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[Zigzom24]

I had a military of 10, fully clad in candy armor, wielding candy weapons. They were around competent in their weapons. I had a siege and an ambush. The ambush squad of about 8 goblin bowmen destroyed each of my soldiers. My soldiers are laying unconscious in a field of bodies and blood being rushed by the bowmen. I haven't used much candy armor before they were using silver and copper bolts, and copper crossbows. How much does the armor skill actually help?

[Girlinhat]

Armor skill?  None.  It only makes them faster while wearing armor, and since candy is so light it technically floats in water (if DF supported buoyancy) this doesn't help.  The dodging and shield user skills are what matter here.

[AutomataKittay]

You'd be better off worrying about shield skills. Armor skill just make them ignore the mass of the armor itself.

[_DivideByZero_]

Bows are designed to penetrate armor. Give them shields and they'll fare much better. Or be like me and make candy the dwarven equivalent of carbon nanotubes.

[Sir Iryn]

Do people honestly forget to issue their dwarves shields all that often?

[Zigzom24]

No, they all had shields, but were at best dabbling shield users.

[Monk321654]

That's why the croaked.
Unless I'm mistaken, higher shield skill means more bullets bolts blocked.

[Oaktree]

So far in my limited military experience with the dwarf militia I would say that dodge and shield use are quite important in avoiding damage.  The armor helps deflect blows and possibly reduce damage, but the other two help prevent them from hitting at all.  Armor use makes them a bit faster while wearing the armor.  I'm not sure what the "fighter" skill actually represents and does in the model at all.

[_DivideByZero_]

Fighter gives a bonus to melee combat in general. I don't believe it affects dodging, but it might.

[Cuppsworth]

I just realized why my fort fell.

Cuppsworth cancels life: Forge candy shields.

[AutomataKittay]

I just realized why my fort fell.

Cuppsworth cancels life: Forge candy shields.

Copper's the best, honestly, materials of shield don't affect the protection itself ( Outside possibly creature fire, but that's not exactly normal occurence so I don't know if even woods will hold up... ), but if you're using shields on melee dwarves, you want them to bash hard. And copper's heaviest armor material, so start bashing 

[_DivideByZero_]

It doesn't make much of a difference, honestly. Copper's nice but as long as you're not using candy, the massive surface area that shields have makes no difference.

And least I think that shields have a massive surface area.

[Zigzom24]

*facepalm* I'm using candy. Ok, so this just in. My new 20 dwarf squad rushed into combat fully armored against a single squad of goblins. Their single crossbowman shoots one bolt that insta-kills one of my favorite dwarfs. Then another. Somehow the squad of MACE GOBLINS cuts off BOTH of my axe dwarfs' hands. Both. Anyway to make the military not cannon fodder? I want my soldiers to last.

[Sir Iryn]

I thought Bismuth Bronze was better for shields than copper. *Checks Raws*

No, they're right, its copper.

Kinda funny to imagine, you have an entire candy coated army, but they're using shields of the cheapest metal available.

[Syrup Roast]

*facepalm* I'm using candy. Ok, so this just in. My new 20 dwarf squad rushed into combat fully armored against a single squad of goblins. Their single crossbowman shoots one bolt that insta-kills one of my favorite dwarfs. Then another. Somehow the squad of MACE GOBLINS cuts off BOTH of my axe dwarfs' hands. Both. Anyway to make the military not cannon fodder? I want my soldiers to last.

Danger rooms with shields (and full armor to alleviate the speed penalty) equipped. They'll be dodging/blocking bolts like Scout on Bonk.