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[Zaphod728]

Is dwarf military strategy limited to "see enemy, kill enemy"?
I am talking about engaging an enemy on open ground. I have tried to use two squads and attack from multiple sides, but it doesn't seem to help much. I would like to make my military dwarves clump up a little more, so they attack at the same time. Obviously attacking on open ground is not ideal, but sometimes the sieges refuse to actually move towards your fortress due to path finding issues. Indoors I have had better luck with burrows to make my dwarves do what I want.
Also do archers have a problem with friendly fire? I don't trust them to not shoot each other in the head.

[Chilton]

From Above:

B = Bridge
E = Elevated Path
F = Bottom Floor
C = Channel
W = Wall

ENEMY

FFFF
WFFW
CFFC
EBBE<ARCHERS
CFFC
WFFW
FFFF
^
INFANTRY

Archers up on the Bridge.

Traps make it even more effective.
The Archers cut down the Enemy on approach, and the Infantry cut them down.

On Open Fields have one Squad in the Enemies path, and two offset exponentially. When the Enemy attacks the Squad, swarm in the other two Squads. Keep any other Squads as Reserves.

[krenshala]

To keep your soldiers grouped up better you have to issue Move orders instead of Kill orders.  Once the enemies get within a certain range the dwarves will attack anyway, but by stationing them at strategic locations you can set things up so more than one squad is available to attack at, basically, the same time.  At least, that's what works for me.

[TurkeyXIII]

Archer's can't hit friendlies, no problem there.  Combat AI isn't good enough for them to not be a liability if they could.

There's an entry on the dev page that mentions formations, but for now all we've got is "See enemy, Kill enemy."  The closest thing you have to control is if you deactivate a soldier in the middle of a battle, he'll retreat instead of charge.

[krenshala]

... The closest thing you have to control is if you deactivate a soldier in the middle of a battle, he'll retreat instead of charge.

Too bad they don't always retreat in the correct direction.

[Loud Whispers]

Erm guys...

REMOVE THE EYEBALLS.

Your Dorfs now listen to you.

[thegoatgod_pan]

My strategy generally amounts to:

A. having the squads gather in a safe point.

B. having them move from the safe point to a narrow area where your marksdwarves can safely shoot, but goblin archers cannot.

C. Waiting until the goblins (or whatever) get to the narrow area, and letting the militia hit them hard, while staying together.

Wide open areas are dangerous, it is easier to watch the action, but also easier to have a squad separate, then you end up with 7 of your veterans chopping apart a single troll, while 3 of your newbs take on the lasher master and his crossbow wielding crew.

[doublestrafe]

Unless my dwarfs are vastly superior in equipment and training, I do everything I can to avoid battles in open terrain.

My favorite close-quarters battlegrounds so far are constructed by stationing several squads in a smallish room with a stairway down in the center and an unlocked hatch on the stairway. Enemies are forced to come up the stairs single file into the center of a death squad. It certainly eliminates the goblin crossbow advantage. It works pretty well as a forgotten beast strategy, too, except for the part where the soldiers all die two months later.

[C27]

One thing you can do to deal with open ground that's more interesting than turning the whole thing into a maze is to build deployment bunkers. These would be accessible through underground tunnels and able to seal themselves off by drawbridges, which can then be lowered when your squads are in position and ready. Instant surprise attack from the rear! And you can always put fortifications on a level above so you can snipe too.

[JackOSpades]

Archers behind fortifications overlooking a goblin grinder with a Balista at the far end.

as far as open ground a small number of properly trained and equiped dwarves set to patrol will usually slaughter anything upto and including megabeasts and sieges at least as far as I've seen.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

those goblins spawned right on top of 2 patroling dwarves, the other 2 wandered in later and yes both the level above and below that one are similarly swathed in blood.

[Zaphod728]

Yeah, my problem was that I had a siege that refused to move near my fortress. I didn't check, but its likely that the dwarves that were less trained were the ones to fall so quickly. I am less worried about the actual AI, I have been working on controlling my military more effectively.

I have played around with other entrances to my fortress that are full of traps and death in general. It was working great till some weird one-eyed squirrel beast decided to take out 30 of my military solo . I had weathered several invasions before that, and had reached a personal best of 175 dwarves, but now its time for a bigger and better fortress.

Anyway, a few questions:
1. It appeared that mounted goblins were trying to stay on their mounts even when the mounts were in cages. I don't know if this was what was going on, but i had a large number of goblins that just stayed in my false entrance, right on top of their mounts that were in cages.

