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[Darkmere]

I think I misunderstood the situation, it sounded like there was a viable path on the level McMiner was on and it had been blocked by a floodgate. My mistake there.

[Manic Typist]

So, after much struggle, I finally managed to get my dropchute working to quickly move my massive amounts of ores down to where my magma industry will be.

However, I can't make my necessary iron floodgates, or anything made using a normal furnace because for some reason NO ONE will burn wood. I have checked and double checked this and can't figure it out.

Also, annoyed that some of my soldiers were using training weapons when they fought off a goblin ambush. Plenty of wasted hits there.

I've tried to forbid practice weapons, but I'm not sure how to fine tune my control over my guys' armament.

Edit: Also, my dwarves have an annoying tendency of knocking themselves out when channeling. I don't know how they're doing it. Hm, perhaps it is because the...only...tile... they could channel was the one they were standing on. My bad.

[Agent_86]

(m)ilitary → (e)quipment → (W)eapon → specific weapon → whichever weapon you want them to wield.  They will carry that into battle and nothing else.

[Manic Typist]

Yeah, I've been doing that as a work around. I'm going to try to be a lot more careful about uniforms and weapons in the future though. Easier if they picked it up right the first time, you know?

So, I finally have my well/reservoirs set up. I think.

I also finally activated my first magma channeling to power my magma shops.

Right after I breach the magma pipe, I realize I forgot to put a fortification in its path to cull out fire imps.

*Sigh*

[Agent_86]

Right now, fortifications that are fully submerged (7/7) don't block creature movement, anyway.

[Ledi]

As long as the channeled part to power the magma forges is covered by the dark green part of the building, you'll be safe - creatures can't building destroy things above them.

[celem]

As far as burning wood.  You do realise it has its own 'Wood Burning' labour under farming?  Finding that was one thing that took me a month or so, furnace operator seemed to me to be the skill...

Agent_86 has it right on equipment.  You actually can issue a certain dwarf a specific '+iron helm+' if you really feel the need.  I dont bother doing specific matches unless I need a legend to equip an artifact.  Generally the military takes care of its own thing.  make a better weapon or armor piece and they will spot it and claim it automatically.

Order of claiming goes like so:  Militia commander, commanders squad descending, next captain, his squad descending etc. etc.
This means that if you say, start churning out steel armour, it will turn up on dwarves at the top of your roster first if you dont intervene, they check the piece against their own equivilent and equip the highest cash value (you can stud things to fiddle with the progression even more).  I studded masterwork copper shields until they were worth more than my iron ones...I could have also gone into their uniform and specified that their shield should be copper.

[Noir]

Indeed, when your military size grows past the 10 units micromanaging them becomes a needless chore.

Uniforms work fine, use them - but remember to set the "Exact match" and "Replace clothing" flags.

[Manic Typist]

Ah, well, glad the fortification wasn't essential after all.

Yes, I'm aware of the Woodburning labor. I enabled it on many dwarves who had nothing to do. I eventually just built another wood burning workshop and for some reason that did it. I have no idea what was up.

I usually set the weapon to "individual choice melee" and for some reason I find them using wooden weapons. I wish I could set it to "metal melee."

I don't really understand the "Exact Match" and "Replace clothing" tags. Can you explain them to me?

I thought with "Over Clothing" I could, for instance, get them to wear metal armor over leather and increase their defensive value.

[Noir]

Yes, I'm aware of the Woodburning labor. I enabled it on many dwarves who had nothing to do. I eventually just built another wood burning workshop and for some reason that did it. I have no idea what was up.

Perhaps while experimenting you have restricted access to that particular Wood Furnace to a certain set of dwarves, or to a certain skill range.

I usually set the weapon to "individual choice melee" and for some reason I find them using wooden weapons. I wish I could set it to "metal melee."

You can specify the Material of a slot, but I'm not sure this can be applied to "individual choice melee".

I don't really understand the "Exact Match" and "Replace clothing" tags. Can you explain them to me?

I thought with "Over Clothing" I could, for instance, get them to wear metal armor over leather and increase their defensive value.

