Dwarf Fortress > DF Dwarf Mode Discussion

How do you run your military?

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Thadeus Rains:
I usually have a squad marksdwarves, and two or three squads of melee dwarves. How do you all do it? I'm thinking of making a squad of wrestlers into marksdwarves, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not.  I just know that I need to re-think my military because as of now, things aren't working out very well.

Lord Dullard:
I do a squad of each different type of weapon. The melee squads are typically 5-6 dwarves, and the crossbow squad tends to be about double that size, sometimes a little more (you can never have enough ranged backup).

By the time I hit the 200-dwarf pop cap I usually have a 50-60 dwarf military, not counting fortress/royal guards.

Thadeus Rains:

--- Quote from: Lord Dullard on April 02, 2009, 04:30:04 pm ---I do a squad of each different type of weapon. The melee squads are typically 5-6 dwarves, and the crossbow squad tends to be about double that size, sometimes a little more (you can never have enough ranged backup).

By the time I hit the 200-dwarf pop cap I usually have a 50-60 dwarf military, not counting fortress/royal guards.

--- End quote ---

I'm down to two marksdwarves. Well, one's only a recruit, because I just drafted him. Those pesky gobbo marksmen mowed through my other ones.

Rysith:
The Lanternwebs Grand Army, the last time I checked, was 67 dwarves strong (in a 117 dwarf fortress). Four or five of those are marksdwarves, the rest of them are split approximately half and half between swordsdwarves and Axedwarves. All weaponry and armor is steel, and I've started to trade up the low-quality weapons. Training happens in batches of around 10, where they wrestle until they become wrestlers rather than recruits and are then given their weapons. I've found that there is a high enough density of skilled dwarves that I don't need to mess around with practice weapons. Over the history of the fort I've only lost two dwarves to sparring accidents.

In combat, I'll form them into squads of 6 to 8, except for the marksdwarves, who are in single-dwarf squads.

I've never really liked having large numbers of marksdwarves because I dislike their tendency to run forward and get themselves killed, as well as the logistics associated with keeping them supplied with bolts. I've found that melee dwarves do fine as long as the first squad you send in is full of skilled shield-users.

I also find wrestlers vastly overrated. A squad of wrestlers will kill off anything that they outnumber, but they take so long per enemy that if they don't outnumber the enemy they tend to get surrounded, exhausted, and hacked to bits. They also don't work well if you're trying to rescue a woodcutter or something and want to kill your enemies quickly.

I'm also fighting Orcs without sealing myself or using traps, so you may not have to do anything this extreme. If you are fighting goblins, a squad of half a dozen well-armed, armored, and trained dwarves should be able to break any siege you come across. For goblins, I'd consider adding hammerdwarves (fewer sparring injuries), since you don't need the limb-removal that you do with orcs.

Slappy Moose:
I try a different setup every game.

I've recently been experimenting with very dedicated and specific squads of dwarves; each crossbow squad has a specific tower or area to shoot from, and then I have one reaction squad for adapting to anything I hadn't planned for and supporting melee dwarves.
Then I have one or two massive squads of axe dwarves (only axes, I like the mess they make) to deal with breakthroughs of the perimeter walls, insane dwarves, etc.

I also love using 30+ plate armoured marksdwarves as executioners for trapped goblins and stuff, even though it takes a shitload of iron and steel to supply them with ammo (I cheat for it)

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