Military testing

This page on the wiki houses trials run within the game by players, with the intention of arriving at conclusions on how certain combat situations work, or just combat in general.

If you want to know more about how to do your own testing go to the DF2010:Arena wiki article. To learn more about the military and how it works in Dwarf Fortress, go to the DF2010:Military article.

The format in which trials are presented here is by no means a strict rule. Feel free to add and change elements but make sure the information is easy to read and understand. Try to provide any information you think is relevant and useful without digressing too much.

Standard format for testing trials

Here's an example of how to present your test's information. If you're not sure how to make tables and stuff, just copy this from the edit page and fill it with your own information.

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	6	Grand Master Swordsdwarf Grand Master Elf-hater	Tower-cap stake
#2: Corinthian Magma Weasel	6	-no skills-	-no items-
#3: Tea cup	6	Legendary Absurdist	Mustard

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	0	Severed limbs Bruised internal organs	Tired Bored Extreme Pain	Infection
#2: Corinthian Magma Weasel	3	Broken nose Broken toes	Nauseous	Severed head
#3: Tea cup	1	Cracked handle	-none-	Slippage

Notes: The creatures were placed in tight groups, spaced equally apart. The dwarves died fast from injuries caused by the tea cups the magma weasels were throwing. The weasels died from friendly fire.

Tester's conclusion: The test was meant to test how 3 different sides interact in combat and if any creature uses other creatures as projectiles. As far as this test goes, it seems to be true.

DF2010 (0.31.16) tests

Dwarves against Skeletal Horses (tested by: plynxis)

Times run: 2

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	6	-no skills-	full iron armor (with chain leggings and mail shirt), shield and longsword
#2: Skeletal Horse	3	-no skills-	-no items-

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags1	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	6	4 have no injuries 2 badly wounded	Unconscious Extreme Pain	-N/A-
#2: Skeletal Horse	0	-N/A-	-N/A-	Fatal injuries

¹Refers only to those injured.

Notes: I did this test to see if dwarves can survive horses if they've got full iron armor and weapons. The fight was short and it looks like the skeletal horses charge hard and if they hit, they stun and can kill pretty fast if they're not stopped. I tried it 6:3 because I didn't expect the dwarves to survive a 1:1 ratio against the horses anyway. And yes the amount of trials is pathetic :P

Tester's conclusion: Even if dwarves are fully equipped, skeletal horses are very hard to deal with without casualties or at least serious injuries. Going up to a herd requires at least double the dwarves (if they're unskilled at least) to make sure you'll win and even then you're very likely to end up with dwarves that need hospitalization.

Dwarves against fire imps (tested by: plynxis)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	4	Grand Master Shield User	iron shield
#2: Fire imp	6	-no skills-	-no items-

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	4	-no injuries-	-no tags-	-N/A-
#2: Fire imp	0	-N/A-	-N/A-	Fatal damage from shield attacks

Notes: The purpose of this test was to see how shields block fire. In that sense, it was a failure since none of the imps even had the time to attempt fire attacks. The dwarves use their shields as weapons when they don't have an actual weapon in hand and can use it to block at the same time.

Tester's conclusion: Dwarves with shields and the skill to use them can be very deadly and hard to kill as well. That and fire imps are easy to kill :P

Dwarves against Dragon (tested by: plynxis)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	4	Grand Master Shield User	iron shield
#2: Dragon	1	-no skills-	-no items-

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	0	-N/A-	-N/A-	Severing of the body when incapable of blocking a biting attack
#2: Dragon	1	All toes broken, nose broken Severe bruising on the rest of the body	Pain	-N/A-

Notes: This is a test intended to test fire blocking with shields, in lieu of the previous test which failed at it. Dwarves can block fire breath fine with iron shields and the shields do not get worn.

Tester's conclusion: Again, dwarves capable of using shields properly are very hard to kill. These ones had very high skill and the only way the dragon was able to kill them was by knocking them over or stunning them and following through with a bite, severing them in half.

Dwarves against Dragon (2) (tested by: plynxis)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	4	Grand Master Shield User	chestnut shield
#2: Dragon	1	-no skills-	-no items-

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	3	-no injuries-	-no tags-	Severing of the body when incapable of blocking a biting attack
#2: Dragon	0	All toes broken, nose broken Severe bruising on the rest of the body Severe bruising of internal organs	Extreme Pain Nauseous	Suffocation

Notes: This test was made to test the effectiveness of non-firesafe material shields against fire. Other than that, the setup is entirely identical to the previous test.

Tester's conclusion: Shield material does not matter when used by a dwarf it seems and it also never gets worn, so technically a shield of any material is just as adequate for defense. The dwarves again used their shields to attack successfully. Fights with dragons also seem to always include the dragon getting all his toes broken and often his nose. It is also apparent that chance is an important factor when attacks that land by one side (the dragon in this case) are almost always fatal and the other side (the dwarves here) is capable of completely blocking the majority of these attacks. This demonstrated by the fact that in the previous test all dwarves died while in this one the dragon died instead, with all survivors being intact.

