[Guide will go here, still being written!]
Military (posted early for Canageek; so I can see what is useful/needs to be worked on with the rest of the guide)
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Invaders, Megabeasts, Very Upset Dwarfs, these are all dangers to your fortress that might need a more ‘forceful’ solution. For this you have the trusty military.
A good military requires two things: Good equipment and good soldiers. A Legendary Swordsdwarf with a copper sword won’t be very good against a titan; similarly, giving a Rookie adamantine weapons is a good way to lose the weapons.
But first, you need to outfit your troops. A good thing about the game is that the troops will train even if they do not have all the equipment and will pick it up as it becomes available. What you decide to equip your troops is up to you, but a good strategy is to ensure that armour covers each body part.
[By Zivilin: Dwarf Fortress Wiki]
What I tend to go for is a Breastplate, Greaves, a Helm, Gauntlets, High Boots, a Shield, a Short Sword, and a Training Sword, which costs 10 bars of metal and 1 log of wood for each solider (For adamantine weapons/armour the cost is 28 bars). The Training Sword/Short Sword can be replaced with Training Spear/Spear or Training Axe/Battle Axe depending on preference.
The other thing to remember is to create backpacks and waterskins so troops can stay at their posts, rather then having to rush off to eat and drink. For archers, you almost must create a quiver and have a supply of bolts.
To create a uniform press [m]iltary > [n]uniforms >[c]add uniform, then press [N] to give it a name (optional, but makes things easier if you decide to have different uniforms). Next use the right arrow key to the rightmost list and select the armour you wish to use. The top option “armour” basically means you are not picky about what they wear, as long as it’s armour. However I prefer to define what they wear so all my troops are wearing the same thing. Do this by pressing down and selected “Brestplate”. Next, hit [L]egs and do the same for Legs, [H]elms, [G]loves, [B]oots, [S]hield, [W]eapons.
One thing you might notice is that there are some pieces of equipment that you cannot create. These can either only be traded in or found on the bodies of invaders. Unless you really want to have your soldiers use vanity items, it’s best to not select them. In this vain, remember to choose a crossbow instead of a bow, as you cannot make bows or arrows.
You can also further customise what the equipment is by options such as [M]aterial; which defines what the armour/weapon needs to be from, and [C]olour which sets the colour of the clothes. However, these tend to complicate matters and is really only used if you want to have exact uniforms.
The first thing to make is training weapons, as they are easy to make, can be very low quality, and don’t injure Dwarfs training with them, and then a shield. This is also because they can train their skills while you produce proper equipment.
So now you have the weapons, now you just need the troops. The first thing to do is create a squad. Ideally you want to draft in a migrant that has a skill in the weapons you are using, but is not essential, as with other skills, they learn on the job. The other thing to ensure is that you’re not drafting in soldiers from essential work.
Another solution, when a fort gets bigger, is to draft in Farmers that only activate for winter (when there are fewer crops to plant) or other militia guards that only activate for a couple of months to train when less needs to be done around the fortress.
To create a squad you need to go to the [m]iltary screen > [c]reate squad. Once you’ve done that, select the armour set you created. When you’ve done that use the right arrow key to navigate to the rightmost list and select the leader of the squad, and the other members. The leader of the squad doesn’t matter too much.
That’s the squad created, but you then need to activate it. Do this by selecting [a] and then scrolling down to “Active/Training” hitting [enter] and then scrolling right and selecting the squad. This should activate the squad.
The next thing to do is to set a [s]chedule. If you’re making a professional military squad, you may as well not change this setting as they’ll train all the time. If you want them to be inactive for a certain time select the month and press [x]clear order. To assign a training, or another patrol route, defending, or guarding, press [o]rders and then [o] again to cycle through orders. In order to set a patrol route, guarding, or defending, you need to set up borrows and/or waypoints.
To set up a burrow. From the rootmenu, select [w]Make Burrows > [a]dd new burrow > [enter] and then [enter] to start designating an area then [enter] to confirm that area. Waypoints are the same but from the rootmenu select [N]points, move your cursor to an area you want the point to be and hit [p]lace. To add a route, press [r]oute > [a]dd new route > [e]dit waypoints and select a point to start from, press [a]dd waypoint, move to the next point and press [a]dd waypoint again until you have the patrol route. Press [e]dit route if you want to add more routes.
