Print

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

[Legless]

Hi guys. So, the subject is clear. 100+ dworfs fort. Second siege is on its way.
Need you wise advice about
-optimal squad size;
-required minimum dworfs on duty;
-priority of armor equipping (I have a lot of copper, but lack of steel. Which armor parts are worth being out of steel and which can be out of copper? e.g mail shirt>helm>greaves>boots>gauntlets)
-quantity off-duty months and training months per year
-similarity of uniform in one squad (e.g Everyone have silver hammers or different weapons at all)

I hope I mentioned everything could remember. Coolstoryies are welcome too.

[Erkki]

Hi guys. So, the subject is clear. 100+ dworfs fort. Second siege is on its way.
Need you wise advice about
-optimal squad size; For training purposes 2. For combat, unless you like pausing and pressing lots of buttons, probably 10, depending on wanted composition weapons/equipment wise as well as full strength

-required minimum dworfs on duty; 10, all of them... They'll get a negative thought if they are on duty for more than about 4 months, but good food and bedroom outweight it easily(and once they get level 12 in any weapon they forget about it)

-priority of armor equipping (I have a lot of copper, but lack of steel. Which armor parts are worth being out of steel and which can be out of copper? e.g mail shirt>helm>greaves>boots>gauntlets) Gobbos use iron, copper and silver weapons. Bashing weapons will hurt regardless of armor. Copper and especially silver weapons cutting/edge weapons have tough time penetrating any metal armor. Make sure you only make copper shields(material doesnt matter in shields as long as the Dwarf doesnt decide to try and bash something with it) to save iron and steel for other parts... I'd go with mail shirt, greaves and high boots priorized.

-quantity off-duty months and training months per year in practice not required

-similarity of uniform in one squad (e.g Everyone have silver hammers or different weapons at all) Easier control and less messy equipping when everyone in a squad is similarly equipped. If you lack the equipment(or equipment made of certain material), you can for example make all-copper-armor squad uniforms and then manually give the best dwarves better equipment.

Hope that helps.

[darkflagrance]

Good advice, I'd just add that I like to have six 5-man squads so that I can achieve more versatile deployments of my military.

[zwei]

If shield material does not really matter for defence, I would consider making wooden shields - cheap and fast.

[Reelyanoob]

I think there's still a bug where every metal item costs 1 metal bar to produce, rather than what it's supposed to cost (can anyone verify this is still correct?). When you melt down a breastplate, you get 0.9 bars back, eg 90% return (it's a glitch basically). So making a lot of copper breastplates is a good way to train your armourer up without using up too much metal. Or you could churn out some steel breastplates with a low-level armourer, then when he's gotten to a high level (on copper stuff), melt them down to make high-grade armour.

Don't forget all the cloth/leather layers you can have, as part of the uniform, and I hear some people have 3 mail shirts under the breastplate, so churn these out.

Also, buy out all the armour/weapon/metals the caravans/invaders bring, to use or melt down. btw, I even buy the wooden stuff from the elves, wooden gauntlets/helm/leggings are better than nothing at all, and they have wooden shields for sale too, saving on materials.

[Legless]

Thanks guys for advice.
I have a little frustration though (tons of adamantine and steel for shields)
I really did't catch this thing: e.g. I have 4-dworf-squad. Minimum presence on duty is 4 too. Will they go sleep/eat/drink when in need? Or just they will starve to the death? I always set the minimum on N-1, so one of them (who is most laziest) goes messing around. Then they take turns. Or I did it wrong?
And what minimal level of Armorsmith is acceptable for finished armor? I have an Accomplished Armorer and approximately one month before siege.

[Erkki]

Thanks guys for advice.
I have a little frustration though (tons of adamantine and steel for shields)
I really did't catch this thing: e.g. I have 4-dworf-squad. Minimum presence on duty is 4 too. Will they go sleep/eat/drink when in need? Or just they will starve to the death? I always set the minimum on N-1, so one of them (who is most laziest) goes messing around. Then they take turns. Or I did it wrong?
And what minimal level of Armorsmith is acceptable for finished armor? I have an Accomplished Armorer and approximately one month before siege.

They'll drink, eat and sleep as when they need to. Off-duty soldiers will just idle off, haul things and maybe do some "individual training" at the barracks. Only drawback of having everyone active is the small negative though.

[Legless]

They'll drink, eat and sleep as when they need to.

Oh god, my native dfwiki lied (it said dworfs shall die if minimum>=dworfs in squad)! Okay, I will build barrack right in the cavers, in order not to fuck with patrolling and burrows. Anyway, thank you very much for help!

[darkflagrance]

For fortress-made armor, it shouldn't be long before your armorsmith produces masterworks with a decent level of frequency if you do the remelting of breastplates training method, so only settle for masterwork or exceptional quality armor (which you won't want to melt anyway) unless you expect goblins within the season or are already under siege.

[Dutchling]

Squads of 10 with 10 minimal training works fine for me

[wuphonsreach]

I prefer 5-dwarf squads as a trade-off between squad size / micromanagement.  Usually (2) marksdwarf squads with the rest as melee squads (2-4 additional squads).

As the fort gets older, some squads end up with 6-8 members instead of only 5.