Squad

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v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

For enemy squads, see ambush and/or siege.

A dwarf squad ready to deliver permanent deaths.

A squad is a group of military dwarves who share the same schedule and active military orders. Squads are a fundamental part of your fortress' military — they are the units who carry out all the orders you give them. Your ability to manage these iron-blooded dwarves could spell the difference between a healthy fort's life and death.

For quick reference: from the main game screen the squads menu is accessible through the q key and the burrows menu is accessible through the U (shift+u) key. The squad menu and all its sub-menus are designed to be navigated almost exclusively with mouse rather than keys.

For simple, very basic, unarmed and unarmored instructions on how to attack a creature, see attack.

Forming Squads

Before you do anything with your military, you must go into the nobles screen and appoint a militia commander. Your fortress can only have one militia commander, who acts as the commander-in-chief of all squads. The militia commander also serves as the leader of your first squad.

Each squad after the first will have its own militia captain, who reports to the militia commander. Squad captains can be designated through the nobles screen, or by creating a new squad in the squad menu and then assigning a dwarf to the first position of that squad.

Once you have a militia commander appointed, when going to the squad menu you'll notice an option to "Create new squad." When you click this button to create a squad, you may be asked which militia captain should lead this new squad if you have appointed captains that are not currently leading one, other wise you will be asked which uniform to give the squad. The game creates three uniforms by default; if you aren't sure what to use, or if you want to customize their uniform, choose "No uniform". (See Equipping Soldiers, below, for details.)

Once the first squad has been created, you can then fill out the squad with any militarily-capable dwarves in your fort, of which no more than ten can be assigned to any one squad. When you add a dwarf to one squad they will be removed from another; for this reason you will always see the majority of your dwarves in the assignment menu. Dwarves that are already in a military squad will have the name of that squad and their position within it listed in yellow text above their name, allowing you to skip over them if necessary. The assignment menu is found by clicking on the 'positions' bearded face icon above the squad name.

Equipping Soldiers

In the squad menu, select one or more squads by clicking the checkbox next to their name, then click "Equip" to view a summary of their assigned equipment. Color-coded icons will show whether the squad has their equipment fully equipped (green basic symbol), partially equipped (white)^[Verify], assigned but not equipped (yellow with three dots), or missing (red with exclamation point).

From this menu, uniforms can be created and saved using the "Add uniform" button or assigned to squads to overwrite their existing equipment with the "Assign uniform" button. Uniforms are essentially a pre-designed set of equipment that you can quickly apply to any individual soldier or entire squad. You may wish to create new uniforms, and add or remove items from any uniform (even the standard ones). While using the "Add uniform" menu, uniforms are only created or modified, not applied.

While still in the "Equip" menu, "Assign uniform" to open the choose uniform sub-menu and select one of your uniform templates to apply to all selected dwarves. Squads can be selected or deselected at any point in this process to change who you are assigning the uniform to without closing any of the sub-menus. Once you have all the squads selected whom you want to use the same uniform, you can click the uniform's name to apply it. The choose uniform sub-menu will close and the squads' previous uniform will be overwritten. You can also edit one position's uniform at a time by selecting the "Details" menu next to the position name. It is important to remember that this uniform is applied to that squad position rather that a particular dwarf. The uniform can be changed as discussed below and/or saved as a new uniform by typing a name into the textbox at the top of the menu, pressing enter the clicking "Confirm and save uniform."

In the "Details" or "Add uniform" sub-menus, you can select pieces of equipment to create a uniform with the equipment buttons - "New bodywear", "New headwear", "New legwear", "New handwear", "New footwear", "New shield", and "New weapon". You can also specify the "Mat"erial and "Color" of the equipment by clicking one of these buttons next to it. Finally, there are two settings that can be toggled in the bottom left of the menu: "Uniform worn over clothing" and "Partial matches okay". These are both on by default. "Over clothing" means the dwarf will do their best to wear their uniform in addition to their civilian clothing; if toggled, it becomes "Replace clothing", and the dwarf will strip naked before donning their military gear. "Partial matches okay" means that if a dwarf cannot satisfy an equipment assignment, they'll substitute it with something close; if toggled to "Exact matches only", they'll go that piece of equipment rather than making do with a substitute.

