training can be erratic at times. My tip is to have only two dwarves in each squad, equipped with the same weapon. That way they get the most efficient sparring, and can teach the weapon skill to each other. As an extra bonus, five two-dwarf squads will charge the enemy as a horde rather than as a ten-dwarf squad conga line.

[Levi]

stuff

I'm the same way.  I've been waiting till the training is fixed until I play my next fortress as I want to do a big military fortress(which is currently pointless).  I'm really missing playing DF.

[JohnnyDigs]

Well back in .18 I've quit forts just because my military slaughtered everything effortlessly. In my last fort I had about 15 champions by the time the first sieges and titans showed up. All of them were slaughtered with no casualties or even any injuries to my dwarves.

This was without danger rooms. What I do is draft my first migrants and keep drafting so that 1/4 to 1/3 of all my dwarves are in the military. I just use one alert, the default active training. Ya they'll only be content at best but they train nonstop. I also embark with a proficient armorer and proficient weaponsmith and give them high quality steel gear right from the start.

Usually takes 2-3 years to get my first champions, so I don't get all this talk about training being too slow. However, I did read somewhere that small squads spar more and all I've been using are squads of 3, so maybe that's it?

BTW, the mineral scarcity of new versions has forced me to rely on wooden crossbows and bolts for my current fort. Its winter of my 2nd year and I already have 2 markdwarf champions. No danger rooms, just training.

[Levi]

So the trick is just tiny squads?  Do you set them to train for the entire time?

I've never been able to get even close to a champion since the changes, but I usually have size 10 squads. 

[rojiru]

For god sake, don't you people have anything better to moralize about? It's a game.

Anyway, I find it pretty darn funny you in the same breath admit you have removed nerve damage. FYI, the combat/experience systems are supposed to simulate, within reason, reality. Nerve damage does not heal - you might as well mod the dwarves not die from decapitation. While it's true that dodging and blocking wooden spikes might not realistically be the best way to train either, at least it's not something that is completely impossible. So yeah, next time you turn something completely arbitrary into some kind of moral issue please make sure you don't come off as a huge hypocrite in the process too.

But no, haven't used them. Apparently the conventional training is still kind of a crapshoot, but I mostly rely on marksdwarves (who get plenty of experience from combat without ever risking their own hides).

Lmao, you're hilarious.

[MythagoWoods]

I personally don't use them.  I did once, previous release, and I felt dirty afterwards because it WAS so easy to take Urist McNewbie to Urist McDukeNuke with so little effort on my part adn no danger on his.  I've found with normal training methods and murdering wildlife my dorves become skilled enough to survive the standard ambush/thief/snatcher.  After a few episodes of critter pummeling and ambushes I normally have a few skilled fighters of which I spread into other squads to teach raw recruits the basics so they stand a chance.  With good teachers and raw recruits I have a very dwarvenly effective boot camp to where I don't need to rely on danger rooms.  (Plus I get the satisfaction of 5 or 6 scared dwarves in poorly fitted armor gettign screamed at by a burly dwarf with a hammer, one eye, and a cat skull helmet)