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[Jelle]

Hey.
Like in the title, I'm a bit of a newb when it comes to adventure mode. So far I've had lots of fun, mostly fun through goblins ambushes and night creature attacks. I'm starting to get the hang of it though, but now I'd love to figure out how to improve my adventurer combat skill.

See the sole reason this adventurer made it this far is that, somehow I managed to recruit two rather bizare followers. One is a one eyed reptilian monster with a deadly extract from it's stinger. The other is a bull devil with the power to set things ablaze. Sufice it to say they do most of the work.

So my first problem I encounter in combat is that just about anything I fight is 5 times faster then me. Whenever I move my opponent moves 5  tiles. Whenever I attack I get over three pages of combat reports before I can make another move. Worst of all I can't even reach the enemy before my 2 friends do their work.
How do I speed up my adventurer? I should note I'm not wearing any sort of armor, just some pig tail clothes.

Second are those cursed goblins. How do I deal with them? Whenever I go out to the wilderness I'm at risk of getting ambushed by goblins, who seem to have no problem killing me before I can even land a blow. I've been steering clear of that goblin nest infestation but coming to a confrontation is inevitable. They just destroy me in seconds.

And last is there some way to supply companions? I also have a human crossbowman following me around, but she ran out of bolts some time ago. I have plenty of bolts I'm not using so I'd really like to give her those supplies. If it's not possible how do I get rid of companions? I'd rather not be dragging a helpless crossbowman with me. She's a good meatshield and does some damage bashing with that bow, but I'd rather pick up another swordsman instead.

P.S. Also what's up with those humanoid monsters? How come I, some dwarven peasant with an axe, can just recruit these monstrosities and have them obey me?

[Necro910]

I have a question as well, which could help the OP. Is it possible to hand equipment to your followers? As in, resupplying the crossbowman's ammo?

[Gearskull1]

Ok, well first off do you make use of the aimed attacks or do you just move into your targets? Also, did you start as a peasent, demigod, or hero?

I find that there are a few key things  when it comes to survival.

1. Make sure your charge prefrences are set correctly, charging or standing ground agianst something much larger than you can result in a quick death.

2. Cutting off bodyparts is very effective. I try to go for unprotected bodyparts, lopping them off if I can. This will stun your target, and may kill it via bleeding

3. Try not to engage multiple enemys at once. I tend to have it so that only one of my enemies can attack me at once. Working it down while slowly backing off if being chased by multiple foes.

4. Armor, Sheild skill, and Dodge skill will keep you alive and are the most important, also fighter skill is far more important than weapon skill.

Hope these help! Oh yeah, and never sleep alone xD

[Demonic Gophers]

Things that can slow you down:
-Low agility.  In adventure mode, agility may well be the most important quality you can have.
-Carrying too much stuff.  Bolts, for example, can be fairly heavy.  If you're carrying a lot of items, try dropping some of the heavier ones to see if your speed improves.
-Lying down.  If you aren't standing up, your speed is quite a bit lower.  Probably not your problem, but it's worth keeping in mind.
-Using a crutch.  If you hold a crutch in one hand, you'll use it even if you don't need it, and keep using it even if you put it in a backpack.  This slows you down considerably until you build up high crutch user skill.  If this happened, you might be able to stop using the crutch by [r]emoving it into your hand, then dropping it.
-Sneaking also slows you down, but you wouldn't be sneaking and attacking at the same time unless you have legendary+ ambusher skill.
-Pain, weariness, nausea, and other impairments will slow you down, but those shouldn't be constant in every battle.
-Firing a bow or crossbow takes a long time, especially at low skill.  There's likely to be pages of announcements every time you use a ranged weapon, but this wouldn't influence movement speed.

There may be other factors that could be influencing your speed, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Better speed should help against the goblins.  So should Gearskull's combat tips.  Having some sort of defensive skill is fairly crucial.  If you don't mind breaking realism for an unfair advantage until you get a better feel for how to survive in adventure mode, you can collect multiple shields, then remove them from your backpack into your hands to increase your chance of blocking.  Aiming for an enemy's foot or leg can remove their ability to stand, slowing them down and giving you a big advantage.

Right now, there's no way to give your followers supplies without using outside utilities.  I'm sure this will be added eventually, but unfortunately, an archer who runs out of ammo is currently fairly useless.  I don't know of any way to dismiss them, beyond waiting for them to get killed and then taking their armor.

Were the monsters prisoners when you found them?  I think prisoners will join anyone who offers to take them away.

[Jelle]

Ah see that's good to know, it's almost certain that all the trash I'm carrying around is slowing me down. I knew I should have expected some encumbrance when carrying around a few dozen dead bodies.

I started out as a peasant, some minor skill in fighter armor shield and axe use.

[xeivous]

Aim for unprotected body parts, hands are a good priority if you can't take a whack at their head.

Train wrestling so you can pull off cloaks and helms that are annoying to hit through.

Disable their weapon ASAP

Archers are a priority

[Seriyu]

Don't rush headlong into a group, try to be positioned so that, at any time only one creature or opponent can attack you. It can drag it out for stronger things (IE: bogeymen) but it gives you a much better chance of staying alive.

[Naryar]

You can try the ninja approach. Train ambushing by walking in sneak mode (S) as well as wrestling (best method i found for wrestling is still cutting off the stinger and pincers of a giant desert scorpion and wrestling with him).

