Talk:Army

Could we get a screenshot of different types of army on the Adventure travel map?

DPhKraken (talk) 22:16, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

I have tried to force a lieutenant to be appointed, but to no avail. I removed all other commanders and limit stricktly that this was the only position that had even a squad. I made the civ much more aggresive, nothing worked. Joostheger (talk) 09:08, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

A few things concerning armies (and combat between armies). Not yet ready for the actual article (and the info is upto 53.11 only as I am still on 53.11): 1. History figures as army leaders (controllers) will be created "on the fly", if a site creating an attacking army has otherwise no suitable history figure as army leader. (But it is possible to create an army without history figures as "commander"/leader via dfhack, if the purpose of the army is only the creation of a new site - the "master_id" needs to be set to the id of the army_controller or another valid army_controller otherwise the game will eventually crash, eg. when trying to found a site).

2. For defending sites also army leaders (for defense) might be created on the fly (but at least in one case there was not, allthough the attacked site was a forest retreat of an elven civ, that did just receive their new first settlement and did lack any history figure as they had all died when that elf civ did lose their last site some years earlier).

3. If an army splits up to attack not only the original target (ie. dark fortress), but also the connected "hamlets" (ie. dark pits), then no hist figs as army leaders for the "sub-armies" (attacking the hamlets) will be created at that stage (hist figs seem to be only created, when the original army is formed).

4. In case of 3 for the defenders army leaders (to repel the sub-armies) might get created on the fly - further details are yet unclear.

5. Combat in world-activities (during fortress mode) and world gen usually seems to be between either a) two hist figures or b) a hist figure and a non-hist figure (population, ie. elves, goblins or "minion" like cave dragons, lions etc.), but never between non-hist figures, meaning that if either side lacks a history figure as part of an army, then only opposing hist figures in the enemy army can be eliminated, but not the non-hist figure parts (like normal soldiers or "minion" animals).

6. It seems that history figures, even if the history figure is only a plain old "pack animal" of a trader (like a yak), will perform much better than it would perform, if it were not a history figure. Ie. it is unlikely that a yak will consistently do well against multiple rhinos, giant elephants etc (and killing some of them, without getting killed). Allthough it might just be that such history figures (even if the creature is an animal) gets the benefit from the usual equipment of that civilization and thus have an advantage in combat.

7. Armies founding a site: if the site is of type forest retreat, dark pits (dark fortress), hamlet/town, hillock/fortress/mountain hall then the army will belong to the corresponding civ (in all so far observed cases).

8. A civ (in world activities of the fortress mode) will usually only have an army, when the army is currently supposed to do a mission, like found a site or attack an enemy. Armies directly belonging to a civ (and not a site government or other entity type) will only linger around longer, if for some reason (eg. after an attack), the army is not set to return home (and usually the army was "defeated" in that case). In such cases such army remnant can be around for an indefinite amount of time (ie. still be around 10 or 20 years later).

9. Most site governments, even if the entity does not have any positions, will have armies with a patrol mission. (I have not tested yet, whether, if I create an elven ranger position for the civ, the elven ranger might become the leader of such a patrol army)...

10. An army which is moving will - during fortress mode - set up a camp each (calendar) day for some time (that day). Usually the army will then also create another smaller army (with a separate army controller) to patrol during that time.

11. It seems that if an army is formed by the civ (for attacking another site), then the army will only be composed from inhabitants from that site, both historical figures and non-hist figs.

12. Technical site-note: When a civ has an attack target then the civ entity will have a site link (of type none) to the attack target site.

13. Currently it is not in any way considered, when forming an army (to attack a non-player site), if the army would have any chance at all to win (ie. because bigger armies were sent there in the past seasons, always with totally underwhelming results, ie. no losses on the defending side) or if such actions would only totally depopulate the site. Ie. a civ will happily form each season a new army from its site as long as there are either any inhabitants or hist figures which can be put into the army and if for some reason the site does not have any inhabitants (and hist figures) left but gets a pack animal (from a trading caravan) in one of the following seasons it will happily afterwards form a one-yak army (or one-pack-animal army) to attack the site again (rinse and repeat ad neauseum).

14. The same civ can start multiple attacks per season from their capital to attack a site (up-to once every month?), but more than raised army per season by the civ (allthough the army might split up later to attack different adjacent sites) is seldom/rare.

15. There are reports by some players that sometimes sites cannot be razed, this might be connected with a totally depopulated sites (ie. due to 13), where the site no longer has any inhabitants left, especially if the site is reported to have about or less than 10 inhabitants and the combat log is basically empty (if there are no inhabitants, then non can be fought) - in that case the code portion, where a site is razed might not get executed - allthough in such cases a conquest of the site is always possible.87.143.77.75 17:26, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Some further points:

16. Also any holding that will be founded near a player fortress uses an army to move the pops there. So this probably means that to get any holdings there needs to be either another settlement of that civ on the same landmass or the settlement needs to be even the capital. Founding of such holdings (or better the creation of the army to found the holding) can happen directly after the elevation to a barony.

17. I did not yet figure out, how to make sure that the founded site (of a dwarven civ) will be a fortress (allthough with some memory hacking any created settlement can be transformed from a hillock/mountain hall to a fortress), but it seems that only the location where the site is founded decides whether a founded dwarven site is either a hillock or a mountain halls. (And it seems like armies of a dwarven civ have no problem moving through mountains at least to create sites - allthough they might have travelled underground). If most (or all of the terrain of the future settlement is mountains) then a mountain halls will be founded.87.143.64.155 22:33, 24 May 2026 (UTC)