User:Dree12/Sandbox

Training: self-sorting migrants

When you get a new wave of 10 or 30 migrants, especially early on, what jobs do you give them? If they have obvious likes or dislikes, you can go with those - if they like "steel", they'll be a weaponsmith or armorsmith, if they like aluminum or platinum, maybe a metal crafter, and so on. But for those who have no such special talents, you may want a bunch to become military, both weaponsdwarves and marksdwarves, and some to become haulers — who's who?

The answer is - let them decide, by what attributes they gain. Haulers need some strength if they're hauling stone (and furnace operators are not hurt by it either). Toughness is not immediately useful to anyone out of combat, but is critical to survive military training and surviving and healing from combat injuries. Agility helps anyone, giving more actions/time spent, which includes a faster movement across distances. So put any migrants who are not obviously ear-marked into a quick training program - have them mine soil for a season, or work on pumps, or assign them as your bookkeeper or smoothing stone, whatever works for you. After a few attribute gains, see where they are - send your Toughest into sparring for weaponry, your most Agile into hauling, your Strong/Agile into crossbow training, and so on. (Note - metal crossbows plus bolts weigh much more than a hand-weapon, as much as half the armor itself!) Agile makes anyone "faster", both walking and many tasks, so that is up to you to place where you want it most.

(* A Very Strong dwarf can carry most any single stone, though it takes a Mighty dwarf to carry platinum or gold ore without slowing down. A full suit of plate layered over chain armor weighs a staggering amount, but Armor user can negate part or even (at Legendary) all of that. A metal crossbow, metal bolts and backup quiver can be lugged by any unarmored dwarf, but don't allow much margin for additional armor.

Remember that the three attributes are chosen at random, and a dwarf will gain more with military or any additional training ("Hauling" doesn't give any experience). Also, soldiers that have any full rank in a civilian skill don't get bad thoughts when de-Activated, are more useful when there is no threat. Similarly, civilians who have a full rank in a combat skill get no bad thoughts when suddenly Activated when the need arises. This can be used to create civilian "reservists" who can be called upon when needed, military with a civilian application, or in a quick-and-dirty program, civilians who can better defend themselves when necessary - wood cutters with some Axedwarf, or miners with extra wrestling for when their picks get stuck in a goblin - even a few ranks can make a big difference in an ambush. There is a reason Sparta had so many citizen-soldiers.

Gobbo season open!

It can be a fairly decent idea to keep mass numbers of cheaply-made crossbows (or your lower-quality rejects) and bone/wood bolts on hand, and all expendable dwarves in one mass military squad set to use crossbows (and leather armor, if you have enough). What dabbling marksdwarves lack in speed and accuracy, they more than make up for with incredible enthusiasm, as a hailstorm of pathetically-aimed bolts will tear over anything stupid enough to move. Not nearly as effective or useful as properly-emplaced marksdwarves with high skill and proper equipment, but a good emergency measure, especially if you keep your craftsdwarves busy churning out cheap ammo from spare bones from the kitchens and cheap crossbows from fishbones from the dining hall.

Non-hunting hunters

Sometime you will embark in an area devoid of (huntable) wildlife. In that case, you can turn on the Hunting skill for all civilians and use the military menu to arm (and more importantly, armor and shield) them. Normally turning on hunting will cause dwarves to wander outside looking for wildlife, and turning it on on all your dwarves would delay your economy greatly - but without wildlife, no hunting jobs are generated, and they go about their business armed and armored. Note that if X number of hunt-able animals do appear on the map, that many dwarves will then go hunt them. Do note that hunters will sleep on the ground when they are tired instead of walking to a bed, which will result in unhappy thoughts.

Woodcutters

Any dwarf with the Woodcutting labor designated will carry an axe, even when they are not cutting wood. If one (or more) of your starting seven have one rank or more of axedwarf, no unhappy thoughts will be generated if they are drafted into active service. This dwarf might serve to fill several or all above-ground activities, such as Plant Gathering, Architecture and Masonry for bridges and defensive walls, above ground farming, and any hauling, as well as wood cutting. Later, a squad of dedicated woodcutters, possibly with some training in axedwarf, masonry and other skills, can respond en masse to orders to cut trees, providing mutual support and finishing off a large section of trees and getting back to safety that much faster. Actually training them in axedwarf is optional, but certainly helps.