Once those have been set up, you can select those burrows, stations, and routes from the orders menu. To do so, press down to the selection you want, press [enter] to select it, then press right and select who you want to go on that route. To confirm press [Shift]+[Enter].
So now you have equipment, troops, and a schedule. But now they need somewhere to train. To create a training area, create an armour stand and/or a weapon stand, then place it in a room ([b]uild > [a]rmour stand OR [r]weapon rack), press [q] and select the rack, [r] to size the room, and then [t] and [q] to set the area for training and equipment storage. If you have multiple squads, you’ll need to press the up and down arrows to select the squad you want to use this area (can be multiple).
The last thing to talk about is supplies. This often doesn’t require too many changes from the default (unless you really need to manage food resources) but does require you to build a backpack and waterskins/flasks. Backpacks and waterskins can be made from a leatherworks, a flask can be forged. If you do need to change the amount of food they are carrying, or what type of drink they have; you select [u]supplies from the [m]iltary menu and then [-][+] to change the water amount/type and [/][*] to change the amount of food they’re carrying.
One thing to point out is that soldiers do NOT need to have supplies with them, however it saves a lot of time rather than having to go to food stockpiles to get food and drink. Especially useful in large fortresses.
With that, your army is up and running!
But that is not all, there are two more advanced things you can do.
Firstly is barracks. While squads don’t require a barracks to sleep (they’ll just use a spare bed), it can be useful if you want your troops to be close to key areas in your fort. This is done in basically the same way as creating a traning area, except you place a bed ([b]uild, [b]ed) select press [q] and select the bed, [r] to size the room, [b] the set it to a barracks, and then [z] to set the area for sleeping. You can also place beds in the training room area and press [z] to also set it as a sleeping area.
The second is archery targets. These are relatively simply to set up ([b]uild > [A]rchery target), and then the same process as above
press [q] and select the target, [r] to size the room, and then [t] to set the area for training. The key difference is that archery targets have a directon. To set this press [w],[a],[s],or[d] to set the direction you want. The direction indicated is where they shot FROM in the direction of the target. i.e. Top from Bottom means they will shoot from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen to the target.
Remember that archers require quivers and a supply of bolts. Bolts can be made from metals, wood, or bone. It is often to build bolts from bones (especially if you have a meat industry going) as it’s the best use for bones, wood is second, while metal bolts is a last resort, as metal can be used for better uses.
A good military requires two things: Good equipment and good soldiers. A Legendary Swordsdwarf with a copper sword won’t be very good against a titan; similarly, giving a Rookie adamantine weapons is a good way to lose the weapons.
But first, you need to outfit your troops. A good thing about the game is that the troops will train even if they do not have all the equipment and will pick it up as it becomes available. What you decide to equip your troops is up to you, but a good strategy is to ensure that armour covers each body part.
[By Zivilin: Dwarf Fortress Wiki]
What I tend to go for is a Breastplate, Greaves, a Helm, Gauntlets, High Boots, a Shield, a Short Sword, and a Training Sword, which costs 10 bars of metal and 1 log of wood for each solider (For adamantine weapons/armour the cost is 28 bars). The Training Sword/Short Sword can be replaced with Training Spear/Spear or Training Axe/Battle Axe depending on preference.
The other thing to remember is to create backpacks and waterskins so troops can stay at their posts, rather then having to rush off to eat and drink. For archers, you almost must create a quiver and have a supply of bolts.
To create a uniform press [m]iltary > [n]uniforms >[c]add uniform, then press [N] to give it a name (optional, but makes things easier if you decide to have different uniforms). Next use the right arrow key to the rightmost list and select the armour you wish to use. The top option “armour” basically means you are not picky about what they wear, as long as it’s armour. However I prefer to define what they wear so all my troops are wearing the same thing. Do this by pressing down and selected “Brestplate”. Next, hit [L]egs and do the same for Legs, [H]elms, [G]loves, [B]oots, [S]hield, [W]eapons.
One thing you might notice is that there are some pieces of equipment that you cannot create. These can either only be traded in or found on the bodies of invaders. Unless you really want to have your soldiers use vanity items, it’s best to not select them. In this vain, remember to choose a crossbow instead of a bow, as you cannot make bows or arrows.
You can also further customise what the equipment is by options such as [M]aterial; which defines what the armour/weapon needs to be from, and [C]olour which sets the colour of the clothes. However, these tend to complicate matters and is really only used if you want to have exact uniforms.
