Dwarf Fortress > DF Dwarf Mode Discussion

Are miners still decent reserve militia?

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VerdantSF:
I read that in older versions mining was a special civilian skill that also translated into combat prowess as long as a pick was equipped.  Can anyone confirm if miners can still bring the pain if the regular militia needs some extra oomph?  I have a legendary miner who wouldn't mind the glory of dorfy battle.

kg333:
From what I understand, miners are pretty bada$$ right now, especially since marksdwarves are currently broken.  I haven't been able to get my military working on enough of a level to try that, though.

KG

Hyndis:
Mining picks work a lot like spears (piercing damage), and its very easy to get a miner to be legendary, so you basically get a free legendary speardwarf in terms of damage done.

How squishy he is I'm not sure, depends on what sort of armor you can give him. He'll have no combat training but assuming the goblins are busy hitting someone else he should be able to dish out a huge amount of damage. Piercing attacks aren't useful against undead or constructs, but still better than wrestling.

I'd still recommend using regular military guys though. They're much more reliable and expendable.

I have most of my dwarves do all farming tasks as well as furnace operating. These are my general purpose grunts who also serve in the military. If one dies, no big deal. There are always more soap makers. Create a bunch of 10 man squads but only have 5 dwarves active at any time, give them plate armor and swords or axes (far more effective than mining picks), and they will just tear things up. Having only 5 active at a time instead of all 10 means that while 5 are busy stabbing things, the other 5 will be hauling away the spoils of battle.

Paul:
Picks still use mining skill, and they can be quite effective in the hands of a good miner.

To get them to use the picks you have to assign them though, and they are considered an exotic weapon. You'll also want to make them good picks - perhaps steel - so they can penetrate armor. Copper picks won't do much against iron armor :)

You can even train miners by having them fight with picks. I lost my legendary miner in one game and trained a new one by giving him a copper pick with steel armor and having him fight an unarmed goblin with iron armor.

LordSlowpoke:
In my game, miners are the only good soldiers.
So yeah, they're not just a decent reserve militia, if you give them proper picks they can be your royal guard.

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