Dwarves against Skeletal Horses (2) (tested by: plynxis)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	6	Grand Master Shield User	chestnut shield
#2: Skeletal Horse	3	-no skills-	-no items-

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	6	-no injuries-	-no tags-	-N/A-
#2: Skeletal Horses	0	-N/A-	-N/A-	Fatal injuries

Notes: This is a followup of the previous test to examine how effective shields are against skeletal horses.

Tester's conclusion: The dwarves are not only capable of killing the horses, but also prevent any injury to themselves. The horses still push them around a bit, but there is little they can do when dwarves gang up on them. The fight is also, quite short.

Dwarves against Horses (tested by: plynxis)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	6	Skilled Shield User	chestnut shield
#2: Horse	3	-no skills-	-no items-

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	0	-N/A-	-N/A-	Fatal injuries
#2: Horses	3	Light bruising	-no tags-	-N/A-

Notes: This was done by accident, but serves as a comparison between Skeletal and regular Horses. There seems to be no comparison :P. The intent was to test how capable dwarves are with just a "Skilled" level of expertise with shields rather than Grand Master.

Tester's conclusion: Contrary to Skeletal Horses, the regular ones are much harder to kill with shields. The important point here however is the immense difference of capability a dwarf has at a low skill level contrary to a high skill level. Dwarves at this level do not have a consistent ability to block attacks and use their shields enough to prevent quick death, especially by horses.

Dwarves against Horses (2) (tested by: plynxis)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	6	Grand Master Shield User	chestnut shield
#2: Horse	3	-no skills-	-no items-

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	3	-no injuries-	-no tags-	Fatal injuries
#2: Horses	0	-N/A-	-N/A-	Fatal injuries

Notes: This is intended to test the actual effectiveness of dwarves as grand masters against regular horses, so as to compare to skeletal horses and the previous test that had dwarves using shields at a lower skill level.

Tester's conclusion: Arguably, a higher skill level is a lot more effective, but horses still are very hard to kill without casualties. The difference between fighting a bones-only Horse and an actual muscled Horse is very apparent.

Dwarves against Hydra (tested by: plynxis)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	31	Grand Master Shield User	chestnut shield
#2: Hydra	1	-no skills-	-no items-

¹These are the dwarves that survived the previous test. They're completely unharmed, but I thought it good to mention this.

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	1	Lost a leg	Tired	Fatal injuries Severing of the body when incapable of blocking a biting attack
#2: Hydra	1	Severe bodily bruising Internal organs bruised	Over-Exerted Nauseous	-N/A-

Notes: This test was not completed, but the eventual outcome is fairly obvious. It was begun right after the previous one in order to compare how a stronger monster would fare against grand master shieldwarves.

Tester's conclusion: Like the dragon, the hydra has a very hard time with the dwarves. The fight is long and even though it can kill them all eventually, the damage it takes in the meantime is definitive. A slightly higher number of dwarves might have killed it and even if a whole squad dies, the threat the hydra poses is practically elimintated as it will probably eventually die on its own anyway.

Bronze vs. Iron

To simulate Fortress mode, 8 battles of 8 vs. 8. Since goblins only use iron, both teams wore iron armour, only difference between the teams being iron vs. bronze short sword.

Times run: 8

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	8	Proficient Swordsdwarf	Full iron set minus breastplate and shield, iron short sword
#2: Dwarf	8	Proficient Swordsdwarf	Full iron set minus breastplate and shield, bronze short sword

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Iron team	4 lost rounds, 20 of 14 wounded	Severed limbs cuts	Tired Pale Faint	Bleeding
#2: Bronze team	4 lost rounds, 24 of 21 wounded	Severed limbs cuts	Tired Pale Faint	Bleeding

Tester's conclusion: Casualty/wounded(bruises and missing tooth/broken noses etc not counting)/intact rates of 67/30/3% for bronze and vs. 72/19/8% for iron would suggest that while bronze might be better in bigger and longer fights, as in all but 1 of the battles the first casualty was for the bronze team. This is probably because all attacks, both edged attacks and both blunt attacks the short sword has were seen to be used and because good part of the attacks that hit armour were deflected(and effectively became blunt attacks), and because bronze as a heavier material works slightly better in blunting, while the iron seems to have a slight edge in edged attacks. This is also supported by the comparably much higher amount of wounded dwarves(presumably having been hit early in the battle, lots of missing feet, at times lower legs, hands, lower arms, ears and noses) in the bronze team, despite them losing less as KIA.

A 52 vs 52 fight was also tested to see how much difference there would be when majority of the kills would be made when dwarves would be tired and suffering from broken bones(presumably the iron team more than bronze), and bronze team slightly more from cuts and missing body parts. The bronze team annihilated the iron team, having only 50% losses. Of its 26 survivors, however, 25(!) were wounded. Only one dwarf remained intact without cuts or body parts missing.