The first thing to make is training weapons, as they are easy to make, can be very low quality, and don’t injure Dwarfs training with them, and then a shield. This is also because they can train their skills while you produce proper equipment.
So now you have the weapons, now you just need the troops. The first thing to do is create a squad. Ideally you want to draft in a migrant that has a skill in the weapons you are using, but is not essential, as with other skills, they learn on the job. The other thing to ensure is that you’re not drafting in soldiers from essential work.
Another solution, when a fort gets bigger, is to draft in Farmers that only activate for winter (when there are fewer crops to plant) or other militia guards that only activate for a couple of months to train when less needs to be done around the fortress.
To create a squad you need to go to the [m]iltary screen > [c]reate squad. Once you’ve done that, select the armour set you created. When you’ve done that use the right arrow key to navigate to the rightmost list and select the leader of the squad, and the other members. The leader of the squad doesn’t matter too much.
That’s the squad created, but you then need to activate it. Do this by selecting [a] and then scrolling down to “Active/Training” hitting [enter] and then scrolling right and selecting the squad. This should activate the squad.
The next thing to do is to set a [s]chedule. If you’re making a professional military squad, you may as well not change this setting as they’ll train all the time. If you want them to be inactive for a certain time select the month and press [x]clear order. To assign a training, or another patrol route, defending, or guarding, press [o]rders and then [o] again to cycle through orders. In order to set a patrol route, guarding, or defending, you need to set up borrows and/or waypoints.
To set up a burrow. From the rootmenu, select [w]Make Burrows > [a]dd new burrow > [enter] and then [enter] to start designating an area then [enter] to confirm that area. Waypoints are the same but from the rootmenu select [N]points, move your cursor to an area you want the point to be and hit [p]lace. To add a route, press [r]oute > [a]dd new route > [e]dit waypoints and select a point to start from, press [a]dd waypoint, move to the next point and press [a]dd waypoint again until you have the patrol route. Press [e]dit route if you want to add more routes.
Once those have been set up, you can select those burrows, stations, and routes from the orders menu. To do so, press down to the selection you want, press [enter] to select it, then press right and select who you want to go on that route. To confirm press [Shift]+[Enter].
So now you have equipment, troops, and a schedule. But now they need somewhere to train. To create a training area, create an armour stand and/or a weapon stand, then place it in a room ([b]uild > [a]rmour stand OR [r]weapon rack), press [q] and select the rack, [r] to size the room, and then [t] and [q] to set the area for training and equipment storage. If you have multiple squads, you’ll need to press the up and down arrows to select the squad you want to use this area (can be multiple).
The last thing to talk about is supplies. This often doesn’t require too many changes from the default (unless you really need to manage food resources) but does require you to build a backpack and waterskins/flasks. Backpacks and waterskins can be made from a leatherworks, a flask can be forged. If you do need to change the amount of food they are carrying, or what type of drink they have; you select [u]supplies from the [m]iltary menu and then [-][+] to change the water amount/type and [/][*] to change the amount of food they’re carrying.
One thing to point out is that soldiers do NOT need to have supplies with them, however it saves a lot of time rather than having to go to food stockpiles to get food and drink. Especially useful in large fortresses.
With that, your army is up and running!
But that is not all, there are two more advanced things you can do.
Firstly is barracks. While squads don’t require a barracks to sleep (they’ll just use a spare bed), it can be useful if you want your troops to be close to key areas in your fort. This is done in basically the same way as creating a traning area, except you place a bed ([b]uild, [b]ed) select press [q] and select the bed, [r] to size the room, [b] the set it to a barracks, and then [z] to set the area for sleeping. You can also place beds in the training room area and press [z] to also set it as a sleeping area.
The second is archery targets. These are relatively simply to set up ([b]uild > [A]rchery target), and then the same process as above
press [q] and select the target, [r] to size the room, and then [t] to set the area for training. The key difference is that archery targets have a directon. To set this press [w],[a],[s],or[d] to set the direction you want. The direction indicated is where they shot FROM in the direction of the target. i.e. Top from Bottom means they will shoot from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen to the target.
Remember that archers require quivers and a supply of bolts. Bolts can be made from metals, wood, or bone. It is often to build bolts from bones (especially if you have a meat industry going) as it’s the best use for bones, wood is second, while metal bolts is a last resort, as metal can be used for better uses.
