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[Dyret]

I threw six random unskilled hobos together and let them hit eachother with swords for a few months, and they absolutely raped minotaurs, giants and ambushed as they showed up, even if they were just novices or adequate in relevant military skill and only being equipped with swords and shield, so yeah, either the whole complaint about the military being 'useless' is hyperbole or someone is doing something horribly, horribly wrong. 

[psychologicalshock]

Try goblin lashers - unlike minotaurs they'll tear your whole army apart.

[wuphonsreach]

Try goblin lashers - unlike minotaurs they'll tear your whole army apart.

Obviously, lashers are marksdwarf bait, preferably from up on a fortified wall where the lashers can't get to the dwarves.

(Lashers on cave swallows, OTOH, would be a lot of !FUN!.)

[Mungrul]

I decided to dismiss all my melee units and only keep crossbowmen with giant badgers as my melee defense.

Only in Dwarf Fortress would the entire community not comment on the wonderful absurdity of this statement.
This is why I love this game

[lanceleoghauni]

I just can't wait until dwarves can ride, I'll have my marksdwarves mounted on Grizzly bears.

[dirty foot]

I just can't wait until dwarves can ride, I'll have my marksdwarves mounted on Grizzly bears.

I plan to have badgers riding on giant badgers.

Hopefully while wielding badgers as a weapon.

[Mungrul]

I plan to have badgers riding on giant badgers.

Hopefully while wielding badgers as a weapon.

And then...
SNAKE!

[Calathar]

Don't forget to equip your melee dwarves with a full set of armor, not the default "Metal armor" uniform.

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Armor 

[ZCM]

In my old fort, I had a danger room. It was very small, only 4x1 squares. There was absolutely no room for them to dodge, so they didn't level up dodging at all. Also, no shields. They were forced to block the spears with the only thing they had: their weapons. This meant that they leveled up their weapon skills and I got six axe lords in four minutes :-)

This. A 2x2 danger room will get dwarves to ridiculous levels of fighting, shield use, and whatever weapon skill they have, very quickly. Dodging? Not so much.

[Mechatronic]

While the military interface is annoying, training military dwarves is fairly simple. Put them in squads of two. Make sure they are both carrying the same type of weapon. Make sure they both have shields. Set the squad to Active/Training permanently. There is no reason to give them time off, once they get weapon skills this just gives them a bad thought. Set them to train in a barracks near drinks, food and beds so they don't spend much time running around. Dwarves with some military skills should get to be legendary in 1-2 years. Unskilled dwarves take longer but shouldn't be much more than a few years. Results vary depending on the attributes of dwarves.

[DooMJake]

While the military interface is annoying, training military dwarves is fairly simple. Put them in squads of two. Make sure they are both carrying the same type of weapon. Make sure they both have shields. Set the squad to Active/Training permanently. There is no reason to give them time off, once they get weapon skills this just gives them a bad thought. Set them to train in a barracks near drinks, food and beds so they don't spend much time running around. Dwarves with some military skills should get to be legendary in 1-2 years. Unskilled dwarves take longer but shouldn't be much more than a few years. Results vary depending on the attributes of dwarves.

What do you mean with "put them in squads of 2" set them to "s soldiers train minimum" or do you train your 10 wannabe soldiers in 5 squads of 5 with "train with 2 minimum"

[superradish]

this is the reason i am pioneering http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80999.0, the super-soldier. Currently my second super-soldier is a duke with 106 kills, including a minotaur and a giant. He killed the minotaur and giant before they could even react. The giant befeathered beaver hill titan knocked him back and stunned him over and over but didn't actually do any damage. The fight took forever, though.

[Mechatronic]

While the military interface is annoying, training military dwarves is fairly simple. Put them in squads of two. Make sure they are both carrying the same type of weapon. Make sure they both have shields. Set the squad to Active/Training permanently. There is no reason to give them time off, once they get weapon skills this just gives them a bad thought. Set them to train in a barracks near drinks, food and beds so they don't spend much time running around. Dwarves with some military skills should get to be legendary in 1-2 years. Unskilled dwarves take longer but shouldn't be much more than a few years. Results vary depending on the attributes of dwarves.

What do you mean with "put them in squads of 2" set them to "s soldiers train minimum" or do you train your 10 wannabe soldiers in 5 squads of 5 with "train with 2 minimum"

I think you meant to type train your 10 wannabe soldiers in 5 squads of 2 with "train with two with 2 minimum", and that would be what I mean.

You'll spend a little while each migrant wave doing this and squads of two are unweildy when it comes to fighting. However I only use these little squads for training, in a barracks protected inside my fort. Once dwarves are trained up to a reasonable level I promote them to larger squads that are in a separate barracks that guards my entrance, and use these for fighting.

[drkpaladin]

Just to throw in my two cents, I have about 25 squads of 2 dwarves each.  (I have a 100 dwarf fort where all males are drafted).  I never put them in squads of 3, only 2 at a time.  You have a two sparring partners for life (or death, whichever comes first)  If you get two COMPLETELY untrained in any combat dwarves and squad them in pairs, they will start sparring off the bat (most of the time).  Give them the same weapon (should go without saying), and the only time they will take a break is when one of them creeps ahead of the other and does a training session to get his partner caught up.  I did bring two bronze swords with me on embark, that way I could draft the males right away.  My embark ended up having no metal, and I didn't wanna go straight for the pink stuff, so my first two males both got the starting short swords, my second two got the starting axes, my third ones got some migrant axes, my fourth ones got large daggers or elfwood swords, ECT ECT ECT.  By year two the traders were bringing real weapons, but I had several legendary weapon users.  I'm still working on legendary scourge and whip users, since weapons are so scarce.  They handled a large siege no prob, the only losses came from the first ambush, since the first ambush was quickly followed by a second ambush right next to the raw recruits. 

Anyways, squads of two.  It just works better.  Now putting a legendary soldier as a teacher in a class of rookies MIGHT work great, but squads of two do the trick for me, just don't give them any time off unless they are seriously depressed.

[Erkki]

While the military interface is annoying, training military dwarves is fairly simple. Put them in squads of two. Make sure they are both carrying the same type of weapon. Make sure they both have shields. Set the squad to Active/Training permanently. There is no reason to give them time off, once they get weapon skills this just gives them a bad thought. Set them to train in a barracks near drinks, food and beds so they don't spend much time running around. Dwarves with some military skills should get to be legendary in 1-2 years. Unskilled dwarves take longer but shouldn't be much more than a few years. Results vary depending on the attributes of dwarves.

What do you mean with "put them in squads of 2" set them to "s soldiers train minimum" or do you train your 10 wannabe soldiers in 5 squads of 5 with "train with 2 minimum"

This! And yes, 2/squad. Make sure the skill difference in any area(weapon, fighter, shield, dodge) is max 2. If the booze store is close, they will reach level 10-12 in less than a year.

10x2 dwarves, you'll have an effective army 2 years from embark. Not a dangerroom-steamroller army, they will take some casualties, but can handle most threats and leaves you with reserves(ability to use just, say, 50% in case the target's blood melts Dwarves etc.).