Adamantine Axes vs. Silver Hammers (no armor)

Times run: 10

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	10	Grandmaster All Skills	Only silver war hammer
#2: Dwarf	10	Grandmaster All Skills	Only adamantine battleaxe

Results:

Side & Creature	Wins
#1: Hammer team	Won 5 of 10 rounds
#2: Axe team	Won 5 of 10 rounds

This study seems to show that (for legendary dwarfs), silver war hammers are about equal with adamantine battleaxes, even with both sides being unarmored. The previous time I ran this test, hammers actually won 6 of the 10 rounds, but this time it was evenly split.

(Is that because a grandmaster dwarf can disable or kill an unarmored dwarf with just one hit with either weapon? Might be worth examining the combat logs.) Bognor 09:08, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Dwarves against Skeletal Horses (3) (tested by: Stormtemplar)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarfs	6	Proficient Fighter and swordsdwarf, skilled Dodger, Armor and Shield user	Full iron armor&Shortsword
#2: Skeletal horse	6	None	none

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarfs	6	1 with minor wounds, one with head bruising and some broken parts	1 unconscious (Dwarf with head bruising)
#2: Skeletal horse	0

Notes: Dwarfs began in a line, horses began slightly scattered

Tester's conclusion: The test was a test of how a middling military would fare against an equal force of skeletal horses. The dwarfs did excellently with only one badly wounded and one other with a minor wound.

DF2012 (0.34.02) tests

Maces VS war hammers (tested by: hostergaard)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Human male	12	-no skills-	Silver mace
#2: Human male	12	-no skills-	Silver warhammer

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Macemen	0	-N/A-	-N/A-	Getting their skulls jammed trough their heads
#2: Warhammermen	12	Some broken hands and fingers. Some smashed open. A few bruises. Some cuts.	1 Unconscious	-N/A-

Notes: I want to figure out how good the different blunt weapons are in relation to each other. For now I will test with silver only. I placed them in two groups on different z-levels with 6 from each side in each group. Each side was ordered in lines (parallel to the y axis) with no space between the individuals. The lines from each side was place right next to each other in each group. Group one had the 6 macemen on left (on the x axis) and the 6 hammermen on the right. Group two had mace on the right and hammer on left.

Tester's conclusion:

Leaves little doubt that in case of naked men fighting each other with warhammers and maces the hammers win. The hammerman who lost consciousness fought several macemen before fainting.

Single Unarmoured/Untrained Dwarf Weapon Test (tested by: RokRokRok)

Times run: 5 Each

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarves	1	None	Copper Battle Axe
#2: Dwarves	1	None	Crossbow (No ammo)

Results:

Side & Creature	Rounds won	Injury level	Worse Health tags	Cause of death
#1: Dwarves	4	Mild Bruising	None	Torn Brain
#2: Dwarves	1	Cuts	None	Torn Brain

Notes: I am doing a 1 on 1 with every dwarf weapon to see what weapons are best against what weapons while unskilled. Not counting armor. I will only be recording Injury/Health tags to the winners.

Tester's conclusion: A dwarf bash with a crossbow is no match for a dwarf battle axe. No missing limbs, just a few missing teeth. The one time that the crossow killed the battle axe was infact not with a crossow. The battle axe stuck the hand, disarming the crossbow. The disarmed dwarf proceded to knock out the battle axe dwarf, and smash his skull in with his foot.

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarves	1	None	Copper Battle Axe
#2: Dwarves	1	None	None

Results:

Side & Creature	Rounds won	Injury level	Worse Health tags	Cause of death
#1: Dwarves	5	Minor to Major Bruising & Cuts, one lost ear	Nauseous, Pale, Pain	None
#2: Dwarves	0	-N/A-	-N/A-	3 Torn Brain, 2 Bleeding

Notes: This is to see if the one kill was pure luck or if unarmed was better.

Tester's conclusion: It was pure luck, but one time an unarmed dwarf managed to get the upper hand, bruising the guts, cutting off the ear, but eventually died from a torn brain.

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarves	1	None	Copper Battle Axe
#2: Dwarves	1	None	Copper Mace

Results:

Side & Creature	Rounds won	Injury level	Worse Health tags	Cause of death
#1: Dwarves	2	1 with no injuries, 1 with upper leg bruising	-N/A-	1 Suffocation, 1 Torn Brain, 1 Punch out.
#2: Dwarves	3	1 with no injuries, 1 with upper arm bruising, 1 with moderate lower arm/hand cuts & disarmed	-N/A-	2 Disarmed & Bleed out.

Notes: Decided to get in detail for injuries since it was pretty evenly matched.

Tester's conclusion: Mace won overall. Once the mace was out of the arms, the axe dwarf won two out of three times. Further Tests coming.

DF2012 (0.34.04) tests

Iron Spears VS Iron Warhammers (tested by: Naryar)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Speardwarves	9	-no skills	iron spear
#2: Hammerdwarves	9	-no skills-	iron war hammer

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Speardwarves	6	Minor injuries	None	Brain damage
#2: Hammerdwarves	0	Brain damage

Notes : Each team was in a 3x1 line. Spears won easily. Now let's try better weapons and skill.

