Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[psychologicalshock]

It feels like besides danger rooms there's just nothing you can do to make dwarves train harder. I have tried having small squads of 3 dwarves and they spar a little bit more often but even after 5 years the progress is marginal, the only skill I have any luck with is marksmenship and that's just because I have a huge amount of POW's to use as target practice, the old archery range fails to work nowadays (not like in 40d where they'd zip through ammo as long as your craftsmen were pumping the training equipment out).

It also annoys me to no end that caravan guards must be at least 2-3 times better than an average dwarf. I decided to dismiss all my melee units and only keep crossbowmen with giant badgers as my melee defense. It's effective but not very dwarven - however if I tried to allow melee of any sort the dwarves would get killed for sure as they seem to all forget their shield skills in weeks so random bolts end up blowing their brains out. Pretty annoying when you read a combat report where a goblin thief  bats 12 bolts in a row out of mid air, feels like I have the dumbest, most inefficient army in the world.

[Necro910]

It feels like besides danger rooms ...

Found the solution

[psychologicalshock]

My only idea of how to train decent dwarves now is to develop a separate burrow for incoming migrants where they never socialize with the original settlers, then use them as a trash mob against incoming goblins, the toughest dwarves who live are bound to be the strongest.

[Necro910]

My only idea of how to train decent dwarves now is to develop a separate burrow for incoming migrants where they never socialize with the original settlers, then use them as a trash mob against incoming goblins, the toughest dwarves who live are bound to be the strongest.

Normally just the luckiest.

"The pigtail fiber shoe tears through the muscle, shattering the skull, and tearing the brain!"
"A tendon has been torn!"
"The goblin has been struck down!"

[Aravin]

You're doing it wrong. And 5 years - isn't much at all. But still, you're doing something wrong. In 6 years i had 6 military dwarves able to beat down any ambushes those goblins would send.

You should pay some attention to their trainings. Stop that "toughest migrant" bullshit. If you make a squad full of random weak guys (watch their characteristics - never make a weak, slow and clumsy dwarf a soldier) with no shred of any military skill, it's no wonder they die in first battle even after 5 years. That's not a pro army, just some kind of ass slacking militia. That's your mistake. Pro army >>> random militia. It's very simple. 5-6 pro dwarves can ward off 30-goblin ambushes all alone (each dwarves against 6-8 goblins ALONE). If you want legendary ass-kicking soldiers in 5-7 years, you should follow this plan:

1) Pick toughest strongest or most skillfull guys (high str, agility or some military skills)
2) Create a training room for them (you won't need danger rooms - they're for late game)
3) Stockpile training room with food and booze
4) Let them train whole year (though give them breaks sometimes - inexperienced soldiers get mad from constant training). From time to time remember to watch them training to be sure they ARE actually training.
5) Wait for 5-6 years
6) Unleash your horde!

[MrWiggles]

I also find it much easier to start a military, if one of the starting seven has military skills, and the teacher skill.

Its like, a knowable person can pass on what he knows, instead of a bunch of no-nothing just expected to magically get better with something they never used before.

[Fredd]

On a month with no order, under any schedule, Active or Inactive, the dwarves will individually train, which means weapon practice. On a month with Train, they will give lessons, watch lessons or spar, which refreshes skills, and increases them.
 If you fore-go danger rooms, give them 3 months of no orders, then a train month, this cycle 3 times a year. It truly beats having them train constantly each month on the Active, even Inactive schedules.
 For the archers, a train month occasionally will help, to refresh basic combat skills(Dodging, and shieldwork especially. Besides easing strain on the bolt supply).
 
Aravin and MrWiggles summed it up. Prepare your troops, do not relegate them as cannon fodder

[cikulisu]

build arena, capture goblins with cage traps;
live fire training seems to be much better than sparring at increasing skills.

[zakkeh]

build arena, capture goblins with cage traps;
live fire training seems to be much better than sparring at increasing skills.

I tried this, when trying to put the goblins in the arena they were released...How do I NOT let them out until they're in a nice, secure arena?

[RTiger]

I don't bother with military. It just causes more problems for me then anything else.

[UnrealJake]

build arena, capture goblins with cage traps;
live fire training seems to be much better than sparring at increasing skills.

