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[Jurph]

I have a squad of ten axedwarves wearing high-end iron gear and carrying nice iron axes.  I used Runesmith to make one of them a phenomenally good teacher, but after three years of training, most of the squad is still only one or two skill levels above Novice.  Is it really that difficult to train up?  Is the military training system broken?  I have 8 of the 10 dwarves sparring around the clock, so it's not a problem getting them to train... it just seems like they're not getting much benefit from it.

Do I need to build some Danger Room features into the barracks, like repeating spear-traps?

[AzureAngelic]

Spear traps really only build shield, armor and dodge.

My advice would be to litter the entrance of your fort with cage traps. Dig out a semi-large area as an arena, build a drawbridge as the only exit, and place an animal stockpile above it.

Once you catch some mandrills or cougars or whatever, make sure your military is kitted with at least iron stuff, then dig a hole in the arena's roof and designate it as a pit. Have your dwarves lob the animals in, and have the military slaughter them.

If you catch goblins, that's even better. Without building the cages, use [d -> b -> c] to mark them for dumping, then use [k] to unmark the cage. Check the goblin's inventory, and unmark any armor they're wearing. Drop them in, and with their armor (provided it isn't like steel or something) your dwarves should be able to beat the crap out of them, gaining plenty of experience thanks to the extended lifespan of the gobbos.

tl;dr: make them actually kill things.

[Daetrin]

Also, make your squads 3-large.  An 8-large squad does more demonstrations than a 3-large does, which are not as useful for gaining experience.

[Hyndis]

Danger room works.

Wood training spears in spike traps linked to a lever. Have your military hang out there and practice dodging spears. It works extremely well and is more or less safe.

"Sparring" practice also works. Capture some hostile creatures. Give your guys wooden weapons so they don't kill the creature quickly. Then release the creature from its cage and all of your dwarves beat it up, slowly beating it to death with wooden weapons. If the creature is a goblin be sure to order the goblin's weapon dumped. Let the goblin keep the armor. Makes it last longer.

[Jayce]

Yeah its slow,but its also more challenging.Go read some of the other forum posts about speeding it up.

[Quietust]

Once they train up to a certain level, they'll start sparring with each other (just like they did in the past), and sparring dwarves seem to level up quite rapidly.

[Khift]

Once they train up to a certain level, they'll start sparring with each other (just like they did in the past), and sparring dwarves seem to level up quite rapidly.

Definitely has nothing to do with it. They'll spar at any skill level, as long as the two combatants are relatively equal. Legendaries typically won't spar with raw recruits, but accomplished will spar with talented; I've seen it many times before. No amount of waiting is ever going to increase the rate at which a squad spars; if they've got basic skills they start sparring, and that's as fast as you'll progress for that size squad.

In other news, the issue here is you have a 10 dwarf squad. Break it up into three 3 dwarf squads and you'll train three times faster because each squad can only have one sparring match going on at once. With three dwarf squads you get almost non stop sparring from all members and it trains really fast. With a ten dwarf squad you'll only have one sparring match going on at once and it progresses at a snails pace. It's not intuitive in the least, but it is the way it is.

The danger room is insanely effective. Using it, you WILL get Legendary+5 shield users all across the board in approximately a year. A legendary +5 shield user is essentially immune to all attacks -- five years after hitting that rank in my current game after dozens of fights and once using the squad to take out an entire siege by themselves (six goblin squads plus two troll squads vs. 12 dwarves, mostly 5x legendary) these dwarves have not taken a single hit since. Not one hit. It feels almost like cheating. They're still vulnerable to many special attacks (deadly dust foremost, of course), but conventional enemies can't even touch them.

[ledgekindred]

Also, make your squads 3-large.  An 8-large squad does more demonstrations than a 3-large does, which are not as useful for gaining experience.

This more than anything.  I've been doing a lot of Science on squad sizes the last week or so.  3-dwarf squads with 2 required active is absolutely optimal.  You will get at least Professional weapon skills within a year even without goblin training practice.  I've done the exact same procedures with 5 and 10 dwarf squads. 5 was bad but 10 accomplished almost nothing - in a year I had nobody above Adequate, some still Novice.

My other trick has been to grab incoming migrants with military skills and put them in squads together right away to try to equalize all their skills across the board.  (One might have good armor, another good dodge, etc.)

After your first couple squads hit a reasonable skill level, break them up and put each one of those dwarves as leader of their own 3-dwarf squad.  Pick the recruits from your dorfs with good physical stats rather than just based on military experience. Rinse and repeat.

If you do have goblin training dummies, give your 3-man dorf squads wooden weapons and let 'em loose against the unarmed goblins.  I've had an axedwarf jump from Competent to Adept from one goblin training practice(!!) that lasted only a couple minutes realtime.  If you can do that three or four times in a row without the dorfs getting hurt (the goblins will level wrestling pretty quickly while fighting) you can hit Expert or better from almost nothing in no time.

[candylord]

and fyi, I'm sure that danger room also trains fighting
cause my dwarves in the danger room hit legendary fighters even before they were legendary shields
And it might have some effect on how well they learn weapon skill, cause I've also got all of my military dwarves with legendary in all their weapons
admittedly, they didn't get that till they finished lengendary in armour, shield, fighter and dodger
so maybe it was just my dwarves were just that awesome by the point they finally decided to swing their weapons around

[Khift]

Danger rooms definitely train Fighter and [Weapon]dwarf. My archery range is a danger room in it's own right and when my marksdwarves were actually training they gained ranks in Fighter extremely fast, faster than any other skill, and they gain Hammerdwarf very fast as well, often faster than they improved at Marksdwarf!

[candylord]

ugh, I know what you mean
my marksdwarves are all Hammer lords =/
all of them have legendary hammer, and less than great for their crossbows =[

Also, since when could dwarves equip bows?
cause I have 2 dwarves carrying bows and they seem to be using them fine...

[greycat]

I absolutely hate it when my hunter dwarf chooses to equip a bow.  Yes, they can use a bow just fine, if they have arrows.  But you can't make arrows.  You can only buy them or take them from the bodies of goblins.

[Quietust]

They'll spar at any skill level, as long as the two combatants are relatively equal. Legendaries typically won't spar with raw recruits, but accomplished will spar with talented; I've seen it many times before.

Actually, I've observed a novice speardwarf sparring with my legendary sword/mace/axedwarves, and it had the rather interesting effect of rapidly training their Shield User skill all the way up to Legendary+5 - for whatever reason, 2 sparring axe lords seem to almost always hit each other (and "lightly tap"), while the unskilled speardwarf was getting nearly every single attack blocked.

[candylord]

to be honest, I have way too many arrows
mostly from all the elven caravans I've killed, but I rthink I have about 2-3000 wooden arrows =/
and all for 2 bow dwarves....

[Bognor]

Actually, I've observed a novice speardwarf sparring with my legendary sword/mace/axedwarves

Hey that's interesting!  Did you notice anything rare about this crazy novice's personality?  Is he "a risk-taker and a thrill-seeker"?  Or "naturally trustful of everybody"?  Perhaps he "always acts without considering alternatives or thinking through possibilities"?