Approach a guy in sneak mode, preferably by hiding behind trees. Lock his throat, choke it, and when he goes unconscious, shatter his skull or slit his throat.

You can also train throwing skill up to legendary by gathering hundreds of stones on the tile you stand when you are on stone, then throwing them on the same tile

Also, agility is king, and strength and toughness are important as well. You can use creativity, patience and musicality as dump stats.

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

[piecewise]

Fighter skill is the most important skill. I'm serious, you can wield practically any weapon well with a high fighter skill, to the point that putting points in weapon skills almost seems useless. You can train fighter by wrestling (there are lots of methods for getting easy wrestle targets, mine is just to attack bandit camps, kill all but one and then break all his limbs, turn combat to "close combat" and walk into him until I hit legendary +5) and once you have it high enough you're really pretty unbeatable as long as you have adequate armor/dodge.

As per other things

1. Being ambushed by bandits/hostile troops and the number of enemies that spawn when you are ambushed depends entirely upon how many men you have with you. If you have 30 men, you're gonna get swamped, but if you only have 5, it will be much more manageable. Keep your numbers low if you can, because large groups never last long.

2.Most vanilla megabeasts are pretty easy if you have a shield.

3.Aim for the enemy's weapon hand. Even minor injuries can disarm them. Also, aim for feet if you can, as damage to feet will cause them to fall to the ground and become much slower.

4.Use weapon attacks and weapons effectively. Big creatures are much too large to really be damaged by slashing, you need to stab. Likewise, blunt attacks are great against heavily armored opponents and skulls. Slashes are best used on roughly human sized opponents, specifically on unarmored parts. Blunt is difficult to kill with outright, except with a direct blow to the head, but can break bones through armor (not that this really does much since people can apparently wield a claymore with a broken elbow, forearm and upper arm). Slashing is probably the best disabling move what with the fact that it commonly severs nerves.

5.Grab the opponent's weapon with a free hand and then use (Shift+i) to enter advanced inventory and gain possession of it.

6. Charging opponents (assuming their roughly your size) is a great tactic for powerful characters. It will almost always end with the  opponent sprawled on their back and you standing over them, piercing their nipples with a halberd.

7. Never recruit bowmen, they will inevitably become useless because you can't give them arrow and they won't pick any up.

8. Never use coins to trade. It will eventually lead to massive failure.

9. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT FUCK WITH THE MINOTAUR. You're better off fighting six dragons while on fire. Bring lots of friends because the head of a bull apparently allows him to matrix through spears.

[TheMasterTurtle]

High agility and sheild skill are a must, always target the legs, feet, arms, hands or head, if none of those apply stab their lower body.

And, were did you get those demons!?!

Also, compeletly unreltated. The Protomen are awesome. I applaude Seriyu.

[Flying Dice]

Don't try to fight boogymen without legendary-level combat skills. Even then, you may or may not die.

Also, in order of priority, the strikes you should make if they have 'tricky' or better chances of hitting and 'solid' or better impact:
-Head(s) (Although with Hydras, you should probably just go for the necks, as they are easier to hit.)
-Hands/Arms
-Legs/Feet

[mars7a]

Flying Dice is right. I had legendary level combat skills and even though I survived, I got busted up bad and lost the ability to stand and move one of my hands.

@TheMasterTurtle: Stabbing their upper body is also a good alternative, as it can cause the enemy to suffocate, or hit the heart (?) and cause them to die of bleeding.

Never take on too many enemies at once. Even the most legendary adventurer can be easily taken down by multiple opponents.
When fighting small quadrupeds like badgers, kick them in the lower body to knock them over, and then finish with an attack to the head.

[iyaerP]

Don't try to fight boogymen without legendary-level combat skills. Even then, you may or may not die.

Also, in order of priority, the strikes you should make if they have 'tricky' or better chances of hitting and 'solid' or better impact:
-Head(s) (Although with Hydras, you should probably just go for the necks, as they are easier to hit.)
-Hands/Arms
-Legs/Feet

If it is a group of enemies that I am facing, I like to take a foot/leg first, so that they fall down, and I end up facing a line of limping/crawling cripples rather than a zerg rush. Sure, I don't get insta-kills like you do with headshots, but it works well enough.

[Jelle]

Thanks for all the combat advice, I'm sure it'll help a lot of newby adventurers.

Also I found out what was causing my dramatically slow movespeed. Apparently filling my waterskin caused me to drag along such a weight of water it slowed me down to a crawl. Removing it more then quadrupled my speed.

After dumping the water, I am once again happily traveling around eating elk bird egg roasts I found in my abandonned fort and swinging around my silver maul. I think I'll take a visit to the cursed frozen wastes full of skeletal yaks to train my skills a bit. 

[iyaerP]

Thanks for all the combat advice, I'm sure it'll help a lot of newby adventurers.

Also I found out what was causing my dramatically slow movespeed. Apparently filling my waterskin caused me to drag along such a weight of water it slowed me down to a crawl. Removing it more then quadrupled my speed.

After dumping the water, I am once again happily traveling around eating elk bird egg roasts I found in my abandonned fort and swinging around my silver maul. I think I'll take a visit to the cursed frozen wastes full of skeletal yaks to train my skills a bit. 

Be very VERY careful about doing that.
Skeletal yaks are more dangerous than war grizzly bears, or war tigers.

I would recommend training on some nice docile alligators first, before you go bother skeletal yaks. Or skeletal camels. Those two are both annoying beyond belief.