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Speardwarves	9	High Master Speardwarf	steel spear
#2: Hammerdwarves	9	High Master Hammerdwarf	silver war hammer

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Speardwarves	0	Brain damage
#2: Hammerdwarves	5	3 had multiple fractures, 1 had multiple fractures and a lost hand, 1 had nothing	1 pale

Notes : Each team was right next to each other, no more stacking dwarves like before. Hammerdwarves now won.

3 v 1 Mail Shirts (tested by: Waladil)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarves	12	Grand Master Armor User	Steel gauntlets/greaves/high boots/helm, iron battle axe, 1 iron mail shirt
#2: Dwarves	12	Grand Master Armor User	Steel gauntlets/greaves/high boots/helm, iron battle axe, 3 iron mail shirts

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	0			Suffocation/Bleeding out
#2: Dwarves	12	Minor cuts and bruises	3 faint, 1 pale

So I've been wanting to test the common knowledge that more armor layering = better, so this is the test I set up. Both sides were identical, except that one team wore three mail shirts rather than one. Using steel as the rest of the armor and iron axes ensured that everything important happened around the iron armor. The battle was slow, almost every hit being stopped by armor. Over time, team one's thinner armor let more blows through, and they eventually bled out or suffocated from lung damage. This test proved that wearing more armor increases protection. However...

Times run: 2

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarves	12	None	Steel gauntlets/greaves/high boots/helm, iron battle axe, 1 iron mail shirt
#2: Dwarves	12	None	Steel gauntlets/greaves/high boots/helm, iron battle axe, 3 iron mail shirts

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	9	Minor cuts and bruises	Some faint/pale
#2: Dwarves	0			Suffocation/Bleeding out

This test was very similar to the last, except that the skill of armor user was set to zero. And that reversed the results. While team two was more protected, they were also considerably slower (606 v. 788) and I think they were also quicker to over-exert and pass out.

Overall results: The added armor is only useful at higher levels of training. I didn't calibrate enough to find the actual midpoint, but it seems that the added layers drop off in efficiency and are not as useful, potentially being harmful if the user is unable to handle the weight.

Steel vs. Wooden Shield (tested by: apostle602)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarves	1*11	Proficient Fighter, Proficient Swordsdwarf, Proficient Shield User, Proficient Armor User	Full adamantine armor set, iron short sword, steel shield
#2: Dwarves	1*11	Proficient Fighter, Proficient Swordsdwarf, Proficient Shield User, Proficient Armor User	Full adamantine armor set, iron short sword, cedar shield

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Dwarves	3	2 unscratched, 1 missing both hands and a foot	1 pale	Bleeding out
#2: Dwarves	9	Mostly unscratched, 1 with hands cut open	1 unconscious	Bleeding out

This is a test to determine what would be the best material for shields. Tested with 22 independent dwarves at different places of the arena, it was a long battle and in the end one of the winner dwarves found his way to a still fighting couple, hence total 12 alive dwarves at the end.

Aside from that test I made a couple more with the same idea and always dwarves with heavier shields won only if they bashed opponents with these shields, f.e. if they've lost their weapons.

So at the end the only important parameter for a shield is its weight.

DF2012 (0.34.11) tests

Axe vs. Spear

Times run: 2

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	1	Grand Master Axedwarf, Grand Master Dodger, Grand Master Armor User	Full steel armor set (3 mail shirts), adamantine battle axe
#2: Dwarf	1	Grand Master Speardwarf, Grand Master Dodger, Grand Master Armor User	Full steel armor set (3 mail shirts), adamantine spear

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Axedwarf	0, 1	Severed hand, Torn ligaments and tendons, Severed Nerves, Fractured bones, Opened arteries	-N/A-, -no tags-	Bleeding out
#2: Speardwarf	1, 0	Severed limbs, Torn muscle, Severed Nerves, Open artery	-no tags-, -N/A-	Bleeding out

Notes: In the first round, speardwarf got his weapon stuck several times. Axedwarf attacked later, and only twice, missing both times. Speardwarf devastated axedwarf in this round. In the second round, axedwarf charges and topples speardwarf initially, then severs several limbs. Speardwarf landed only one bruising hit. Both made many misses. Axedwarf devastated speardwarf in this round. The victor barely got injured at all in both rounds, and the loser gets mutilated. Because of these polarising results, two rounds were deemed sufficient.

In conclusion, both axes and spears are edged weapons that give a great advantage when making initial lucky strikes/hits against lesser-material armored oponents. The difference seems to be in the types of wounds: Fractured bones and open arteries for spears, and severed limbs for battle axes.

Axe vs. Spear (2)

Times run: 1

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	1	Grand Master Axedwarf, Grand Master Dodger, Grand Master Armor User	Full adamantine armor set (3 mail shirts), adamantine battle axe
#2: Dwarf	1	Grand Master Speardwarf, Grand Master Dodger, Grand Master Armor User	Full adamantine armor set (3 mail shirts), adamantine spear

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Axedwarf	1	-no injuries-	-no tags-	-N/A-
#2: Speardwarf	1	-no injuries-	-no tags-	-N/A-

Notes: Lots of misses. Every attack that hit got deflected by the armor.

