v0.31:Attack

(See the Template:L article for a full discussion of how to manipulate squads and options with your military, like arming or armouring them, among many other important concepts. This article is for unarmed, immediate response only, the most basic concept.)

The military menus (plural) can be confusing at first. You should learn how they work. But if you haven't done that, and all you want/need to do is deal with a minor target right now, without any complex preparation, no armour or weapons, perhaps a Template:L, perhaps a Template:L, this is the easiest way to do it (short of relying on Template:L or Template:L)...

• 1) Pause the game (by hitting spacebar).

• 2) In the nobles menu, assign a "militia commander" - probably best to choose one you don't want to fight - maybe your Doctor (for reasons we won't go into right now). When you do that, you'll notice a new position appears at the bottom, "militia captain".

• 3) Assign the dwarf, or one of the dwarves, you want to fight to "militia captain". Another slot for "militia captain" will appear below that - ignore it, and Esc out of that menu.

• 4) Open the military menu. Use the up/down arrows to highlight the "militia captain" and hit create squad.

When prompted, use the up/down arrows to highlight "no uniforms", and hit Enter. You should see the name of the squad and the captain you just assigned.

• 5) Use the left/right/up/down arrows to highlight an "AVAILABLE" slot, and then choose the next dwarf you want in that squad. You can Escape to check the map and ID your dwarves and then come back to this military screen to finish filling in the squad.

• 6) Once you have all the dwarves you want, hit u for "supplies". Use the -/+ keys to select "Do not carry water", and the // * keys to select "Do not carry food". (You do want fast response, and not a long-term patrol, right?) Hit Esc to return the map, or positions to add some more dwarves.

• 7) Now open the squads sub-window.

• 8) Hit All (capital "A") to select all the members of that squad.

• 9) Hit k to attack (kill!) a target. Now you have several ways to choose your target - or more than one target, depending on the method...

a) If you move the cursor over the target, you can hit Enter.

b) Hit list for a list of possible targets. The actual creatures/targets will flash on the main map with their identifying letter to aid you in differentiating.

c) If you have a number of targets, you can move the cursor and hit Enter to form the opposite corners of a (highly visible!) rectangle - all non-friendly creatures within that area will then be targeted.

The squad should now be listed as assigned to "Kill _____", flashing in red at the top of the sub-window. Once you see that, hit Esc...

• 10) ...And un-pause the game.

Note that unarmed, untrained dwarves are not very impressive in their death-dealing abilities, not even against minor opponents - and one with a knife can prove to be quite dangerous. Sending four or more against a goblin/kobold thief will eventually kill the little bugger, but not before some injuries to the home team.

For a truly safe response system, you need regular military - and to expand on this by reading and understanding the Template:L and related articles.