Bay 12 Games Forum

Perhaps this would also instigate a combining of diagnostician and observer?

they're cheesemakers, what other use did they have?

making...
...cheese?
_{don't hate me}

If you are making all your armor yourself (no foreign armor) and you want to cover as much of the dwarf as possible with as few pieces (most efficient uniform) you could do this:

Head: helm (does not protect face, 1 bar to make)

Upper Body: mail shirt AND breastplate (breastplate does not cover upper arms, mail shirt does. Unfortunately the mail shirt is not as strong as breastplate so upper arms are a weak point. 2 bars for mail shirt and 3 bars for breastplate)

Hands: gauntlets (1 bar to make)

Lower Body: greaves (2 bars to make)

Feet: high boots (1 bar to make)

Upper Body: stack on 3 or 4 leather cloaks (help protect the face - cloaks cover the entire body)

Shield: leather shield (same protection as metal - all shields are functionally the same)

That's 10 metal bars and 4 or 5 hides per military dwarf. You might want to train them in a danger room for a while before sending them into combat (upright spike traps with training spears work good). They will need a good armor user skill to equip everything and still move at a reasonable speed.

Other players may recommend that you stack on additional mail shirts - I'm not convinced that the extra layer(s) of protection are really worth it. It would only help protect the upper arms since you are already wearing a breastplate, and would add on extra weight which would slow down the dwarf.

Additionally others may recommend layering clothing underneath, like socks in addition to boots. I don't bother with that. I don't like painful micro-management and gearing all military dwarves with socks just adds to the complexity.

You can make the leather goods from dogs, pigs, or cats - a hide from a kitten is functionally the same as a hide from an elephant. Whether or not leather is better than cloth for protection is subject to debate, but this way at least it separates your clothing industry from your armor industry. You can make your pig tails into clothes for your civilians and your puppies, piglets, and kittens into armor for your military.

You might think (like I did at first) that the mail shirt is unnecessary - you would be wrong. A bleeding wound to the upper arms is entirely capable of killing a dwarf clad in metal armor. So at least wear one mail shirt with your breastplate. But the fact is, there is no shaped armor to wear here. This will always be a weak point.

Now is this setup as effective as multiple layers of clothing and armor on every part of the dwarf? Maybe not, but even if so I don't think there would be much of a difference. It's more important to cover as much of each dwarf with shaped metal armor as possible than it is to layer their armor. Their face and upper arms will be the weak point, and if they are struck down in combat that's where it's going to happen, but you can only effectively cover the face with metal masks (foreign armor)  and there is no shaped armor for the upper arms.

Goblins wear masks, so if you get a goblin invasion, make sure you loot their corpses. I believe you can wear a mask and a helm at the same time.

I hope that helps.

Technically you don't need greaves if you have high boots and mail shirt, but not all dwarf civs can make high boots, and with low boots the lower legs are not covered. Only important if you are on a very metal-poor embark, or you want to lighten your dwarves

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Short answer: not really
Long answer: It'll be OKish against unarmoured opponents, the same as bone bolts, but don't expect much beyond cutting into the fat, so fairly crap as a weapon. Stick it in a weapon trap to keep some noble happy. Adornemts don't add anything to the weapon's capabilities, and since it's an axe you can't get any better penetration with a stab, like you could with a pike or spear.

Floor off an area under your entryway and build a bridge over it, when goblins come, release the bridge, the goblins fall, and are effectively smashed with a giant block of platinum.

His nose is upturned, his close-set eyes are somewhat round, his double-braided beard is extremely gay.

His shoulders are broad and powerful, his glutes are hard as gabbro, his jawline is dreamy but he greets everyone with "HAY GIRLFRIEND!".

I just want this to be a RAW modification.
Please toady...

Finally finished my 73 layer pump stack - infinite green glass serrated discs here we come!
Only have copper on this embark, but traded enough steel to equip my lone soldier in full steel.
Also, cyclopses really need a buff, one stab in the arm with a copper short sword and he keeled over in pain

2 miners just fell down the stairs, into the caverns, they instantly splatted.

It would be sort of interesting if they made something other than slabs. Personally though, I'd rather see gods crafting any kind of object, rather than just weapons. It could fill in a lot of plotholes in the production chain and possibly provide a more colorful questing experience if some god's twisted metal bucket becomes a highly sought after relic that everyone wants.

The secret of anvils unveiled at last