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Author Topic: Soooo about the military...  (Read 1280 times)

Yovatsap

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Soooo about the military...
« on: May 02, 2012, 02:15:37 pm »

This is my first *serious* fort and I just got a migrant wave of 24 people, making my fort's current population 49 and I know a forgotten beast shows up when I reach 80 dwarves.

So when should I start building my military? I have some dwarves with mediocre fighting skills and one talented axedwarf right now.

Ooh, and also give me a few tips. For example I heard that female dwarves are shitty choices because they carry babies all the time and give birth during fights and stuff.

GhostDwemer

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Re: Soooo about the military...
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2012, 02:30:24 pm »

Yes, female dwarves carry around a free extra shield that cries and waves it's arms around, distracting enemies. But be aware, she is very attached to this shield and hates it when it gets stabbed.

I start working on my military in the spring of year two, but a lot of people start earlier. You don't really need weapons or armor to start, just get them practicing.

You can always use spike traps to kill FBs. Just make a hall full of upright weapons, attach them to a lever and put it on repeat. You don't actually need a military, although they are nice for the fexibility they provide. Weapon traps won't run out and save your legendary armorer who was on break in the wilderness when the gobbos arrived.
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Garath

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Re: Soooo about the military...
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2012, 04:14:24 pm »

also note that a FB CAN show up at that point, or a titan, but it isn't a guarantee. You might go for years without one
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Azated

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Re: Soooo about the military...
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2012, 07:37:06 pm »

I usually dedicate about 30%-40% of my total population to millitary, depending on the kind of materials and defenses I have in that particular fort.

First of all, make sure you can lock your fort up ASAP. Raising drawbridges do this very well.

Second, equip your dorfs with the best quality items you can. Without tempting the clowns, steel is your best bet for armor and bladed weapons, with silver for blunt weapons.

Third, train your dorfs. If Urist Mctank is equipped with full masterwork candy armor and has no skill, he's basically a walking punching bag. Weapon skill, shield skill, and dodging are the most important, followed closely by armor user.


When fighting FB's make sure you know what they're made of. If you get one made of something stupid like mist, a single poke in the ribs will make it crumble to the ground. In the reverse, one made of something like candy is essentially invincible. You're better off trapping it somewhere unless you want to cull your population a bit.
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Putnam

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Re: Soooo about the military...
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2012, 09:54:28 pm »

FBs can show up way before 80 (I once had one at less than 30).

WealthyRadish

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Re: Soooo about the military...
« Reply #5 on: May 03, 2012, 01:17:09 am »

I would start training as soon as there are loads of idlers sitting around, which is going to be at a different time depending on how quickly things get set up. Just giving them a training weapon and a shield, in squads of two, is infinitely better than procrastinating for when metal armor and weapons are available. Traps will likely be enough for quite a while, until some of the sieges get ridiculous and titans start showing up, but you can always just lock yourself inside during an emergency with drawbridges.

Having variety in your weapon choices is good as well. Axedwarves are good at killing sentients, such as goblins, as they chop limbs off like crazy. Speardwarves are good against large creatures that can't have limbs removed easily, as they puncture organs quickly. Marksdwarves require minimal training and equipment, and are often the best choice if good armor and weapons aren't available. Blunt attacks like those from hammerdwarves are good against armored enemies, though there really aren't any in vanilla where it makes a difference, except maybe early on if you're stuck using really poor quality materials like copper. They are, however, preferable to axedwarves against necro'd undead, as chopping limbs is an insanely bad thing when they all start crawling again. They suck at finishing kills, though, unless they get a lucky headshot.

Training large batches of recruits takes a massively long time if there isn't an appointed legendary champion to teach them, as random recruits will try teaching others things they have no skill at. Sparring is much, MUCH faster, and occurs quite often in small squads of 2-3. Marksdwarves are only really trained by combat and archery ranges, but those are often more of a hassle than they're worth. Training on prisoners is fastest, and prisoners' longevity can be increased hugely if they're trained using wooden spike traps.
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Tirion

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Re: Soooo about the military...
« Reply #6 on: May 03, 2012, 04:40:00 am »

For danger rooming prisoners, better yet use weapon traps with wooden training weapons :P And/or don't remove their armor, only their weapons. Disclaimer: no responsibility taken for escaping goblin supersoldiers and damage caused.

Marksdwarves are best trained if they have something to shoot at non-stop, from a safe place. A bronze colossus or similar, behind fortifications, is the best option. Or if you lack caged BCs, build a mass pitting system or some similar setup that drops hostiles and wild animals en masse to the shooting range. Bonus points if their corpses can be reclaimed in a safe manner and more bolts can be made of their bones.
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greycat

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Re: Soooo about the military...
« Reply #7 on: May 03, 2012, 09:13:31 am »

Blunt attacks [...] suck at finishing kills, though, unless they get a lucky headshot.

I still claim hammerdwarves make the best finishers against armored opponents.  Shoot 'em in the leg with a crossbow bolt, then while they're lying there, the melee dwarves will hit 'em in the head over and over and over.  If you don't have a decisive materials advantage over the enemy, your axes will just clang and bounce off the helmet.  Hammerdwarves will bash 'em right in.

This is less important in vanilla, though, where "armored" means a copper helm with a decoration.  If that's what you're facing, a steel axe can still chop through the helmet.
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