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[BackgroundGuy]

If you have a jail, will the guards never use their weapons? Are beatings only ever delivered in the absence of alternative forms of punishment?

By scanning the raws and remembering my own tantrum's, I believe that, if you have a jail, beatings are delivered for PUNISH_CAPITAL under ethics, and jailing is PUNISH_SERIOUS.  It may depend based on factors I don't have access to (previous criminal record, perhaps the personality of the mayor/injured party/CoTG), but I think that's the general rule.

Some of my dwarves have both jail and beating appointed. I wonder what will be first. As for unarmed guards, bare fists seem more deadly than any training weapon to me, never saw them going Gomer Simpson style though.

I think suffocation is less from choking, and more from bruising both lungs/bruising or tearing the nervous tissue in the head or upper body.  Really, there are so many ways to incapacitate a dwarf, it's a wonder anyone lives through worldgen.

[melphel]

As for arming the sherrif/CotG, I never understood why people give him anything at all.  Adamantine may weigh as much as paper, but it is harder than diamond and suffers no deformation.  I just appoint a weak dorf, leave them unarmed, and let them punch 'criminals.'

The wiki says:

It is important to equip dwarves with weapons as an unarmed guarddwarf can easily kill a peasant by suffocating him.

Perhaps this page needs updating if this isn't the case?

Maybe my experiences are out of the ordinary, but I've had less fatalities with an unarmed CotG than one armed with ultra light blunt weapons.

[thegoatgod_pan]

bare fists are always deadly for me: even hiring a weak clumsu dwarf gives you about 2-3 beatings breathing room, before the dwarf's stats get better from practice and they kill someone.

I got lucky in my latest fort: a dwarf made an artifact blowgun--now that is a good, nonlethal weapon

[Excedion]

I usually give my captain one of the stupid artifact weapons like the blowguns as mentioned before

[Andal]

I give mine a training weapon, because unarmed usually ends up with punches to the head, jamming the skull through the brain. Never ever have had a fatality/serious injury with a training weapon.

[krenshala]

I give mine a training weapon, because unarmed usually ends up with punches to the head, jamming the skull through the brain. Never ever have had a fatality/serious injury with a training weapon.

it took seven militia dwarves armed with wooden training spears about two months to kill a moose cow in my current fortress.  they knocked it unconscious on the first hit ... then beat on its skull, bruising the fat, for the next few weeks.  i believe the moose actually died of blood lose from scratches/bites and its broken ears/nose, and not the drumming on its skull.

it probably didn't help the moose had gigantic muscles ...

[Powder Miner]

Dsarker, the scourge whip is already in the game, no need to mod it in..

[Urist Imiknorris]

And it's like a supersonic knife.

[Alastar]

Hardly supersonic, as fast as blunt weapons and morningstars (which are strictly superior to scourges, apart from not making everyone soil their maille underpants because "omfg, lasherz!").

And the cat-o'-9-tails was actually a relatively harmless disciplinary instrument... think a partially untangled rope (often exactly that on ships). It gets mentioned so often not because it was particularly harsh compared to the altneratives, but rather because it was used very liberally. Something one wouldn't do with implements that'd kill/cripple your men.

[krenshala]

Hardly supersonic, as fast as blunt weapons and morningstars (which are strictly superior to scourges, apart from not making everyone soil their maille underpants because "omfg, lasherz!").

And the cat-o'-9-tails was actually a relatively harmless disciplinary instrument... think a partially untangled rope (often exactly that on ships). It gets mentioned so often not because it was particularly harsh compared to the altneratives, but rather because it was used very liberally. Something one wouldn't do with implements that'd kill/cripple your men.

Actually, whips make that nice loud cracking noise because, when used properly, the tip breaks the sound barrier when snapped.

[melphel]

Hardly supersonic, as fast as blunt weapons and morningstars (which are strictly superior to scourges, apart from not making everyone soil their maille underpants because "omfg, lasherz!").

And the cat-o'-9-tails was actually a relatively harmless disciplinary instrument... think a partially untangled rope (often exactly that on ships). It gets mentioned so often not because it was particularly harsh compared to the altneratives, but rather because it was used very liberally. Something one wouldn't do with implements that'd kill/cripple your men.

Actually, whips make that nice loud cracking noise because, when used properly, the tip breaks the sound barrier when snapped.

The distinction here is between a scourge and a whip.  Scourges are a subset of whips, that with multiple tails, which probably would not make cracking sounds.

In relation to DF, the reason whips are deadly is because of their velocity, which can modify the force of an attack.  Whips have the highest velocity, listed as 5x (the next highest is flails at 2.5x. most blunts have 2x, edged weapons have less).  Whips may not be very big in size, but with a heavy base material the high speed and small contact area allows them to cause serious damage.

Scourges are a different weapon altogether.  They have an edged attack with a speed of 2x.  Though they are bigger than whips, small contact area with low penetration means they make very shallow piercing wounds.  Which isn't to say they can't be deadly.  I'd be leery of giving this to the CotG.

[Aspgren]

Well-armed guards: Can be used to defend the fortress in times of need.
Can kill criminals and cause tantrum spirals.
Often wounds a criminal enough for him to be put to bed. Allowing the criminal to recuperate.
Candy-armed guards:Can't defend themselves.
Can't administer justice.
Tantruming criminals can just keep tantruming and cause more damage.
Jail:Can cheer up criminals with elaborate designs.
Can cause criminals to rot away if the rest of the population is busy tantruming.
Makes for hilarious shivings and tantrum-related jailbreaks if you place them in chains so they can reach one and another.
Healthy alternative to brutal beat-downs.

These are the reasons I make a jail and give the guards crossbows. I also give the guards rooms that overlook, say, courtyards or lakes. If a thief or a crocodile or something comes near I want them to shoot it!
I mean yes. They are untrained rabble without any upper body strength, because I don't want them to beat criminals to death only within an inch of their life. At the same time what's going to happen if someone goes berzerk in jail? Those dwarves need to be shot. That's not a job for the military and their masterwork steel bolts, that's a job for the household guards and their crap gear!

[Balin]

my sheriff carries a no-quality training sword.

I crated elaborate 3x3 jails, designated restricted traffic area, but my dwarfs drink prisoner's booze and leave empty barrels/pots in the stockpile. I have to constantly monitor the barrel when someone is jailed and dump it so they don't dehydrate. Not sure if prisoners can drink from well.

b c t
d j f
s w s

b - bed
c - chair
t - table
d - food stockpile Drink(Plant)
f - food stockpile Prepared Food
s - statue
w - well

[Aspgren]

Hey I just thought of something!

 How dangerous is a bow? If a guard grabs a regular short bow and beats a criminal with it .. how serious is that really? the crossbows are heavy and used for bashing but a regular bow?

 It might be the perfect weapon! Make the guard harmless against prisoners but capable of shooting down berserkers or invaders!

edit:
 I opened arena and had dwarves duke it out in 14 duels. 7 between civilians and dwarves with crossbows.. and 7 between civilians and dwarves with bows. Everyone wearing alpaca wool clothes and the weapons made out of alder wood.
 Both bows and crossbows were unable to penetrate alpaca wool clothes. Barely even bruising their targets!

 Checking the wiki I see that the only practical difference is that bows use the sword skill and are smaller and thus somewhat weaker than crossbows in combat. Unfortunately, since you have to import them, I admit it was a silly idea.

[Rince Wind]

Just seize them from the elves.
They might even bring nice animals next year.