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[Lordraymond]

So, after the Fangs of Battle at the fort of Warhome, my first militant fortress (30% of the population was full-time military, the only defense I had was a raisable drawbridge so that the burrow-ignoring dwarves wouldn't wander out during sieges) was wiped out to a few dwarves by several lucky, quick-succession gobbo attacks.

On the next, as-of-yet unnamed fort I shall be building, I want to do my military right instead of bumbling around with military menus, no idea what to do and screwing up everything possible.

1) Is there any way to sort the dwarves on the squad assignment menu by military levels or profession? It's annoying having to sift through a hundred or so dwarves to find Urist McRecruit who I accidentally removed from a squad, or worse yet accidentally disbanding a squad and having to track all the former members down again. More of a convenience thing than anything.

2) Is it more effective to have a ragtag conglomeration of weapons based on arrived-with skills, or use one unified set of weapons, like making every melee dwarf an axedwarf, or any dwarves assigned to a specific squad a speardwarf, etc.?

3) Should I embark with my usual militant setup of two proficient teachers/weaponsdwarves and have the other five pull double-duty on a few things, or embark with only one dwarf to be set as my militia commander with just well-rounded combat skills with a sparring-based military, or some combination of the two?

Thanks in advance!

[krenshala]

Unfortunately, you currently have to pour through the list of names to find the dwarf you want.  Worse, a dwarf's name is only removed from the "available" list if he is already a member of the squad you are actively adding members to, so you can (and I have) accidentally take a dwarf from one squad and assign him to another.  Of course, this makes it easy to move dwarves from one squad to another without removing them from the military first.

Personally, I go through my dwarves as they arrive to ascertain if they have a needed (whether immediate or not) skill, and if not I note them as being a potential recruit.  If they already have a particular weapon skill I note that as well.  Then, when I'm actually assigning dwarves to my squads I check my list for those not already drafted and pick from those.  At the minimum this requires a bit of scrap paper and taking the time to check through your dwarves at least once each for pertinent skills, and if you've the drive to do so can be a full on HR hiring process nightmare paperwork-fest.

Having all dwarves in a squad equipped with the same weapons makes it easy to send squads to specific places for specific jobs (e.g., okay, marksdwarves here to provide cover fire for the axe and sword squads over here ...).  The exception is hastily conscripted levies meant to just throw bodies at the enemy so things don't go from bad to worse right away -- for those, "individual choice" works just as well as then they will at least try to get some form of weaponry, even if their absolute favorite isn't currently available.

I haven't messed much with customizing skills (I like the challenge of the vanilla skill-set ), so I'll leave answering that part to others.

[Shinotsa]

1) I haven't found an easy way to pick out the right soldiers that's built into the game, so I generally just make custom professions in Dwarf Therapist that are slightly different from the normal DF names (Axewielder, Sniper) and assign any full-time military dwarves that title. Then it's easier when looking through the menu since you just have to look for a custom profession tagged dwarf that isn't in a squad.

2) Axes are better at lopping off limbs, great for things without organs such as bronze collosi, Hammers are great for taking out goblins and other smaller creatures, spears are great for dragons and anything with vulnerable internal organs, swords are between axes and spears and crossbows are just generally nice to have as backup but not to rely on. Dwarves of the same weapon should ideally be in the same squad so that demonstrations in that weapon won't go to waste but if you use squads of 3 the dwarves will be training through sparring most of the time and that won't matter as much.

3) Embarking is a fine art. Or a crapshoot, I can't remember which. If you're in a haunted or terrifying biome you may want two, though from what I've seen the kinds of threats you'll face at embark are either too great for two dwarves or fine for one to handle. But in the end it's really just what works, what your world has to offer on embark, and what you're willing to sacrifice for skill points/armor.

Tips: Be sure to set every new squad to active/training and assign them to a barracks. I've had squads of 3 spar just fine with min 10 for training so I'm not sure how important that is. Don't forget that shields have no reliance on material so you can have everyone with copper shields to save metal for weapons and armour. Warhammers are best when made out of heavier materials such as silver, and if you're keeping a full time military be sure to keep the barracks stocked with artifacts, the larders full, and the wine cellar bursting. Tantrum spirals are much uglier when half of your population carries steel weaponry.

[krenshala]

Don't forget that shields have no reliance on material so you can have everyone with copper shields to save metal for weapons and armour.

If you have lots of trees, and little military grade metals, I recommend wooden shields instead.  Shinotsa is right on with the comment above, however.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

Don't forget that shields have no reliance on material so you can have everyone with copper shields to save metal for weapons and armour.

If you have lots of trees, and little military grade metals, I recommend wooden shields instead.  Shinotsa is right on with the comment above, however.

Dwarves hit things with shields occasionally. Heavy is good for bludgeoning. In the arena, the copper shield swordsdwarves have an advantage over even cotton candy.

The same is true for marksdwarves. Copper crossbows are slightly better for bludgeoning and the material does not effect shooting.

OP, did you get all of them to train? That's the hardest part of the cumbersome military interface.

[Blue_Dwarf]

I give my military dwarves specific nicknames, which makes them much easier to spot in the list.

First squad gets "M1" nickname, second "M2" etc.