Both axes and spears appear pretty useless against equal or better material armor.

Axe vs. Spear (3)

Times run: 2

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	3	Grand Master Axedwarf, Grand Master Dodger, Grand Master Armor User	Full steel armor set (3 mail shirts), adamantine battle axe
#2: Dwarf	3	Grand Master Speardwarf, Grand Master Dodger, Grand Master Armor User	Full steel armor set (3 mail shirts), adamantine spear

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Axedwarf	0, 1	Torn ligaments and tendons, Severed nerves, Fractured bones, Opened arteries, Torn internal organs	-N/A-, -no tags-	Shattered skull and torn brain
#2: Speardwarf	3, 0	Torn muscle, Severed nerve, Opened arteries, Torn internal organs, Severed limbs	-no tags-, -N/A-	Bleeding out

Notes: Lots of misses again, but relatively less. Though the first fight was concluded with speardwarves ganging up on the surviving axedwarves, in each individual fight from the start, speardwarves dominated. In the second fight, the surviving axedwarf was moderately injured to two limbs. Each individual fight was dominated by one side. Speardwarf kills were faster.

Though again polarizing, these results do show that axes and spears are approximately equally good, albeit only when used for the proper targets. If it is organic and is not clad in adamantine (as according to the previous test), spears will kill it faster. If it is not, and has many limbs, then an axe is superior. This makes spears better for regular use, and axes better against BC's and HFS. For a general-purpose weapon, an axe is therefore the best choice, though it may be worth it to specialize.

Sword vs Axe (tested by: Terranaunt)

Times run: 4

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	5	Proficient armor user, Proficient Dodger, Proficient Axedwarf	full iron armor (with mail shirt), iron axe
#2: Dwarf	5	Proficient armor user, Proficient Dodger, Proficient Swordsdwarf	full iron armor (with mail shirt), iron sword

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Axedwarf	0, 3, 1, 4	Torn muscle, Severed nerve, Opened arteries, Severed limbs, Missing Limbs	-N/A-; Pale, Unconscious; Pale; Pale, Unconscious	Bled to death
#2: Swordswarf	5, 0, 0, 0	Torn muscle, Severed nerve, Opened arteries, Severed limbs, Missing Limbs	Pale, -N/A-	Bled to death

Third time last axedwarf actually fall into martial trance and finished three remaining sworddwarfs, last sword guy just bled to death while fighting. It seems that the initiated distance of the engagement is a factor, though I'm not sure and this statement requires more tests.

DF 2014 (v0.40.24) Tests

Sword vs. Axe, with iron armor (Tested by: Gitaxias)

Times run: 2

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	5	Adequate in all relevant skills	Full iron armor including shield, iron battle axe
#2: Dwarf	5	Adequate in all relevant skills	Full iron armor including shield, iron short sword

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Axedwarves	2	Severed limbs Bruised internal organs, mangled body parts	Tired, Extreme Pain, Pale	Bled to death
#2: Swordsdwarves	0	NA	NA	Head smashed by shield bash

Notes: In both tests, all 5 swordsdwarves were killed by a single axedwarf after he lost his weapon arm and began favoring shield bashing attacks. No axe attacks appeared to have caused major injury.

Tester's conclusion: This test was intended to compare the effectiveness of swords and axes against armored targets. It shows fairly conclusively that the battle axe is the inferior weapon against armored targets, and that even if already injured a dwarf using iron shield bashes can still prove extremely deadly against enemies using weapons that cannot reliably penetrate their armor.

Sword vs. Axe, with leather armor (Tested by: Gitaxias)

Times run: 4

Initial setup:

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	5	Adequate in all relevant skills	Full leather armor, wooden shield, iron battle axe
#2: Dwarf	5	Adequate in all relevant skills	Full leather armor, wooden shield, iron short sword

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Axedwarves	0, 0, 4, 0	Severed limbs, mangled body parts	Extreme Pain, Pale	Beheading or bisection
#2: Swordsdwarves	5, 5, 0, 5	Severed limbs, mangled body parts	Extreme Pain, Pale	Beheading or bisection

Notes: In the first and second tests, the swordsdwarves won easily with token or nonexistent injury. In the third test, the axedwarves won with moderate losses. In the fourth test, the swordsdwarves won with moderate losses

Tester's conclusion: This test was intended to compare the effectiveness of swords and axes against weakly-armored armored targets. It shows somewhat conclusively that the battle axe is the inferior weapon against such targets targets, but that the disadvantage can be overcome with luck.

