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[gunnarig]

i go with metal uniform + wood shields and then designate weapons separade i find they usualy wear a mix of metal and leather but most of the time they at least have some piece of armor on  first pices i make out of metal are brestplates and helms. as for the weapons i tend to have one squad axe ongly one speardwarf and then a marksdwarf squad. ongly thing i directly tell them to put on is their weapons rest is up to them. most of the speardwarfs are using looted goblin spears. as they arrive with iron usualy and my speardwarfs are usualy a "Special" unit. as in shortbus special.

[Nan]

A very good starting uniform is helmet+shield+cloak. It will be fine for embark military, up until the first ambushes (if they spar in squads of 2, they will be so fast and lethal that the gobbos will be routed before they even start fighting). Adding a chain shirt, gauntlets and leggings, provides full coverage with metal. Furthermore adding a breastplate and greaves helps protect against blunt trauma.

Often I add a hood to the uniform, I figure anything that might reduce the head shots is a worthwhile investment. While a masterwork leather hood may not do much by itself, it might be enough that the steel/candy helm stops the bolt. Usually I embark with steel-making supplies so my embark military can have steel helms from the start. Head injuries are a bit less recoverable than other injuries.

Forgot about the weapon.  It seems to be common to use the individual choice option here, but from my understanding this is suboptimal.  The dwarves will waste time having demonstrations during training that will only help some of the squad, whereas if they all use the same weapon they all benefit.

Actually not attending demonstrations can be even more beneficial than "benefiting" from them... The real reason why individual choice is heavily sub-optimal is recruits will wiffle and waffle over what weapon to use, changing weapon from time to time for whatever reason (perhaps a more expensive weapon becomes available). Because of this waffling they may never gain much skill in any weapon. So I usually set the weapon type individually, and often use "specific weapon" to avoid attachment issues.

[Loud Whispers]

No, have them spar in squads of 3, set to train in the schedule for 2. This is the optimal sparring squad size that avoids unhappiness.

[Jenniretta]

I start out with leather armour, assigning a full suit, and whatever weapons I can get early (usually xbows) as the fortress grows, I trade for steel (if I can't make it on site) and upgrade armour and weapons to steel as I acquire it. For weapons, I typically assign the entire group specific types of weapons, with a specific material - so silver hammers, steel axes, stuff like that, so they're using the best material I have available for that weapon type.

So, right now, I have 3 groups of 10 military dwarves, group 1 is:
Steel breastplate
Steel gauntlets
Steel greaves
Steel Axe
Steel Shield
Steel Low boot (high boots are foreign)
Steel Helm
(any) Cloak

Group 2 is:
Steel breastplate
Steel gauntlets
Steel greaves
Silver Warhammer
Steel Shield
Steel Low boot
Steel Helm
(any) Cloak

And Group 3, my marksdwarves, are still in leather, so:
Leather Armour
Leather Gloves
Leather Leggings
Leather low boot
Leather cap
Copper Crossbow


Generally, my marksdwarves are the last ones to get updated armour, if they ever get it, since I usually keep them behind fortifications anyway. the biggest concern with them is keeping them out of secretion range of nasty beasts.

[ActnMoviHeroBoy]

great! thanks for the suggestions guys. i have a few questions though.

1. the default uniforms show a single "shields/bucklers" option. is it possible to add that yourself?
2. is there any downfall to using foreign items?
3. is there any downfall to dwarves getting attached to weapons?

[Zaroua]

Copper (or bronze/iron, if available) chain mail, breastplate, greaves, gauntlets, helmet, shield, high boots.

If steel is available, the best dwarves get a direct upgrade from the lesser materials. Weapon masters get hoods, cloaks, trousers, mittens to help out.


Also: if you have a legendary dining hall, not letting your dwarves carry food will keep their happiness sky high.

[Flodeklojo]

great! thanks for the suggestions guys. i have a few questions though.

1. the default uniforms show a single "shields/bucklers" option. is it possible to add that yourself?
2. is there any downfall to using foreign items?
3. is there any downfall to dwarves getting attached to weapons?

3: it can be, when your dwarf is getting attached to his -copper battle axe- and he doesn't want to change to that steel/candy axe you have waiting for him.

Quick question: is there a way to save your custom uniforms between games?

[Loud Whispers]

You can just change the Dwarf's item to (OVER CLOTHING) and he/she'll replace whatever attached weapon they have with the one defined. That weapon can then be atom smashed to HFS and back again!

[Telgin]

Actually not attending demonstrations can be even more beneficial than "benefiting" from them... The real reason why individual choice is heavily sub-optimal is recruits will wiffle and waffle over what weapon to use, changing weapon from time to time for whatever reason (perhaps a more expensive weapon becomes available). Because of this waffling they may never gain much skill in any weapon. So I usually set the weapon type individually, and often use "specific weapon" to avoid attachment issues.

Actually, this is a good point.  Depending on the skill level of the instructor, demonstrations can be a waste of time, and individual drills can be better.  Sparring is pretty much always better than either, I think.  However, recent !!SCIENCE!! indicates that high skill level teachers can take a dwarf from noob to respectable skill through demonstrations very quickly, so how true this is will vary depending on your teachers.  Sparring is still better though, I think.

I'll admit I hadn't considered the issue of waffling over weapons.  I tend to produce weapons of a single type in batches anyway, and only produce new ones when a squad is created.  I suppose I've just dodged the bullet on that one.

Regardless, I always go for specific weapons these days to just make life simpler.

[Loud Whispers]

I just had someone make an artefact cloak. And they're indestructible.

Oh joy.

[Nan]

No, have them spar in squads of 3, set to train in the schedule for 2. This is the optimal sparring squad size that avoids unhappiness.

I never have happiness problems with squads of 2, but I'm careful to avoid the no-civvy-skill bug, and I'm careful to give them bedrooms. This seems to be enough to keep them content, provided they aren't excessively subjected to other things which provoke bad thoughts.

[Loud Whispers]

No, have them spar in squads of 3, set to train in the schedule for 2. This is the optimal sparring squad size that avoids unhappiness.

I never have happiness problems with squads of 2, but I'm careful to avoid the no-civvy-skill bug, and I'm careful to give them bedrooms. This seems to be enough to keep them content, provided they aren't excessively subjected to other things which provoke bad thoughts.

...The sad thing is, it's not a bug.

[Nan]

Evidence? Common sense would have it that career military should get that unhappy thought when they are dismissed from the military and forced to make a living as a civilian. Merely being "between orders" for a moment each month shouldn't be enough to provoke it.

[Loud Whispers]

Evidence? Common sense would have it that career military should get that unhappy thought when they are dismissed from the military and forced to make a living as a civilian. Merely being "between orders" for a moment each month shouldn't be enough to provoke it.

To the Dwarf, that's a whole lot of time doing nothing with no useful skills that are outside of the military.

[Nan]

I don't buy it. The time between orders is what, about 1 second real time? According to the wiki, it takes just over 1 hour real time for 1 dwarf year. One real second is thus 1/3600th of a dorf year, or 365/3600 of a dorf day. About 0.1 days, or 2.4 hours. Even if we generously round up to 3 hours, that's just 3 hours between orders. Not enough time to bemoan not having some other job to go do. In fact even if you go crazy with the guestimates and call it 2 or 3 days, it's still not enough time to get upset about not having other work. People don't get pissed off because they have a lunchbreak or a weekend.