To select a specific piece of equipment for an individual position (such as an artifact), select "specific _____" under that equipment type (e.g. "specific armor" in the Armor field); for your convenience, highest-value equipment is listed first.

You have the option to wear equipment over clothing or to replace clothing using the "Uniform worn over clothing" button on the equipment screen. Wearing armor over clothing can cause problems as some civilian clothing (caps, gloves, and shoes) will conflict with their military counterparts (helms, gauntlets, and boots). Even though the Uniform menu will show that these items have been assigned to a solider, they will not actually be able to wear them. To avoid this use the "Replace clothing" option. As armor counts as clothing, dwarves will not get bad thoughts if only wearing armor as long as their feet, lower body, and upper body are covered.

Currently it is not possible to assign ammunition for ranged soldiers, only the default "Archer" uniform is assigned ammunition by default, so the only consistent way to make functional marksdwarf squads is to create a new squad using the default archer uniform from the start.^Bug:0012008 The dwarves will decide for themselves what ammunition to use, so they may waste all the nice metal bolts training and end up fighting battles with only wooden bolts, although the AI is intended to favor worse ammo for training. Also note that quivers must be available for marksdwarves to equip bolts/arrows. They are not assigned in the "Uniform" menu tab and are automatically retrieved by dwarves that require them.

In previous versions soldiers who have more than one item to put on would not use distance to determine which of the remaining items will be equipped next. Therefore it was best to keep all dwarf-usable equipment within a small area, ideally near your barracks. The way dwarves equip gear has changed slightly^v0.50.01, so it is uncertain if this is still necessary.

The "Equip"-"Details" menu can also be used to see what equipment has been assigned, without changing it. And the summary icons in the main "Equip" menu can show whether the status of your squads' equipment For example, if your 9th and 10th squad members have a red pair icon with and exclamation point for their gauntlets, then you may want to make some more, and if the boots icon is yellow with three dots you may want to check that all the equipment is accessible and that the dwarf has enough space on their body to equip all their items (not missing limbs or wearing too many layers of clothes). Pressing "Details" lets you see precisely what items the dwarf has been assigned.

Dwarves do not share weapons and armor even if in the same squad and even if the equipment is currently unused by another squad-mate who is off duty. This means, for example, that you cannot have one set of armor for a squad of four dwarves who share guard duty one at a time. When one dwarf is relieved from duty, he may take off his armor (if set to wear civilian clothes) but the new dwarf going on duty will not then pick it up and wear it. Each dwarf in a squad needs his own uniform.

Changing Equipment

Let's suppose you started with the "Leather armor" uniform and then smithed some metal armor, and now you want to change your squads to the metal armor. From the "Equip" menu, you can access the "Assign uniform" sub-menu, which will show the standard Leather, Metal, and Archer uniforms on the left (if you haven't deleted them). To change a full squad, select the squad using the checkbox to the right of their name, then select the uniform (metal) on the left, and it will be applied. Just hope you have enough metal armor and that Urist goes and picks it up!

Equipment can also be changed on an individual level e.g. if you would like to add metal gear or artifacts as they are produced. This is done from the "Equip" menu by pressing the "Details" button to the right of a squad member's position, then changing "Mat"erial, "Color," or even the type of equipment assigned. This must then be saved by clicking the "Confirm" button or by entering a name into the textbox and pressing "Confirm and save uniform."

Dwarves will not always pick up their military equipment immediately. An off-duty dwarf will sometimes prefer to perform one of his civilian jobs rather than putting on armor, and by default squads are assigned to wear civilian clothes when not on duty, so they will not equip their gear until an active order is assigned or the routine is changed to force equipping gear while off duty. Giving squads an order will put them on duty and force them to gather their equipment with a bit more hustle.