MASTER-UNARMED vs. Wooden maces + MASTER-UNARMED vs. 2 Cave spiders

Times run: 2

Initial setup: 2 groups of 8 dwarves 7 tiles away

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	8	Adequate in all relevant skills	NOTHING
#2: Dwarf	8	Adequate in all relevant skills	2 wooden maces

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: UNARMED MASTERS	7 ,8	broken bones, bruising	unconscious nocious	head shot
#2: Master Maces	0	extreamley dead	dead	head explosion

Notes: master strikers and wrestlers are better than armed dwarves

Tester's conclusion: this was a good piece of evidence that wood weapons are ineffective.

TEST#2 Times run: 2 Initial setup: The remains of the previous tests with 2 tiles between them

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Dwarf	See ABOVE	Adequate in all relevant skills	NOTHING
#2: Giant Cave Spider	2	NOTHING	NOTHING

Results:

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: left overs of last 2 tests	6, 8	no change	no change	Bleeding
#2: Giant Cave Spider	0	extreamley dead	dead	Brain bruised

Notes: I had to force the dwarves to do suicide after so i could go to the next test.

Tester's conclusion: master strikers and wrestlers are better than Giant Cave spiders

DF 2016 (v0.42.06) Tests

War Hammer material effectiveness comparison (ongoing) (Tested by: Adonkares)

Test description: After editing the object testing arena into 896 4x1 duel rooms and 84 5x5 5v5 brawl rooms the premise of gold war hammer superiority was put to trial using a variety of different hammer materials. A program was written to populate the arena more quickly as well as equip the dwarfs. (If anyone has any tips on counting the results quickly or via a program, please let me know.)

Acronym explanation: Each test was assigned a number from 1-3. Each row in a table is named after Duel or Group results and is followed by a -s -g -c suffix to denote the material of the weapon equipped. And so 1solo-g means a group of 1v1 dwarf fighters with steel armor and gold hammers.

Information:

Creature	Number	Skills	Items
1solo-s: Dwarf	1	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Full set of steel armor plus a steel shield, with a silver war hammer
1solo-g: Dwarf	1	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Full set of steel armor plus a steel shield, with a gold war hammer
1group-s: Dwarf	5	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Full set of steel armor plus a steel shield, with a silver war hammer
1group-g: Dwarf	5	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Full set of steel armor plus a steel shield, with a gold war hammer
2solo-s: Dwarf	1	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Unarmored, with a silver war hammer
2solo-c: Dwarf	1	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Unarmored, with a copper war hammer
2group-s: Dwarf	5	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Unarmored, with a silver war hammer
2group-c: Dwarf	5	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Unarmored, with a copper war hammer
3solo-s: Dwarf	1	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Full iron, with a silver war hammer
3solo-c: Dwarf	1	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Full iron, with a copper war hammer
3group-s: Dwarf	5	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Full iron, with a silver war hammer
3group-c: Dwarf	5	Master in Fighter, Hammer, Dodge, Shield and Armor user	Full iron, with a copper war hammer

Results:

Winners	Win percentage	Sample size	Comments
1solo-g: Duelists using Gold War Hammer	56.47%	1792	Slight but consistent edge (more adequately flat) for gold hammers, it is reasonable to estimate gold's superiority over silver to be within 3-8% range.
1group-g: Team of 5 using Gold War Hammer	55.3%	168	Borderline standard error, more tests are needed. Duel results suggest a slight advantage for gold hammers.
2solo-s: Duelists using Silver War Hammer	53.57%	1792	Slight advantage for silver hammers, sample size too small and falls within standard error. For practical intents and purposes copper is equal to silver when used against unarmored opponents.
2group-s: Team of 5 using Silver War Hammer	59.5%	168	Sample size too small, more tests are needed. Duel results suggest no noticeable advantage for either material.
3solo-s: Duelists using Silver War Hammer	53.01%	896	Slight advantage for silver hammers, sample size too small and falls within standard error. For practical intents and purposes copper is equal to silver when used against ironclad opponents.
3group-s: Team of 5 using Silver War Hammer	56.5%	84	Sample size too small, more tests are needed. Duel results suggest no noticeable advantage for either material.

Results: Based on the above 3 tests there's a slight ~5-6% advantage of gold war hammers over silver and by extension copper ones. There is no significant advantage of silver over copper against unarmored and ironclad opponents and whatever advantage there might be it falls within mean error range and requires a bigger sample size. I hope someone found this useful, I sure did when I was doing the tests out of curiosity. In the future I'm planning to include platinum hammers, adamantine armors and increasing the sample size of all tests.

Scourge versus Whip (Tested By Admiral Obvious)

Test description: Fiddling around in the arena after installing DF on a public PC which is wiped daily. Attempting to determine which weapon is more effective, and why. Unarmored targets were used for this test. A separate test set will/should be make with armored specimens.

Times run: 10

Initial setup: Single unskilled human, versus unskilled human, given weapons. Test saved prior to start, and restarted after each result.

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Human Male	1	-no skills-	Iron Whip, no armor
#2: Human Male	1	-no skills-	Iron Scourge, no armor

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Human Male	1	Chipped Bones	Tired, Extreme Pain	Passing out from broken limb, followed up by head cave in.
#2: Human Male	9	None	Tired	Upper spine shattered in the one instance of death, suffocation.

