Print

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

[Psieye]

Yeah its true, while having well trained and equipped troops is nice, its just marginally better than having waves upon waves of nonskilled dwarves who do not have large families or groups of friends.  There is plenty of rock to make coffins from, and the equipment of the fallen can be cycled back into service.

Provided you have enough equipment for them, yes. Armour is optional but some sites may have trouble getting enough weapons to arm the suicide soldiers.

[Hyndis]

You can buy armor from caravans and forge it out of goblinite.

[Psieye]

Which is practical for getting a few elite soldiers decked out within a couple of years. Not for decking out 50 mooks.

[Hyndis]

The point is that you can buy a whole lot of cheap gear, or manufacture some cheap gear including wooden shields and leather armor, to outfit all of the mooks.

While each individual mook isn't very tough, you make up for it in quantity. It takes years to get elite soldiers but you can recruit large numbers of poorly equipped mooks very quickly.

Also while you will take losses with your mooks, those that survive will become elite. Just keep on replacing losses in the mob of 50 mooks with new migrants or peasants, and eventually you will have 50 battle hardened elites who can rip apart dragons with their bare hands.

[drkpaladin]

Am I the only one who has a 100+ strong military decked out with every mining pick and battle axe migrants bring, along with every large copper dagger, scourge, etc that the ambushes bring?  There are more than enough wooden shields and leather armor for them all, and I almost have enough copper chain shirts for them all now too.  Had I went for magma, I could have had enough silver bolts to have made them all archers instead, well maybe the next 50 I draft can go that route.

[Hyndis]

Am I the only one who has a 100+ strong military decked out with every mining pick and battle axe migrants bring, along with every large copper dagger, scourge, etc that the ambushes bring?  There are more than enough wooden shields and leather armor for them all, and I almost have enough copper chain shirts for them all now too.  Had I went for magma, I could have had enough silver bolts to have made them all archers instead, well maybe the next 50 I draft can go that route.

I don't quite have 100+ soldiers, but I use a lot of them. They're all highly skilled just through brutal Darwinian selection.

Everything that is not masterwork is marked for melting. Through the slow upgrade process eventually I have only masterwork steel everything, but this takes years for it to happen.

[Psieye]

I see - irrelevant armour, functional shields, optional weapons. Truly a rag tag army of mooks to start with which eventually scavenges and survives enough to become proper soldiers.

[Hyndis]

Only the best of the best survive. Dwarves will intelligently upgrade weapons and armor as newer and better varieties become available, meaning you can buy wooden armor from elves and they'll wear that. Then drop it for copper armor from your forges, then iron armor, then steel, then better quality steel, until eventually everyone has only masterwork everything.

The new recruits will tend to get the junk armor. The long term elite dwarves will accumulate better and better armor. If the recruits survive long enough they will be able to upgrade their gear as you churn out the steel.

[EveryZig]

Yeah its true, while having well trained and equipped troops is nice, its just marginally better than having waves upon waves of nonskilled dwarves who do not have large families or groups of friends.  There is plenty of rock to make coffins from, and the equipment of the fallen can be cycled back into service.

You go into battle with three bolts. Pick up the crossbow of the nearest dead comrade and fight the goblin scum! Any who retreat a tile will be shot!

- From the battle of Uristgrad

[Girlinhat]

Dwarves seem to pick equipment based on value, not actual power.  They'll pick an -adamantium war hammer- above a +steel battle axe+ so be careful about silver weapons and what gets decorated with gems/metals.

[Hyndis]

Dwarves seem to pick equipment based on value, not actual power.  They'll pick an -adamantium war hammer- above a +steel battle axe+ so be careful about silver weapons and what gets decorated with gems/metals.

Yes, which is why I just make things out of steel. I don't use adamantine except for shields or edged weapons.

[Naryar]

Shields are used for shield bash and CAN cave a goblin skull inwards, but adamantine shields certainly cannot.

Copper masterwork shields = BEST SHIELD EVER, that is all.

Unless you have the rare artifact platinum/gold/silver shield, of course.

[Girlinhat]

I never see many shield bashes, most of my dwarves prefer to use their axes.  But, I have been wanting to try a dual-wield shield squad...

[Hyndis]

My General likes going Captain America on things with her artifact steel shield. She's slain several elves, goblins, and even FB's with it.

[gordy]

I danger room my marksdwarves at the archery range -  set up a row of 3x training spears where they have to stand to shoot and have the lever ok repeat whenever anyone is at the range.  I like to think its teaching them to stay calm and collected under fire (keeping their xbow on target while being prodded in the face with an -alder training spear- ).