Bay 12 Games Forum

And it it necessary to assign the marksdwarves to a barracks which contains the archery range?
I figured since the range allows assignments, I could simply assign that squad to train there, and leave it at that.  I do know you have to assign each and every target as a range, it doesn't encompass all archery targets in the room, like most rooms do.

In my experience, it is necessary to assign marksdwarf squads to barracks. Those can be anywhere. I let mine idle/"Individual combat drill" together with the axedwarfes around the entrance, behind the trap field. Archery range is one level up, so technically "anywhere else in the fortress".

I can also verify with an assignment of 10 minimum, my 4 troop axeman squad certainly does train, so I see no reason to put it below 10, unless I actually want some of them not to be training (Why would I do that? Have half patrol, half train?)

for example: hauler squad of 10, all hauling labors enabled, marksdwarves, leather armor. I use 3 alert leves/schedules for them:
- inactive squad is everybody go haul stuff now.
- usually I want 3 of them to train while the other 7 haul stuff. changing ratio is switching a single number depending on how many haulers I need now.
- defend burrows for wherever I need marksdwarves now.

Can anyone verify that they've successfully had marksdwarves train at the range when on a training schedule? Or does it only happen when inactive?

Let me see ... hauler/farmer/marksdwarf squad is inactive currently. Some of them are not busy so a farmer is doing archery practice on one of the 4 archery targets. Another farmer and a mason are doing "individual combat drill" at the barracks. The squad is assigned 100 bone bolts for training (about 150 on stock, only 22 of those claimed by the squad at the moment), and 150 metal bolts for combat.

22nd Galena, switching squad to training, 10 minimum. They first assemble at the barracks for some demonstrations, some gather supplies/fill waterskin...

28th Galena first active marksdwarf at the range.

4th Limestone (1 week later, 2 weeks after the switch) archery ranges are heavily used, the rest of the squad does combat demonstrations (wrestling, dodging, archery demonstration) at the barracks.

TL/DR: confirmed, it just takes a while (give it a month) of training until they really heavily use the ranges.

I haven't tried the military option yet but I'm hearing mixed feedback.  Can anyone clarify?  I have a ton of copper in my brand new fort and I was considering this option.

One thing:

Military (inactive) dwarves and civil dwarves spend their idle time in different ways. Military dwarves will go to their barracks / archery targets and train (although the barrack training will always be the highly ineffective "individual combat drill" as opposed to sparring or lessons), while civil dwarves will go to a meeting area and spend their time there.

In meeting areas, dwarves socialize - on military training, they don't. (I don't have 100% exact science on this statement, but it is at least very close to the truth based on a few 100 years of fortresses).

Socializing (-> marriage -> dwarf multiplication -> lots of relatives/kids for you military dwarves) can be an important factor for long running forts.

I play without immigrants (well, the first 2 waves) - so "social management" is very important for me, I need my dwarves to multiply a lot. But I guess that most players want to keep their kid count low - and, if possible, have the number of relatives of military personnel low.

TL/DR: Putting dwarves into military squads keeps the friends/relatives number of military personnel low because they don't socialize much/any in meeting zones. This might be great or not according to your playstile / what you want to achieve.

I use dfhack's workflow command to just set how many unused clothes I want on stock. Really, I have no clue how I was able to play without workflow.

edit: one stockpile for clothes that takes from links only, the clothiers shop and the leatherworks. All new clothes go there to be picked up by dwarves. Another stockpile for clothes that takes from anywhere and is a refuse pile aswell. Gets rid of most xclothesx fully automated.

Some of my considerations:

- Melee military is male only. I dont want kids running towards the battle after their mothers.

- Masons are - in my case - usually the first to see an ambush. Like, the moment the goblins shoot at them. So they go into a crossbow squad (inactive) and waste idle time at the armory or (much better) archery target. They got some metal bolts assigned for combat, bone bolts for training, and use up whatever bone bolts I can make.

That training makes my masons good candidates for Mechanics (replacing cages for traps on the frontline), so all masons are mechanics and architects. Depending on the situation, I turn hauling on/off for the whole squad.

- My miners also do stone detailing. I just found that I rarely do those 2 things at the same time.

- Expedition Leader is the Doctor and Animal trainer. He does not haul, stays inside burrowed and does not have any long running jobs, so he's usually free to do whatever is urgent quickly.

- I never needed more than one Weapon/Armorsmith, and he doubles as only Furnace Operator until I hit about 50 total population.

- Farmer setup seems to be very variable according to taste. At the moment I have 5 farmers for a population of 41, they do all farming except planting/harvesting/gathering (I cheat, my kids do that, but I could probably just switch those skills back on and hauling off from all farmers, I'm down to only 13 fields (3x3 inside, 2x2 outside))

Cooking and Dyeing are the only 2 farming tasks where skill level produces better items, so you might want to run specialists there.

- a single Weaver/Clothesmaker/Leatherworker can keep A LOT of dwarves dressed.


Which makes my currently 41 dwarves:
19 kids/planters/plant gatherers
5 farmers (all but the above)
1 carpenter/woodcutter/stone detailer/mechanic
3 miners/stone detailers
5 masons/mechanics
1 weaver/clothesmaker/leatherworker
1 glassmaker/crafter/bone carver
1 furnace operator/smith
4 axedwarves
1 expedition leader/doctor/animal trainer

hauling jobs are switched on/off for almost all of them according to need.

The other question is if you really want your water supplies bloody.

I usually try to totally separate water supply from possible fighting zones. Basically I fill reservoirs with pumps, then walling off the pump so that swimming building destroyers can not take that route.

But then again you might totally want your well contaminated if you're preparing for very special visitors.

You need a 3 tile wide path from the map border to your trading depot.

Most common offenders are trees and traps (wagons cannot move over traps).

My Population cap is zero (initial 7 + 2 migration waves).

Child Cap is 50:50, current population 138 (including, obviously, 50 kids).

30 military dwarfs (10xAxe, 2x3 Axe "sparring squad", 1x4 Hammer sparring, 10xCrossbow), another 20 (Masons, Farmers) carry crossbows and some armor, about to equip more haulers with crossbows.

I had problems / tantrums killing the first 2 migration waves, so those about 20 dwarfs you get from initial + 2 waves is usually what I work with.

If you start with low amount of dwarfs you might want them to idle some time so that they get to socialize/marry/breed (keep your meeting areas really small, they only talk to dwarfs on the same tile as they are). I usually have about 5-8 idlers (a few premium jobs that are not always busy but that I want done as soon as the job is up, like the glass maker (furniture), woodworker, animal trainer, mayor) but I try to regularly give the hauler team a break between bursts of activity (cleaning up invasions, stone mass hauling) where the idle cound goes up to about 30, with a good number of those actually "idling" on the archery range.

Also, just curious, how many of you even need planters? seriously.

Well, the eggs don't solve the booze and clothing issue. I mix up plants for different kinds of booze, pig tails and dimple cups for excellent clothing. Most food is processed from meat, tallow and eggs.

Just as a side note:

Oh, except for the one time one went to harvest plants, despite having that ability toggled off ages ago.

The default setting is that ALL dwarfs will harvest plants. It is toggled in the "Orders" interface (keys "o" "h" if I remember correctly, don't have DF here currently).

As this leads to children harvesting plants (they're included in the "all" part) my fortresses usually have NO dwarfs assigned to harvest labor, at least the kids are doing something useful. (oh yea, and I cheat, I assign them "plant" in Dwarf Therapist aswell. Pig Tail shortage? just make a fresh 10x10 plot and see 50 kids going for it. Also results in them growing up with some skill to switch them from Peasant to Planter before recruiting them).