Results: From what testing that was performed, it seemed that the whip was an easy weapon to parry compared to the scourge. This might be in relation to the weapon velocity modifier, or potentially attack preparation time. It was noticed in this test that the scourge user attempted more successful attacks than the whip user. The scourge rarely "one shot" the enemy, however it did chip bones regularly against an unarmored target. The whip on the other hand, when it landed it's shots were far more devastating to the target than otherwise. Further testing will be done with different materials.

Adamantine: Test: 2

Times run: 10

Initial setup: Single unskilled human, versus unskilled human, given weapons. Test saved prior to start, and restarted after each result.

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Human Male	1	-no skills-	Adamantine Whip, no armor
#2: Human Male	1	-no skills-	Adamantine Scourge, no armor

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Human Male	0	Sensory and motor nerves severed, lots of parts cut open.	Pale, Severe Bleeding	Crippled due to loss of motor ability, bones almost never damaged. Bleeds to death on every test.
#2: Human Male	10	Bruising, occasional broken fingers and toes.	Tired, Pain	Reset of the universe.

Results: Adamantine is far too light for a whip to have any noticeable impact against the target, only causing minor bruising, and the occasional shattering of a finger or toe. The Scourge on the other hand, being an edged attack weapon seemed to be like the death of a thousand paper cuts. The scourge rarely inflicted any damage to the bones of the target, but every single successful impact against the target cut into the muscle of the target, and in many cases severed motor, and sensory nerves. Getting killed in this way appeared to be torture, especially considering how long it took to run each one of these tests.

Platinum: Test: 3

Times run: 10

Initial setup: Single unskilled human, versus unskilled human, given weapons. Test saved prior to start, and restarted after each result.

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Human Male	1	-no skills-	Platinum Whip, no armor
#2: Human Male	1	-no skills-	Platinum Scourge, no armor

Side & Creature	Survived	Injury level	Health tags	Most common cause of death
#1: Human Male	6	Many cuts, and broken/fractured bones.	Pale, Severe Bleeding, Severe Pain	Typical death caused by bruising of the brain.
#2: Human Male	4	Either completely unharmed, or completely crippled.	Tired, Trouble Breathing	Head "explodes into gore" usually. One other death was caused by ribs puncturing the heart causing a bleedout.

Results: This was a far fairer fight, I assume if I run the test more, the results would average out to be nearly equal. Whip impacts are absolutely devastating, in many instances involving the total collapse of the impacted area. The Scourge is also equally dangerous, but with much less one shot potential, and a quite high tendency to chip, and break bones. The Scourge is inferior in this case compared to the whip, but this is made up with an apparent higher attack frequency.

DF 2018 (v0.44.09) Tests

Unarmored Peasant Best Weapon Test (Tested by: RoyalAssassin3)

Test description: My goal in this series of test is to identify the “best” natively producible weapons for random unskilled unarmored peasants. This might be used to stockpile the “best” weapons around the base that can be grabbed in an emergency situation where enemies have breached the fortress and you need to start conscripting everyone to grab something and fight. I did not test maces because previous tests (by hostergaard) have established that maces are in all respects worse versions of war hammers. I also did not test crossbows because they require more finesse to be effective, in close range cells, like my testing environment (or a goblin breach of the main fortress), they are pretty much just glorified clubs. I used iron weapons to simulate the best goblins. After a few slow and tedious tests, I created a modified arena with 20 adjacent 5x12 dueling cells (enough space to dodge and maneuver) with the combatants starting 4 paces apart. Injury Level, Health tags, and Cause of death data were too tedious to tabulate on this scale and so have been excluded.

Unarmed v. Short Sword

Test description: Baseline test. If all is right in the world unarmed unskilled peasants should get slaughtered by swords.

Times run: 25

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Unarmed Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Unarmed
#2: Sword Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron Short Sword

Side & Creature	Wins (ties)	Percentage Win (ties)
#1: Unarmed Dwarf	0 wins (0 ties)	0% (0% ties)
#2: Sword Dwarf	25 wins (0 ties)	100% (0% ties)

Results: Unarmed Peasants predictably slaughtered by armed peasants

Unarmed v. Hammer

Test description: Gitaxias in a prior test found that unarmed was superior to wooden maces. Could unarmed peasants be better than Warhammer equipped peasants? Perhaps the warhammerers would get exhausted and pass out before doing enough damage with their inept swings?

Times run: 25

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Unarmed Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Unarmed
#2: Hammer Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron Warhammer

Side & Creature	Wins (ties)	Percentage Win (ties)
#1: Unarmed Dwarf	5 wins (9 ties)	20% (36% ties)
#2: Hammer Dwarf	11 wins (9 ties)	44% (36% ties)

Results: Close, slight edge to hammer. Two stalemates ended with both dead, 7 both sides passing out.

Axe v. Sword

Test description: We already established above that swords > warhammers vs. unarmored. But what about swords v. axes? I read axes have a larger cutting effect. Perhaps that will prove advantageous against unarmored peasants?

