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[Ewhalecancer]

Hey guys new to the forums
I'm a lover of dwarf fortress and a veteran of many a goblin siege.
We all know the military doesn't work well, but we manage to kill forgotten beasts.
I've recently been using runesmith to make my militia commanders master teachers to train my military more efficiently. I find it fun to have an average militia instead of ungodly killing machines from the danger room. Currently i have 5 full all male militia squads of variously trained militia. 1 squad of skilled hammerdwarves. 2 squads of ok axedwarves. and 1 squad of hunter/marksdwarves.
how do you design your fort defense squad?

[krenshala]

Currently, I have 16 speardwarves in four squads, with a fifth squad of 9 marksdwarves (that have very little if any training, except for one proficient hunter).  That leaves 27 other dwarves (and three children) for all the rest of the tasks in my fortress.

[raptorfangamer]

m > c > enterx10 > n > c > various key presses > U > various key presses

I conscript and make the fighters out of the weapon mood im on.
im going to make a definite on pickfighting since I tested it on adventure mode
(quite easy to train too. just lock them near an obsidian generator and dig)

[King DZA]

Hey guys new to the forums
I'm a lover of dwarf fortress and a veteran of many a goblin siege.
We all know the military doesn't work well, but we manage to kill forgotten beasts.
I've recently been using runesmith to make my militia commanders master teachers to train my military more efficiently. I find it fun to have an average militia instead of ungodly killing machines from the danger room. Currently i have 5 full all male militia squads of variously trained militia. 1 squad of skilled hammerdwarves. 2 squads of ok axedwarves. and 1 squad of hunter/marksdwarves.
how do you design your fort defense squad?

Anyway, In my current fort, I make mismatched(except for marksdwarves) squads of three. Filled with any dwarf who has preexisting experience with combat skills. I pump out weapons and loads of armor,and then let half of the militia train for the first half of the year, and the other half train during the second.

EDIT: Oh, my militia is made up of a total of 33 soldiers. out of a pop. of 210+.

[the woods]

I floodgate them into rooms with disarmed goblin or elf prisoners. Recruits gang up on one target, then I gradually raise the goblin-to-dwarf ratio as they get more skilled. I embark with goblin neighbors and war with elves, and always trade for cages so there's no shortage of fodder.

If by some oversight the whole training division is wiped out by a bear or something I have the training room next to the reservoir and a floodgated drainage room, so I can drown whatever horrible horror kills the military.

[Lordraymond]

With fortress defense, I'm still adapting. My old way of having small master+studen squads no longer trains enough men, so once I find a decent embark I'll start with one hunter who'll become my sheriff/CotG and train another five marksdwarves with him. Other than that, it'll be an even spread of hammers (if I have silver) or swordsdwarves (if I don't) with spears and axes, probably conscripting full squads at a time even though they train atrociously that way.

I rarely get past 110 pop before some Warwolves happen to arrive with some Stranglers who invite some goblins who have some Putrid Blendec friends and they all show up at the same time on my doorstep to kill me (and accomplish that task quite well)

[NecroRebel]

I typically use a small number of hyper-elite soldiers formed in squads of 2-4. I always embark with 2 dwarves who have favorable stats (meaning healing and disease resistance) that, from very early on, train for 2 months in 3. I almost always also embark with enough malachite or native copper and cassiterite to equip them with full suits of bronze armor and a weapon. Even starting with no military, teaching, or student skill, they're still capable of dealing with early attacks without permanent injury, even with Fortress Defense on, and by the time more dangerous things appear they've either become skilled enough to handle them, gotten better-equipped as I make steel, or both. These 2 champions can usually take out full FD challenge-mode siege squads solo by the time they arrive.

Most of the time, I just give them move orders to near the enemy with the squad cursor, but later I'll sometimes make a burrow that covers the whole map and set half my soldiers to defend it for the last month of each season and the other half to defend it for the first month. They'll automatically seek out non-stealthed invaders and kill them like that. Only occasionally do I have them fail to kill a whole siege within 2 months, especially since they'll continue attempting to kill after the schedule change if they still see foes.

[Ewhalecancer]

My favorite way of training marksdwarves is just to have lots of hunters. Any who survive long enough hunting the dangers of the underground get drafted.
It's nice they act as a first warning for dangerous monsters and get food.

[612DwarfAvenue]

When i'm training up melee squads, i often just go "fuck it, use your choice of melee weapon".

[Loud Whispers]

Have the over 60% of my fort's population in the military sparring constantly by the end of year 1. Arm them with whatever I can. Have the entire fort in the military sparring constantly by the end of year 2. Since I rarely embark with metals as well, I have to arm them with salvaged weapons and armour. Which means I end up with senior squads with the best gear leading an army of legendary wrestlers, which I rarely even have to call to arms... But when I do...

[Elf Lover]

I've never really had the military work properly. This one time, a long time ago, I came across a FB in the caverns I had just breached. So, I walled up the entrance, and created two squads of mediocre dwarf-soldiers, armed with the best weaponry and armour I could get my hands on (mostly steel, but with one artifact pewter glove), and unwalled the entrance.
I promptly sent in my squads, and watched with dismay as they promptly got torn apart by the beast's claws and lobbed into the walls. The things which happened to my war dogs I will not mention.

Shortly after, I designated some stuff to be mined, mistakenly designating something inside the caverns. So, my legendary miner wanders in, promptly gets attacked by said FB...and smashes it's skull in.


Miners > Everything.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Thus, the Miner Death Squad was born. And for decades afterwards, said miner was drenched in booze to last his life, and covered in food to last two lives.

I also had a FREAKING CAT AND HER BABIES KILL AN FB when my military was whittled down to one novice miner armed with a steel pick.

Either that or I was drowsy and something else happened.

[Chilton]

I just Conscript a bunch of folks, make them go through a Danger Room (I dont consider it cheating. I consider it to be Conditioning, since I dont use Armour), and Spar regularly. Then I let them resume duties until needed. In other words, I build them up, then let them focus on other stuff.

[Triaxx2]

I tend to have one guy who's truly awesome. He goes and kills things until I get some cannon-fodder... migrants I mean. usually I end up with at least one usable migrant.

But that initial guy tends to turn into a monster of death and destruction.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

....

We have a winner up here. The Lone Migrant Badass.

He was shunned in the Mountainhomes, even by his own parents. He came out to the frontier to prove himself...and became a legend.