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[spacedwarf]

I'm looking for feedback concerning wounded military dwarves.  Do you think it's best to retire them back to civilianhood?  Or do their skills with weapons and armor outweigh their injuries?  I suppose it depends on the severity of the wounds.  I'm thinking missing limbs, dwarves that walk slowly because of leg injuries, etc.  I'm in my most prosperous fortress to date, sieges are not frequent but always devastating, and the majority of my military dwarves are debilitated in one way or another.

As a side question, is it normal for sieging goblins to wimp out and abandon the battlefield?  I'm always convinced that they are about to pillage my fortress, but they decide to leave.  I could be wrong, but I'm confident that they are killing 3 of my military dwarves to 1 of their goblins/trolls/cave swallows.  Seems odd that they would flee when victory is imminent.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Telgin]

For me it does indeed depend on the severity of the wound.  In my case, my soldiers tend to either get relatively minor injuries, or die.  Broken bones are fairly frequent, but don't require retirement after recovery, of course.  I had a soldier lose his ability to grasp due to nerve damage, so he obviously got relieved of duty.

I'm pretty sure I've read of soldiers with crutches doing some pretty major damage in combat, so that alone is probably not enough to warrant removal of service if he's a decent soldier.  Having an arm removed isn't a big deal, one arm is plenty.

So, for skilled soldiers, they pretty much have to not be able to carry their weapons to warrant retirement, I'd think.

As for goblins fleeing the scene, it seems to me that they'll do this after their squad has taken portion of casualties (50% maybe?).  I've seen them just randomly leave too, but it at least appears that not all squads will flee once a siege is "broken".  Never had a goblin actually make it into my fort, since my defenses seem good enough.

[King DZA]

I have a macedwarf, Kel Roldethadil(Anguishwall), who lost his ability to stand some time ago. He's the militia captain of his squad.
Not because he's an amazing soldier or anything, he gets about one kill a year. But because, by the time he makes it to the fight, his squad members have already been killed, and the attacking force has been driven off.

Moral of the story:
No matter how injured your soldiers are, they can still attain greatness.

[Moonshadow101]

I tend to turn them into captains of scrubsquads, groups of dabbling-adequate dwarves. This often practical (Expert Shield User giving constant demonstrations doesn't hurt) and has a good feel to it (grizzled veteran with a busted leg giving advice to a room full of new recruits.)

[MonkeyHead]

Who would you rather have oneshotted by a lasher, or as a boltabsorber - useful young recruit with all limbs, or crippled veteran with no arms?

Commence operation hide behind the amputee...

[King DZA]

The new recruit, actually. Urist McCrippledvet has a lot of history behind him, grand stories of surviving battles long past, and the scars to show for it. Urist McFreshblood has yet to prove himself on the battlefield, and can be more easily replaced should his performance be less than ideal.

[trees]

The only proper thing to do with a soldier who can't stand nor grasp anything is to train them up to legendary biter in a massive arena suspended over a pit of magma.

[proxn_punkd]

I've got a vet with impaired ability to grasp and impaired ability to stand-- and you wouldn't know it to watch her chug across the fortress doing heavy wood-burning and smithing civilian activities, except for the fact that her icon flickers to white now and then when she remembers she has severe nerve damage in her arms and legs. And when the call to arms goes out, she grabs and hauls axe just like everyone else.

[Garath]

black knight veterans! no arms, no legs, biting the enemy in the family jewels and shaking them around untill they pass out from pain

[Sutremaine]

Who would you rather have oneshotted by a lasher, or as a boltabsorber - useful young recruit with all limbs, or crippled veteran with no arms?

The recruit. Able-bodied dwarves with no or little combat skill are easily replaceable, but Legendary-in-everything fighters take years to get to that level if they have to teach themselves.

[GreatWyrmGold]

My veterans tend to retire directly to their coffins. The only living cripple I can think of had nerve damage from...some kind of wild animal, and got drowned with the next batch of migrants. Said cripple had little to no military skill, so I didn't care.
If I ever got a living-but-crippled champion, who somehow survived the medical system my fortresses tend to have, I'd probably keep him for something, not that I know what.

[Andrew425]

I think it's a bad idea to retire anybody from the miliary. Once in never out, except for a coffin.

If a vet has no arms then he's  taking shots for the team. If it's a recruit then he's just wasting food and a room, so send him out to the front

[King DZA]

I mostly dislike withdrawing them from military service because I imagine it would quite a depressing thing for them to go through. Years of dedication to their combat skills, only to be shoved aside by a new recruit because they failed to dodge that one arrow from a bowgoblin.

They always seem so happy right after getting back from a good battle. That innocent, childlike amusement they get from taking joy in slaughter, I don't have the heart to take that away from them.

[Aspgren]

One of my soldiers lost her hand.

She's still in active duty and doing quite well.

[zwei]

Why don't you just put them to training squad to teach new recruits?