Equipping Bone and Shell Armor

One peculiarity for equipping bone and shell armor is that, for the purposes of uniform menus, bone is white and shell is dark green. Further, they are not explicitly listed in the "Mat"erial of the "Uniform" sub-menu. A workaround for this problem is that bone and shell are the only materials of their respective colors that can be used to make armor by default. So, to add bone or shell armor items to a preset uniform template, you need to add a specific type of armor (a helm, for instance) with the modifiers of "Color" as "white" or "dark green" (thus, e.g., a "white helm"). This workaround is ONLY effective if you also have no unique artifact armor made out of a white metal (such as an Aluminum Breastplate, Platinum Helm, or Silver Low Boot). It also requires that the armor template be for "Exact matches only" (not "Partial matches okay") using the buttons at the bottom of the "Uniform" sub-menu.

Equipping Leather Shields

Leather is not a selectable material in the "New shield" screen. However, its uniformly brown colour means that you can order dwarves to use only brown-coloured shields and be reasonably confident that they will choose only leather shields. Leather and wood are quite similar as shield materials, but if your leatherworkers make better shields than your carpenters you may want to use their products instead. Highwood shields are also an option with this uniform setting, and will be chosen if their value is appropriately high.

Orders

Getting your military to actually do something is the second step. Squads receive passive orders through scheduling, and you can give direct orders to attack one or more specific targets or to move to a specific location at will through the squads menu.

Passive orders are programming that a squad will follow in the absence of direct orders. Passive orders are typically used for training and defense, while direct orders are used for taking the fight to the enemy. The squads menu is predominantly used for direct orders, and the Alerts and Schedule tabs of the military menu are used for passive orders. This article will focus on active commands; for more information on passive orders, see scheduling.

A squad that is following a direct command is free to go wherever it is ordered to go, unhindered by any burrow restrictions.

Selecting Squads/Soldiers

When needed, soldiers can be sent to do specific tasks to satiate the blood god defend your fortress. Once these orders have been canceled, your dwarves will return to their passive orders (if on duty), or their civilian lives (if off duty). Note, however, that your dwarves may continue to move towards their prior objective and mill about for some time afterwards. For this reason (and because canceling orders causes your dwarves to immediately drop any worn-out clothing) it is best to order your dwarves back to a safe area before canceling their orders.

In the squad menu, you can press a/b/c/etc to select the squad that will execute an order, or hold shift to select multiple at once. You may press p if you want to toggle between having an individual dwarf or the squad perform the order.

If a squad is off duty when you give them an order, they will switch to on-duty status before carrying out the order. This may mean they need to pick up new equipment before they will carry out their orders.

There are two types of active orders that can be given to your dwarves: a move order or an attack order.

Nobles in Squads

Here's a link to the DF forum, with some not always correct speculation on if you should put any nobles in the military: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=113639.msg3467517#msg3467517

Move Order

From the squad menu, a move order (also known as a Station order) is issued by selecting a squad, pressing m, choosing an area, and pressing enter.

Each dwarf in the squad will select a random (reachable) point within 3 tiles of the spot you specify, somewhere in that 7x7 box, and will move directly to that point. This can mean that, if they have a path, dwarves may obediently move to the "wrong" side of a wall or other barrier if those tiles are within the 7x7 box. Dwarves in the squad will stand there until you cancel the order, give a new order, or an enemy comes within sight. Also, if one is overcome by hunger, thirst, or exhaustion, that dwarf will take care of their need and then return to their squad's current assignment.

On-duty soldiers will pursue and attack any hostile targets they see, either en route to their station point, or after arriving. Hostile targets may include certain wild animals that are deemed dangerous. If the dwarf loses sight of the enemy, he will return to his chosen station point.

Attack Order

The attack order, sometimes referred to as the kill command, instructs your squad to pursue and attack one or more specific targets. It is a very unsubtle way of beating into your dwarves' booze-addled minds that they are to kill your target or be killed in the attempt. An attack order can be used to chase a kobold thief or goblin snatcher who is running away with your precious loot, or it may very well be your last command to your dwarves if things are getting desperate.

After selecting which squad will execute the kill command, press k to Attack. You now have several options: you can move the cursor to what you want to attack and press enter, press list and select what you want to attack from a list, or rectangle to select an area of things you want dead. Upon pressing enter your dwarves will happily run off to execute the order by executing the target.