Times run: 25

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Axe Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron Battleaxe
#2: Sword Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron Short Sword

Side & Creature	Wins (ties)	Percentage Win (ties)
#1: Axe Dwarf	10 wins (1 ties)	40% (4% ties)
#2: Sword Dwarf	14 wins (1 ties)	56% (4% ties)

Results: Close, slight edge to sword.

Sword v. Spear

Test description: The best weapon tournament continues with the previous round’s winner (swords) facing the challenger (spears). I expect that swords will be superior with their cutting effect.

Times run: 25

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Sword Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron short sword
#2: Spear Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron spear

Side & Creature	Wins (ties)	Percentage Win (ties)
#1: Sword Dwarf	13 wins (0 ties)	52% (0% ties)
#2: Spear Dwarf	12 wins (0 ties)	48% (0% ties)

Results: Although swords won, but this is really too close to call. I’m calling this a tie.

Hammer v. Spear

Test description: Hammer performed pretty poorly vs. unarmed. Was that a fluke? I decided to test vs. the spear which was pretty much the same as the sword so far.

Times run: 25

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Sword Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron Warhammer
#2: Spear Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron spear

Side & Creature	Wins (ties)	Percentage Win (ties)
#1: Sword Dwarf	4 wins (1 ties)	16% (4% ties)
#2: Spear Dwarf	20 wins (1 ties)	80% (4% ties)

Results: Clear win for Spears (and presumably swords). Untrained peasants shouldn’t be wielding hammers vs. unarmored enemies.

Pick v. Spear

Test description: Picks are often overlooked, but very “dwarfy.” I don’t expect these to fare well vs. a military weapon.

Times run: 35

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Pick Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron Pick
#2: Spear Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron spear

Side & Creature	Wins (ties)	Percentage Win (ties)
#1: Pick Dwarf	21 wins (4 ties)	60% (11% ties)
#2: Sword Dwarf	10 wins (4 ties)	29% (11% ties)

Results: Surprising clear win for Picks. I read that picks were in fact “cutting” weapons, which bears itself out in the wounds detail with heads getting knocked off regularly. Good news for dwarfiness.

Pick v. Sword & Shield

Test description: Pick is our tournament winner based on single weapons. But what about vs. the classic sword and shield combo? I expect that a shield will give sword the edge.

Times run: 20

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Pick Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron Pick
#2: Sword & Shield Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron short sword & iron shield

Side & Creature	Wins (ties)	Percentage Win (ties)
#1: Pick Dwarf	7 wins (1 ties)	35% (5% ties)
#2: Sword & Shield Dwarf	12 wins (1 ties)	60% (5% ties)

Results: As expected, a shield gave sword the edge.

Pick & Shield v. Sword & Shield

Test description: This test is to see whether X + shield combos follow the same pattern of effectiveness as weapons alone. If so, the win percentage of pick & shield vs. sword & shield should match with the previous pick v. spear test (assuming swords and spears are equivalent).

Times run: 20

Side & Creature	Number	Skills	Items
#1: Pick & Shield Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron pick & Iron Shield
#2: Sword & Shield Dwarf	1	-no skills-	Iron short sword & iron shield

Side & Creature	Wins (ties)	Percentage Win (ties)
#1: Pick & Shield Dwarf	12 wins (0 ties)	60% (0% ties)
#2: Sword & Shield Dwarf	8 wins (0 ties)	40% (0% ties)

Results: Pick & Shield wins. The 60% win rate for Pick & Shield exactly matches the win rate of Pick in the Pick v. Spear test. This validates two premises. (1) X + shield vs. Y + shield = X vs. Y; and (2) Spear = Sword for unarmored unskilled opponents. The first premise is consistent with a shield giving a fixed percentage chance of deflection irrespective of weapon type.

Overall Tester Conclusions for Peasant Weapon Testing: Pick & Shield > Pick & Sword > Pick >> Spear = Sword > Battleaxe >> Hammer > Unarmed. Pick & Shield was the surprise best. It is worth noting that according to the weapon article a significant percentage of dwarves are not big enough to wield both a pick and a shield. In the testing arena, none of the pick & shield dwarves dropped their picks or shields which suggests either (1) the arena uses different rules; (2) size affects whether dwarves will pick up a pick and shield, but once they have it in their hands they don’t drop it; or (3) size and wielding limitations has changed since the weapons article was updated. I suspect (2) is the answer, but further testing is needed. Sword and shield might be more reliable. Despite the superiority of shields, I would probably recommend using only picks (not picks and shields or swords and shields) as an emergency defense fallback. This spares dwarves the extra time of having to hunt around for BOTH a pick and a shield and thus gets them into the fight faster. It also avoids the aforementioned possibility of not being able to wield both a pick and a shield leaving your dwarf potentially running into battle with just a shield. Pick also has an advantage over sword & shield in that using picks provides extra insurance against the situation where your miners fall into hot magma or down a cave dragon’s throat with the fortresses only picks and you don’t have metal to replace them.