Note that so long as you have no tree designated for cutting (or have no path to those trees), the woodcutters will not respond. However, if you do, as many woodcutters as trees will respond to those locations - it's recommended that if/when you do, you centralize the designations to allow them to more fully support each other.

Miners

The above tactic can also be used with Miners. When you activate a miner with a pick into the military with no weapon designated, they fight with the pick they are holding and their skill is their mining - and it's not hard for a miner to gain legendary miner skill quite quickly. Parallel problems arise when designating areas to be mined, but careful use of locked doors or hatches on mineshafts can prevent too many from responding to an area to be excavated.

A dwarf will hold either an axe or a pick, depending on which labor is activated - it's not possible to activate both at once; the game does not allow it.

1) Build your fortress so that your entrance(s) have fortifications where you can position marksdwarves. Train marksdwarves as your primary defense first, unless you've got a large undead threat. 4-8 marksdwarves w/ ammo stockpiles nearby will eliminate most threats for the first few years.

2) Build a few sets of pumps that don't connect to anything. Select your melee dwarves, but before you draft them, assign them to do nothing but pump operation until they achieve legendary pump operator status. This will give them much better stats when they eventually do become champions. and are far less likely to be injured during sparing if they have excellent stats and armor. Sparring now "lightly taps" the opponent, no real chance of harming other dwarves.

2a) Craft some <no-quality> silver weapons for your dwarves to practice with, so they {{subst:subl|Weapon#Damage calculation|aren't as dangerous}}. (See {{subst:subl|strange mood}}s for related advice on this.) weapons from whatever material you have at hand, remember to upgrade it later. Silver is the best for warhammers; focus on Steel, (Iron/Bronze), Copper - in that order of preference for basically everything else. Once they achieve champion status, switch them to Unarmed, then forbid every weapon except the one you want them to use, and swtich them back to their primary weapon type. Great armor + good stats + crappy weapons = relatively safe sparring. (Not only does this part make no sense, but legendary wielders quickly gain a preference for the weapon they use: If that happens you give them a very bad thought for taking away their prize possession; Instead, train them in what you want them to be using, then upgrade the weapon type as soon as possible - preferably before they become legendary. Alternative method of leveling, following the (older) [[1]] page set up an arena training room, strip the targets of weapons and armor (doesn't work great on animals obviously), and beat them with training weapons. ...if you're looking to only have them be brutally effective with a pick, then assign them the "Pick (Foreign)" [W]eapon within the [m]ilitary [e]quip list. It's common for them to drop it (as a mining tool) and pick it or another back up (as a weapon) or opposite as they switch between miner and militia. While extremely deadly (Arguably overpowered) to enemies, the light taps caused by sparring are still harmless. There was some talk in DF2012 about easily angered dwarves effectively berserking on their sparring opponents if losing the bout voiding the light taps, so try to avoid placing dwarves with no self control into positions to be sparring while in a poor mood in case this is correct.

3) Try to get a legendary armorsmith and weaponsmith (use [q]->hover over forge->[P]->select the specific builder to avoid allowing random people to switch out crafting, this streamlines the primary crafter leveling but slightly slows production... you can build a burrow ([w]) and have others bring him food and water while providing him an assigned bed nearby to speed it up a little.). Exceptional / Masterwork steel armor will keep your champions quite safe, and a masterwork steel weapons will devastate your foes.

4) Important safety tip: If you send your dwarves outside to fight, build ramps out of every lake on the map. Nothing is more depressing that watching your invulnerable champion drown. Or better yet give their barracks a constant 1/7 to 2/7 of water, they'll learn to swim while training normally -- as well as increasing their stats further. More often than not if they end up in the water something is attached to them, better they know how to hold their breath than trying to squirm four squares away while being held in place drowning.