Each dwarf in the squad will attempt to move toward the target until they are within striking distance. Ranged attackers will not do anything clever, like climbing up to the top of your archery tower - if you want them to fire from a specific position, use a move order instead. If they're already somewhere they can fire from safely, one can also cut off access to the intended targets and THEN issue a kill order. If they're stationed in an archery tower and ordered to kill something they can path to, they might charge the enemy even if they have a clear shot from their current position.

This order will automatically be cancelled once the intended victim is killed. If the target is caught in a cage trap, though, your squad will stand over the cage waiting for new orders; when the caged target is hauled to the animal stockpile, the dwarves given the orders to kill it will follow the cage as it is hauled and wait around it once it is stockpiled until the kill command is canceled.

Dwarves go about this with a little more vigor than required and will also attack any other creatures nearby. As a result, it is very difficult to attack members of an enemy group with any sort of precision, and if your dwarves cannot take down their target, there is no real way to get them out of combat; it's do-or-die. It is unknown whether this is a bug or a feature ^v0.34.07.

Cancelling Orders

Pressing the o key in the squad screen will cancel the selected dwarves' active orders, sending them back to their civilian or pre-scheduled military lives. It appears that this does not always work properly; as a result, your over-eager dwarves may get themselves into some trouble. Take caution when sending them deep into unfamiliar territory.

Order Scheduling

Full article: Scheduling

From the squad menu you can cycle through any alerts you have defined quite quickly by pressing t. This will set the order schedule for the entire squad even if you only have a single dwarf selected.

To edit an existing order schedule or create a new one you need to visit the military schedule screen. This can be done directly from the squad menu by pressing s or alternatively you can back out of the squad menu and use m-s to get to the schedule page from the military screen. The details of setting up an order schedule are described on the scheduling page.

Bugs

• When selecting new dwarves to place in a squad the cursor always returns to the first available dwarf instead of remaining where it is.
• Dwarves handle equipment conflicts poorly, often resulting in an ill-equipped military.^Bug:535
• Military dwarves may constantly perform "pickup equipment" jobs ^Bug:2687
• Military equipment interferes with civilian equipment (picks/axes/crossbows/quivers).^Bug:1451

Troubleshooting

Getting dwarves to collect and wear their assigned equipment can be a challenge. Here are some known issues:

• Dwarves take forever to pick up their assigned equipment
  • Issuing a "station" order near your equipment dump should motivate dwarves to collect their equipment before reporting for duty. If they are still not fully equipped then check the problems listed below.

• Some types of civilian clothing conflict with armor (caps and shoes are common culprits).
  • Toggle "Replace clothing" to force dwarves to wear the assigned armor. (You can toggle it back after they are equipped and your dwarves will add back any non-conflicting clothing.)

• Dwarves don't equip hands and/or feet completely.
  • Remove duplicate assignments. A single "Metal footwear" entry will assign a *pair* of boots; dwarves with two entries are assigned two *pair*, which cause conflicts and prevent the second pair from being equipped by another dwarf.

• Dwarves drop their assigned equipment.
  • Make sure they are ordered to wear their uniform when inactive, and disable all mining, hunting, and woodcutting labors (these labors conflict with military uniforms).

• Dwarves keep complaining of "equipment mismatch".
  • This is an "informative" message that doesn't generally indicate a problem; ignore it.

• Dwarves have tattered clothing equipped.
  • Assigned clothing will generally not be swapped for new replacements, leading to stress. Remove clothing from the dwarf's uniform, and optionally toggle "over clothing" to allow the dwarf to collect, wear, and replace civilian clothing automatically.

• Dwarves don't pick up bolts.
  • Make sure you have enough quivers and bolts. Hunters are assigned 100 bolts by default, which remain reserved whether you have any hunters or not. There have been unconfirmed reports that bolts stored in bins may also be problematic.

• Dwarves have the wrong bolts stuck in inventory.
  • Using separate bolts for combat and training does not currently work due to a bug. Assign one type of bolt for both.

• Dwarves move extremely slowly after equipping themselves.
  • This is due the weight of the armor - most metal armor is heavy. The best way to prevent this is the armor user skill, which reduces encumbrance penalties from worn armor, as even stronger dwarves can be slowed by a full set of armor. Combat training will increase a dwarf's armor user skill and strength (as will training some other skills). The increase in strength will allow them to carry more weight, but it is a very slow process.

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