Editing 40d:Equipment

Depending on what '''equipment''' you outfit your [[soldier]]s with, they can easily become [[encumbrance|encumbered]].  A new recruit with no strength [[attribute]], for instance, can only carry 2000Γ before being encumbered, which is less than the weight of a full suit of chain mail, not even including a weapon.  A [[crossbow]] plus a full stack of metal [[bolts]] can weigh as much as 1000Γ by itself.

To begin with, dwarves wearing [[armor]] will not remove their civilian clothes before putting on armor.  These civilian clothes can total as much as 171Γ (if everything is made of [[leather]]), or even 247Γ if they are wearing a coat.  However, 165Γ is probably a better estimate given that silk and cloth items (which weigh 20%-30% less than leather) are typically intermixed with leather items.  Additionally, soldiers' clothing tends to rot away to nothing as their armor prevents them from replacing it.

However, if you limit the availability of certain types of armor, either by not producing them (or forbidding them, as outlined on the [[Military#Swapping weapons and armour|military]] page), you can force your dwarves to wear hybrid suits which offer excellent protection while still being fairly light.

A full suit of steel plate, greaves, gauntlets, high boots, helm, and shield plus clothing weighs 3068Γ.  Add to this a melee weapon, and you're at 3400Γ; any non-strong dwarf would have his or her movement rate reduced to about 59% as a result.  A quiver full of bolts and additional layers of armor can add 1400Γ+ more, resulting in a dwarf reduced to 42% normal speed.  Such equipment should not be assigned to any but Strong or Very Strong dwarves, or those with sufficient [[armor user]] skill.

Using a buckler instead of a shield is not recommended.  [[Shield user]] skill is probably gained only when an attack is successfully blocked with a shield, and bucklers theoretically block only half as many blows as shields.  Although the exact game mechanics are unknown (and unlikely to be linear when skill is factored in), the important point is that dwarves using shields instead of bucklers will gain shield user skill more quickly, and high shield user skill makes dwarves very resistant to damage, even against bolts and arrows.

Always put your dwarves in the best helm you can; even slight neck and brain [[wound|injuries]] can effectively end a melee combatant's career while serious ones can permanently cripple the dwarf.  A steel helm weighs only 157Γ, and combining it with a steel cap, which weighs just 78Γ, will increase protection by about another 30%.

[[Weapon]] weights range from 235Γ for a steel short sword to 628Γ for a steel battle axe.  Most dwarf-usable weapons made of steel, including crossbows, weigh 314Γ.  [[Obsidian]] swords weigh 80Γ, and wooden weapons you can buy from the elven [[caravan]] typically weigh 30Γ or less.  Wooden or bone crossbows weigh 48Γ or less, which is a major advantage over metal crossbows due to the fact that their [[material]] only affects their melee damage, and not their shooting damage.

Dwarves assigned to carry a crossbow will, in theory, never [[sparring|spar]], instead shooting at an archery range if possible and slacking off if not.  However, you may occasionally catch one sparring anyways, using his crossbow as a hammer.  This isn't supposed to happen, and is generally due to a bug where he has wound up "wielding" something that he shouldn't, meaning he cannot use that hand and thus cannot properly handle ammunition. {{verify}} If you see a sparring marksdwarf, check his inventory for anything out of the ordinary in his hands, most commonly armor or clothing that he has ripped off of somebody during combat or sparring.  If this is the case, mark it for dumping in the hopes of freeing up the hand so that it no longer interferes with target practice (or sparring, if you decide just to switch him to a "real" hammer).

Steel and iron items have the same weight and are interchangeable, in terms of encumbrance.  Bronze (and bismuth bronze) items weigh about 5% more than steel or iron.  Copper items weigh 14% more.  Silver items weigh 34% more (silver weapons, due to their low damage, make good sparring weapons).  Bone and shell items weigh about ''14%'' that of steel; leather items weigh 24%; and wood items weigh anywhere from 15% to 1.3% (in the case of feather tree wood).  More specific comparative weights can be looked up in the [[raws]].

[[Item quality|Top-quality]] bone or leather items offer as much protection as no-quality iron items, so having a legendary bone carver and leatherworker in your fort should be quite welcome.  Copper, in addition to being very heavy, is only about 33% better than bone or leather, so in general, you should not bother making armor items out of copper unless you are using it to train up an [[armorsmith]].

A number of civilian pieces of [[clothing]] offer a fair amount of protection, especially when of very high quality.  These can be used to protect non-military dwarves, or to boost the protection soldiers normally get from the clothing they wear under their armor.   

Since these items must be made of leather or cloth (this is also true for leather armor, incidentally), their rated protection is cut in half, although very high quality items can double protection, mitigating the problem.  A bigger problem is their tendency to [[wear]] after a few years (unlike leather armor, leggings, boots, and helms).  It is not known if wear reduces their protection value.  After about 10 years, they will wear out completely and disappear.

Although silk is the lightest possible material for making these items, it doesn't really matter what material you use; the difference between a full set of civilian clothes (including coat) in leather versus silk is only 78Γ, and the difference between plant cloth versus silk is only 26Γ.  If you have a high-skill [[clothier]] use cloth; if you have a high-skill [[leatherworker]] use leather; otherwise use whatever material you have in abundance.

"Effective weight" is the weight of all armor plus 165Γ worth of clothing, plus weapon (if any); armor user skill reduces the weight of clothing and armor, but not weapons or ammo (or shield?), as outlined at [[armor user]].  No-strength dwarves can carry 2000Γ worth of equipment; Strong, 3000Γ; Very Strong, 4000Γ; and so on.

Consult the figures in [[#Material weight and protection|material weight and protection]] for weights of the above items when made of other materials, or [[Armor#Weight]] for additional figures.  For the curious, the "base weight" of any of the above items can be found by dividing by 7.85 (steel's weight multiplier).