2. Does having a militia captain with good armor/weapon skills help training?

3. Does your militia commander do anything?

4. I assume the captain of the guard is only for justice.

5. I have heard people say that they have used 1 dwarf to clear entire invasions. Do you just need to capture small animals and beat them senseless with practice weapons till you get a legendary military dude?

[schismatise]

1. Retarded AI is retarded. Similar things happen when the goblin general takes an arrow to the knee and his squad just sits there watching him bleed out.

2. Teacher skill and related weapon skill make for good training, gear is irrelevant afaik. Multiple smaller squads encourage sparring more than demonstrations, which is generally faster.

3. He allows you to appoint militia captains.

4. Yep.

5. http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Danger_room.

[Garath]

though the captain of the guard also has a squad that you can order around to fight, if you decide to do so

[Elifre]

This is the setup I'm currently working on for my main gate. I've yet to set up a proper military, but it'll consist of melee dwarves armed with pickaxes that are crosstrained with mining and engraving (squads of 3 until they have decent skills), and crossbow dwarves. Civilians not given the woodcutting task will be put in militia squads with crossbows.

^ - Bridge raising north
> - Retracting bridge
T - Weapon trap / Menacing spike trap
# - Fortification
+ - Floor
0 - Wall
- - Empty space

z = 0

FORTRESS
0^^^^^^^^0
0^^^^^^^^0
0^^^^^^^^0
0>>>TT>>>0
0>>>TT>>>0
...
0>>>TT>>>0
0^^^^^^^^0
0^^^^^^^^0
0^^^^^^^^0
0>>>>>>>>0
0>>>>>>>>0
...
0>>>>>>>>0
OUTSIDE

z = 1

FORTRESS
--------
--------
...
--------
########
++++++++
00000000
OUTSIDE


Basically the way this works is there's an airlock system using the two raising bridges. The outside bridge is a pit trap set over magma, and using the southern airlock, is a nearly foolproof means of killing invaders. For invasions where you want to collect the equipment used by the enemy, you can let them through the southern airlock while keeping the northern airlock closed. The bridges between the airlocks are retracting, forming a pit trap that drops enemies into a holding cell above the main barracks. This cell can then be flooded with magma, water, or both, or can be used to train your military. Creative use of z levels can allow you to utilize archers with fortifications, though you'll need magma-safe floodgates to prevent accidents. With the bridges between the airlocks retracted, the hallway becomes a long dodge-me trap. If the enemies are flying and able to survive the traps, you can station the melee dwarves behind the northern airlock, and provide covering fire from the walkway above. If you've left some space to either side, you can also make a branch off from the main hallway to serve as a reusable building destroyer trap, which you can find details for on the wiki.

This setup works well for numerous situations, and allows you to fight on conditions that you choose. A third airlock bridge can be put closer to your fortress to prevent disaster if your military dies, but you'd have to first choose to engage the enemy with your military.

[JackOSpades]

1. It appeared that mounted goblins were trying to stay on their mounts even when the mounts were in cages. I don't know if this was what was going on, but i had a large number of goblins that just stayed in my false entrance, right on top of their mounts that were in cages.

2. Does having a militia captain with good armor/weapon skills help training?

3. Does your militia commander do anything?

4. I assume the captain of the guard is only for justice.

5. I have heard people say that they have used 1 dwarf to clear entire invasions. Do you just need to capture small animals and beat them senseless with practice weapons till you get a legendary military dude?

ok here goes.
1. no clue but Its possible that you captured/killed that squads commander. that has been known to cause that behavior.

2. not for training, the teaching skill however does.

3. yes absolutely. if nothing else he is a normal member of your military when it comes to fighting. plus he's what you zoom to when you use zoom to squad and the rest of the squad has a habit of following him around like lost puppys

4. yes and no, his squad will be your fortresses police force (beatings and hauling people to jail, so most people give them weak weapons. note not no weapons or they might decide to administer "Stranglings" instead.) but it can also do all the things a normal squad can do. a decent jail setup can stop or at least severely reduce the number of beatings/killings they administer.

5. if your going to use creatures for training I'd go with unarmed goblins rather than critters. seemingly harmless creatures can often slaughter entire fortresses.
or on the other hand you can go the "danger room" route a training room filled with upright spike traps filled with wooden TRAINING spears (attached to a lever on repeat.) builds skill levels unbelievably fast. this is often seen as an exploit but then so are cage traps

the danger room is faster but the helpless gobs have the advantage of being able to train marksdwarves. who are much better ageist things you'd rather not fight at melee range (posionous, on fire, flying, ect.)