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[Onside Bump]

So I finally got around to starting my military, and set up two squads of 4. Gave them barracks, equipped them with steel weapons, and they train all the time. And they are training. I look at the job menu's, and they're sparring, setting up drills, watching drills, etc. The problem is, is that after around three seasons, they haven't actually improved much. So my question is, how can I speed up training, or if I'm not training my Dwarves properly, how can I train them properly.

[SpiralDimentia]

There's always danger rooms. But I do my best to not use those.

Honestly? Live training is where it's at. My dwarves trained for a year straight, have never even heard of a danger room, and they wreck everything. My 10 dwarves wil take on 50+ goblins and mow them down like they were made of glass. The best thing you can do early on is fully equip them. Helm, gauntlets, high boots, greaves, mail shirt, breastplate, shield, weapon. That pretty much puts them on even grounds with goblins. Then the live practice and constant training comes into effect and you have deadly fighting force on your hands. Don't be afraid of injuries, they add character. Shem, my second-in-command to Eshtan, has so many injuries its ridiculous, because I trained him by sending him against a bunch of armed goblins to wanted him dead. He flashed with a white + constantly now, but he's also my second deadliest dwarf. Eshtan got lucky and avoided any serious injuries, and she is by far the deadliest of my bunch. I've seen her take on an ambush single handedly, without going into a martial trance, and brutally butcher them all.

Regular training is slow, yes, but it's effective enough. You don't HAVE to be legendary already to beat a goblin. Or several goblins for that matter.

[Darkmere]

SpiralDimentia said everything I was going to. I fully expect danger rooms to be removed at some point so I'd rather not rely on them at all. Live training is more fun anyway, and builds plenty of character.

Once your first squad or two is up, toss new recruits in with them and their increased teaching skill will greatly accelerate the next bunch. I had some peasants hit legendary fighter from 0 in a year.

[SpiralDimentia]

Yeah. I didn't start in an evil zone so I didn't even start with a fighter. I just picked the first useless immigrant [Eshtan] and made her my militia commander. Then any immigrant that was either (a)Useless or (b) had decent military skill got thrown in with her. Now, since Eshtan, Shem, and Datan all have 60+ kills a piece, and great skills, they can teach just about anyone to wreck face. I don't even suffer losses anymore, because Eshtan keeps her troupe in line.

I think the fact that I remember my 3 greatest dwarves by name should atest to how much pride you can take in a group of warrior you train normally instead of using a danger room.

[Neyvn]

In the past it used to be "Urist practices Shadow Fighting, Urist becomes Legendary" and this is what Military Training extended to in DF, the only time you could get good boosts in training was against Living targets but even then you were not committed to get up Armour or Shield training.

In DF2010 people are not seeing that, they are seeing the Dwarves training in different skills with a Teacher who lacks Teaching skills, the ability to organized sessions quickly and efficiently, knows what he is teaching and so on. Even then the Dwarves that he is teaching do not Observe all the material, they are not good Students nor do they have good Concentrations to learn the material that is being taught. Of course the Dwarf who has never held a sword or axe in his life would know how to use it efficiently, and Danger rooms do not train a Dwarf properlly, if anything the Stats are the main thing being trained, so even a Dwarf who can pick a a Tree (as in you going outside and picking up a tree, go on try) and swing around something sharp is going to cut through a Goblin armour, but what happens after that Goblin Dodges and catches the Dwarf off guard, chances are they will die or their armour will save them...

I feel that it should be that a Dwarf who has trained with a good teacher who can teach a ton of skills and that Dwarf is a good student will be better then a Walking lump of Metal who doesn't even know which end goes into the goblin...

[Psieye]

Actually danger rooms train weapon skill the fastest because it makes them parry a lot.

Anyway, the Teacher/Student skills are vital for faster training. Consider the first year or two of squad training to be about getting the Teacher/Student skills up. I've embarked with 2 dwarves at Teacher 4, Student 4 and they got from Lv 1 sword skill to Lv 8 in less than two seasons.

[EmperorJon]

I train my dwarves in combat. But in careful combat. I remove all my Goblin prisoners' stuff then throw my military at them to wrestle them. Of course, the occasional goblin dies to a smashed brain or rib-pierced lung, but most survive. So I just repeat it. And again with new prisoners.

Eventually, when the squad is amazing in dodging, wrestling, armor and shield skills, physical attributes etc, I give them a weapon and throw them into the REAL fighting. They suck with their weapon, of course, because they have no skill in it. But they avoid all injury (well, most), learn quickly.

[Darkweave]

Embark with 2-3 dwarves with military skills and have the start training as soon as you have a basic fort with adequate food production set up. Make sure they have some teaching/organizing skills. Make sure they have water-skins and backpacks so that they don't have to wander off to the dining room all the time.

Doing the above and training in squads of ten with a minimum training number of eight I get legendary axe/fighting/shield dwarves in around three to four years. That's more than reasonable considering they get all of the other military skills up to around six to ten too. I've been told it's even faster with small squads. Just make sure you pick dwarves with at least some military skills for your squads. Attributes aren't massively important as they will improve rather quickly.

[Onside Bump]

Thanks for all the comments, guys. So so far what I've seen, is draft dwarves with the teacher skill into the military, use unarmed prisoners locked in cages, fully equip dwarves, and send them into real combat. But I have just one more question. Do training weapons speed up skill increases at all, or are they just so dwarves don't die during training (which really doesn't happen anymore.)

[SpiralDimentia]

Training weapons are the worst the best wepaons ever and should never be used always be used for evercombat scenario, though they're better for chopping wood killing forgotten beasts.

[Onside Bump]

Alright then.

[Nameless Archon]

Using training weapons has one good use: When you execute captives, strip them of their weapons but leave their armor. Then equip your trainees with military weapons and release a single captive. They'll quickly overwhelm it and start beating on it with their hilariously ineffective weapons. Eventually, they'll land a good shot and kill him, but before then, they'll spend plenty of time making attacks and thus improving their skills.

[Azated]

Thanks for all the comments, guys. So so far what I've seen, is draft dwarves with the teacher skill into the military, use unarmed prisoners locked in cages, fully equip dwarves, and send them into real combat. But I have just one more question. Do training weapons speed up skill increases at all, or are they just so dwarves don't die during training (which really doesn't happen anymore.)

Training weapons were added when sparring involved lopping your partners head off.

Now, they're pretty much useless except for danger rooms, or for a fortress guard. Be careful who you give them to though, I had a strong guard with a training spear kill a dozen or so dwarves before I realized what was happening.

[aaOzymandias]

Indeed, my militia commander killed off two ambushes by himself while he was out gathering plants for some reason. I had him set to active duty training... so I made a move commabd and he then lept right into the gobbos with his steel battle axe and armor, shredding them to pieces and making the last few gobbos run away. Then he was back gatheirng plants (no idea what made my schedule so messed up).

he did have some prior skills, but not a whole lot, he had just been training for about a year.

[Blade Master Model 42]

I only use standard training these days. It works fairly quickly if you keep your squads small, as they'll spar more often, and they generally make meat out of any goblins that come to call. I used a danger room only once (Actually, several times, but I only got it correct once), and it worked far too fast. Except for a Bronze Colossus, since my dwarves were all equipped with copper, my team of 20ish legendary soldiers turned any siege into a burial ground in moments. It felt way too exploity.