Bay 12 Games Forum

Still crossbows due to overabundance of skin rotting warlock snatchers / invasions and very cheap materials.
But I've been starting to experiment with melee as well, mainly for suicidal cleanup squads. Gemforge weapons seem to be extremely effective relative to their ease of acquisition.

Peeking at the raws for the first time now and I'm a bit confused with the multiple different GEM materials that have varying shear yields and densities. At least judging by practical tests (and the manual mentions "the created weapons are extremely sharp") they seem to be above steel for cutting but I'm wondering how they would perform as blunt weapons or armor.

Also another question related to weapons and armor. When upgraded at the weaponry / armory / engineer's forge (for traps) do they retain their previous quality levels / does the original quality affect the end product? I've done a few embarks starting with a trained gem cutter / glass maker for the purpose of arming my military with cheap but effective weaponry and haven't really delved into to the upgrade system yet. Looking at the workshops in question it seems they're operated by weapon / armor smiths and engineers and started to wonder if I should just focus on those skills instead.
Same question with pottery. The shaping and drying are done by Stonecrafter/Potter labor while the actual end product is created by an Oven Operator.

The puking could also be because of the workshop adjustments. IIRC the manual mentions that seeing a butcher or tanner do his slaughtery work can cause nausea / vomiting in the nearby dwarves witnessing the act and I also noticed one Oven Operator getting nauseous from burning vermin remains in the Crematory.

If that's the case you could try isolating those workshops by making separate rooms for them or use that one bard song which supposedly makes everyone immune to nausea.

My very first sword golem. Upgraded to maximum parameters. Made out of blue candy...

And he's hopelessly trying to pummel invaders to death with a random silk shirt he found lying around instead of using his gigantic sword.

Even before he actually picked it up he just kept grabbing and dropping enemies, kicking and punching them etc. instead of attacking with his main weapon. I think I've only seen him use his sword once on a random kobold which was instantly sliced in half.
Also this is supposedly another vanilla bug with war pets in general but golems also seem to abide by Civ Alert restrictions. He never leaves the alert area even when specifically ordered to move out of the fort.

Watermancers can freeze themselves to death with their own attacks.

I also had a case of a Fire Mage melting her own chest. The fire attack burned the waterskin she was carrying, which splashed boiling mead on her and caused some severe pain. Seems they're not immune to hot liquids.

Big thanks for replies. Haven't battled any FBs or mummies in those forts yet though I've been hunting a lot from the very start, including a bunch of snakes, grimelings, giant insects and warlocks that seem to leave a trail of purple blood. Also trying to keep an eye on the combat log in the future.

And guess I'll start churning out gold crossbows instead of steel bayonets then. Many of my elite marksdwarves are already expert hammer users and it would be waste to not put that skill to use.

In my last glacier fort I ended up having an army of 50 dwarves with a pop cap of 120, starting with 3 Axedwarves on continuous training from embark (not using danger rooms). A bit of an overkill I know, but I was able to supply the entire fort with around 5 underground farmers/cooks/brewers and didn't really have any long-term goals apart from gearing up and invading HFS (which ended up failing spectacularly despite 20 swordsmen, 20 swordmasters and one group of mixed axelords / spearmasters all equipped with addy weapons and steel armor).

In my original squad I tried to supply dwarves with weapons they were skilled at but after getting tired of micromanagement just made 4 steel geared reservist sword squads training non-stop (making swords and shields first, armor later as I got more materials and giving them addy weps once they became masters). Basically any regular idler was sentenced to eternal military service no matter their current skills, draft depression be damned.
My fort didn't need any defenses. I made my barracks right at the entrance and any unfortunate thief was instantly pulverized the moment they set foot inside. Puny 80 man gobby sieges twice a year? No problem, just throw everything at them. The worst punishment I got was one of my starter Axelords losing his leg, returning to service the next month and becoming a legendary crutch walker later.

But yes, your own goals and starter area really make the difference. When embarking on an evil biome you want some military and basic weapons / shields right from the start, even if your long-term (and pretty much the only possible) goal is to hole yourself in. In that fort I only had 10 hammerdwarves tasked on cleaning the diplomat/trader/migrant airlock room from possible leftovers even if I relied mainly on hallways filled with cage traps. Technically you could survive without any type of military on a less harsher biome but in my opinion it's good to have at least a minimal task force of 5-10 dwarves in case of nasty surprises such as failed moods. Moving units ensure you can have at least some amount of defense anywhere in the map.