I tried this, when trying to put the goblins in the arena they were released...How do I NOT let them out until they're in a nice, secure arena?

You can build the cages and then attach them to a lever elsewhere, pull the lever and the cage/s open.

[zakkeh]

build arena, capture goblins with cage traps;
live fire training seems to be much better than sparring at increasing skills.

I tried this, when trying to put the goblins in the arena they were released...How do I NOT let them out until they're in a nice, secure arena?

You can build the cages and then attach them to a lever elsewhere, pull the lever and the cage/s open.

Drat, it would've been so much fun dropping them from a 3z level height to be slaughtered by marksdwarfs =/

[UnrealJake]

build arena, capture goblins with cage traps;
live fire training seems to be much better than sparring at increasing skills.

I tried this, when trying to put the goblins in the arena they were released...How do I NOT let them out until they're in a nice, secure arena?

You can build the cages and then attach them to a lever elsewhere, pull the lever and the cage/s open.

Drat, it would've been so much fun dropping them from a 3z level height to be slaughtered by marksdwarfs =/

How many to do youhave? Build a tower/mine a pit a good few Z-Levels high and line it with fortifications, make sure you have all your men surrounding it and see if the goblin dies before it hits the ground...

[MonkeyHead]

I honestly dont know where peoples grief comes from regarding training. with care and sensible selection you can end up with badasses. I dont use danger rooms as i consider them quite exploity, and prefer the natural selection of combat, seeing as I tend to have a surplus of cheesemakers and fish dissectors.

I am 5 years into "Windstandards". I have 2 squads - swordsdwarves and marksdwarves. The Swordsdwarves have been in existance for 4 years. An incoming inmmigrant had skills of adept in sword, shield, armor and fighter, so he was the squad leader. He was given a bunch of grunts with no military skill. 4 years later each and every single one of them is legendary in at least one skill and labelled a swordmaster. 4 years to legendary - that seems like nothing. All i did was 3 months on training, 1 off, repeat (thats hint number one, assuming you use the active traning alert, not inactive). they have seen a LOT of action in killing the millions of camels that inhabit my serene desert (hint number 2 - get them to kill anything!), and have taken joy in routing several ambushes and sieges. Only 1 died, but that was when low skilled vs goblin lashers. Most recently they all bullet timed around a legendary bowgobbo and his bowgobbo pals before turning them to paste. so, yea, hint number three - set up squads led by dorfs with skills - that will help for obvious reasons. putting urist Mcholdswrongendofsword in charge will only end with dissapointment.

The process also has had pleasing results with my 3 yr old marksdwarf squad, which was formed when a master marksdwarf immigrated. he was given 9 grunts, and despite heavy losses his troops now are on the cusp of elite marksdwarf status. the huge number of bone bolts my camelkilling has provided has helped here, as has using them as permanent vulture killers.

[Langdon]

Personally I like the horrific survival chances in these later versions (as compared to the easy skillup in 40d, where more military dwarves die to sparring accidents than actual combat). I like having heroes to fill up my mausoleums, and much like XCom, loads and loads of dead rookies mean you value the battle-hardened survivors that much more.

That probably means I'm in psychologicalshock's corner - send untested troops into battle, only those who survive are good enough for the military.

Of course, I like to stack the odds a bit in my favor - I always make sure any soldier with at least one kill has a full set of armor, and constantly check them if they still have a skill appropriate weapon equipped (there are a few equipping bugs left, even in .25).

I don't waste POWs on marksdwarves - archery can be pretty much trained consistently and constantly at the range, given a plentiful supply of bone bolts. POWs are for melee training. I also have my squads chase wildlife across the map in the early years, before the first ambushes start appearing.

It does help that I prefer slow-developing forts (I don't trade much, and don't make high value goods in the first few years, don't embark with a master stonecrafter, don't smooth anything until much later) so I have some lead time to get my defenders trained before the first ambushes come.

I do find that when they do, I lose two or three militia commanders before one of the soldiers gets skilled enough that the death rate starts going down. That's fine, I just build a few more coffins and promote a replacement. Any survivors will have a nice set of interesting scars (and my doctors can sure use the practice), for the price of a few hospital beds and/or coffins filled.