"Replace Clothing" means that the dwarves will remove whatever is not listed in the Uniform, effectively wearing all and only the gear which is listed. "Over Clothing" means that they will wear the Uniform on top of their normal clothes - who usually are not leather.
It may be helpful to define the under-armor leather clothing in your uniform, and set the "Replace" flag. This is what I do.

As for "Exact match", I'm not sure what this exactly means. Perhaps it will force them to choose to wear something even if they have other constraints, such as being grown attached to a particular weapon?

[Manic Typist]

I will investigate the wood burning shop again, and see if I can get the leather/armor stacked the way I want to. I know I need capes and hoods to cover the parts that aren't normally covered by metal, right?

Also, while perusing the wiki, I found this. Is it true?

"Recruits

Any dwarf without at least one of the above skills at Novice level or higher will be classified as recruits. If you keep them off duty, they will train at their selected weapon until they reach Novice skill in it, at which point they will turn into one of the above weaponsdwarves. They will NOT train if the squad is ordered to 'train', somewhat confusingly, so a seperate squad for dwarfs with no combat skills at all is recommended until they drilled to novice in a combat skill."

[Noir]

I will investigate the wood burning shop again, and see if I can get the leather/armor stacked the way I want to. I know I need capes and hoods to cover the parts that aren't normally covered by metal, right?

I use cloacks on the body and hoods on the head (and trousers on the legs, mittens on the hands). Indeed I heard that the throat and face are not covered by metal armor.

Also, while perusing the wiki, I found this. Is it true?

"Recruits

Any dwarf without at least one of the above skills at Novice level or higher will be classified as recruits. If you keep them off duty, they will train at their selected weapon until they reach Novice skill in it, at which point they will turn into one of the above weaponsdwarves. They will NOT train if the squad is ordered to 'train', somewhat confusingly, so a seperate squad for dwarfs with no combat skills at all is recommended until they drilled to novice in a combat skill."

I don't know, I don't have too much experience in this regard.

[Manic Typist]

Well, I looked at that wood furnace and yes, somehow I'd managed to forbid anyone from using it.

Just fought of four goblin ambushes, simultaneously. Lost 9 dwarves in the process (one civilian). I think casualties would have been a lot worse if I hadn't managed to get my interior well up and running, but I really need to move my livestock out of the open (I sent my dwarves out to defend the livestock. Perhaps I shouldn't have, but I only had one wave of traps and the death-detour wasn't quite ready yet), and finish the bridges necessary to shunt goblins towards the bait kitten that is behind a door. I've double lined that hall with fortifications in the hope that will allow my marksdwarves to shoot with relative impunity.

One of the idiot recruits was STILL USING A TRAINING WEAPON. I swear I'm going to find all of them and dump them in the execution chamber..... He could have lived probably if he'd been using the real spear I'd assigned to him.

[Manic Typist]

Note to self: remove all upward ramps that are under your future magma shops, otherwise apparently the level might not consistently maintain the 4/7 necessary to stay active....

[Noir]

Just fought of four goblin ambushes, simultaneously. Lost 9 dwarves in the process (one civilian). I think casualties would have been a lot worse if I hadn't managed to get my interior well up and running, but I really need to move my livestock out of the open (I sent my dwarves out to defend the livestock. Perhaps I shouldn't have, but I only had one wave of traps and the death-detour wasn't quite ready yet)

Your dwarves (and their precious, hard-earned combat experience) is more precious than your livestock. I have built walls all around my pastures, so that they can only be reached through my fortress. I also built higher walls to prevent them from being shot at from the nearby hills (alternatively, you can build a roof).

It is far better to engage the enemies in small groups, preferably after they have been "softened up" by traps and/or markdwarves; chasing them in the open like that is a recipe for disaster (unless you have many legendary fighters).

and finish the bridges necessary to shunt goblins towards the bait kitten that is behind a door. I've double lined that hall with fortifications in the hope that will allow my marksdwarves to shoot with relative impunity.

Setting up markdwarves properly is not easy, as you can read from this thread. Once you manage though, they are extremely effective at dealing with invaders of any sort.

One of the idiot recruits was STILL USING A TRAINING WEAPON. I swear I'm going to find all of them and dump them in the execution chamber..... He could have lived probably if he'd been using the real spear I'd assigned to him.

You have not properly configured its uniform then - I use uniforms and my dwarves wear all and only what I tell them to.