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[Catastrophic lolcats]

Note that this isn’t a whine thread about the military but rather the usefulness of it at the start of a fortress. Its also very, very long… sorry about that.  Also if this is in the dev notes I’m again sorry.

Background

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now the main problem I see with the military screen at the early stages of an outpost it’s just far too ordered and structured for a small outpost.
Now when I think of the word militia I invasion a bunch of farmers poorly trained and disciplined turning their hoes towards enemies rather than the ground in an attempt to survive through another harsh raid.
The current military screen strikes me as far too organised for a militia and instead gives the appearance that the dwarves are all fully fledged soldiers rather than peasants trying to survive.
The military screen can also be very fiddley/time demanding and to get dwarves training forbids a large amount of your workforce.
After all this you have to set up patrols and kill orders to get it functioning. This can again be rather fiddly and by the time you got a dabbling axe dwarf you’ve had your pump operator’s brain impaled by unicorns and mandrills are playing chess from the pancreases of your farmers in the dinning hall.

Now I’m expecting NW_Kohaku to drop by and tell us all about some interesting obscure Gothic tribe or something that had a well structured and trained militia that was able to defend and assault other military forces with ease but I think the whole “small band of poor civvies fighting the world” fits better in the Dwarf Fortress universe anyway.

So what could be changed?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The military screen in the early game would have to be greatly dulled down. The ability to “unlock” a better military should be allowed later in the game by getting a higher population, special nobles, kills or investment of wealth in the military (perhaps a combination of these factors). This serves as a reward for working towards a bigger fortress and also to slowly introduce the more complex system that scares off new players (and me).
The militia system should have advantages and disadvantages as should the later stages which should tear a player between the choice of upgrading their militia into a stronger army and suffer the complexity or to stay simple and have a weaker force.

Advantages:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

*Soldiers will be drafted with ease and squads can be created much faster without the need for a militia commander (seems like a useless noble). Perhaps the squad leader should be decided on who has the better leadership personality or the one with the highest physical strength.
*Soldiers that are drafted will train automatically with no impute from the player (apart from building a barracks). This gives the appearance of militia members training after work and such while also making it easier to field a small fighting force without setting up training regimes. 
*Soldiers can not train/become champions. This can be seen as an advantage in a staring fort and a disadvantage in a bigger one. It means each dwarf is able to return to labour at will.
*Armour will be divided automatically with the strongest armour and weapons favoured.
*Perhaps dwarves should do more sparring as opposed to lessons?
*Easier to field a small fighting force in a small amount of time.
*40d like simplicity.
*Contested: Higher rates of enragement

Disadvantages

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

*Less control over the choice of armour.
*Less control over patrols and training.
*Militia dwarves hit a skill ceiling in combat training?
*Perhaps nobles will be displeased if a militia protects them?
*Contested: lower rates of martial trances.
*Contested: The lack of ability to choose what weapon a dwarf might fight with.
*Contested: Higher rate of attachment to weapons/armour that save lives.

Chances are this is poorly written since I’m fairly tired so don’t over analyse it too much.
Anyway feel free to post your feelings/comments on this

[Biopass]

Now I’m expecting NW_Kohaku to drop by and tell us all about some interesting obscure Gothic tribe or something that had a well structured and trained militia that was able to defend and assault other military forces with ease but I think the whole “small band of poor civvies fighting the world” fits better in the Dwarf Fortress universe anyway.

This is why this forum should have a "like" button.

But in all seriousness. The current system works fine. I just assign a single weapon as uniform and dump peasants into a squad assigned that uniform. It does take a little longer, but when all I need is a militia, I just grab peasants and hand out weapons. If I have an advanced fortress and I'm writing a story, that's when everyone in the guard gets a black cloak and a red tunic with their chainmail.


The system works fine for the purposes of a barebones militia. It's just a matter of ignoring the unnecessary features, and setting up the necessary ones early on. The uniform system is perfect for that.

[Draco18s]

What it's not good for is designing a military uniform, setting your military to it...and not having enough to go around.

Right now you have to have all of your swords/armor made before you assign a uniform to a dwarf or he'll be unable to later equip himself.

[Proteus]

The only thing I find really lacking about the military menu are the capabilities to individually equip dwarves with specific items.

As every item of a type is shown in the equipment list, no matter whether it is already equipped by a dwarf or not,
and you also see no information about such things in the list (like, for example, list entries having another color for equipped/assigned items)
it can very quickly happen that, by equipping one dwarf, you strip another dwarf of all of its armor (without you noticing it)

So at the moment, you can only equip them with generic [weapon/amor item of Metal x] if you don´t want to run in danger that at one time, without you knowing it, one of your melee dwarves fights naked, because all of his initially equipped armor has been assigned to other dwarves

[Draco18s]

Or crossbow dwarves meeting in the archery room  (without bolts) for a Dodge demonstration.

(I swear to god, the only thing I ever got my military to do was train dodge).

Urist McNoviceHammerdwarf the Legendary Dodger dodges the Goblin Maceman!
The mace strikes Urist McNoviceHammerdwarf in the chest anyway!
Urist McNoviceHammerdwarf has been struck down.