Pickaxe as a weapon

[mar3usmc]

I have read that this is the overall best melee weapon? Is this still the case in the steam version?

[AlP]

Why wouldn't it be?

Keep in mind that it uses the mining skill, so training a pickaxe user is worse than training a military skill dwarf.

[mar3usmc]

Originally posted by AlP:

Why wouldn't it be?

Keep in mind that it uses the mining skill, so training a pickaxe user is worse than training a military skill dwarf.

Do elaborate please. Why would training a pickaxe user be worse? Do you mean it is better to just have them mine, which is primarily what I am doing. However, I think you still need to train them up so that they are good with armor, shield, dodge, etc...

[AlP]

Mining skill is raised primarily through mining, while other skills can be trained in the barracks. Supposedly they can gain mining skill there as well, but that would be slower than other combat skills.

[Barbiz]

If you want dodge skill you will need to train them in a squad, but just to get them better at hitting things with a pickaxe you want them mining rocks. Also make sure the pick axe quality and material are well suited for battle, not copper. While material and quality do not effect this version of DF for mining, it does effect it for damage rolls.

[Fel]

The pickaxe is a great weapon for early military, when you don't have the materials or numbers to train a professional army.

Because mining goes up pretty fast when you are mining out your fort they can start right away at being pretty strong (but completely unskilled at other military things).

The pickaxes being mostly about piercing mean that they are a bit similar to spears and don't get affected by armor or size too much.


The main issue with pickaxes is that they are a weird weapon that is piercing but also makes use of its weight, meaning that it has no use for the blue metal.

Another downside is that miners, just like the other job that require tools, don't go too well with military so to get the most out of them you need to pick between being a miner or being a military dwarf.

[Moriarty]

Then a strategy could be:
1. Define a miner metal uniform with shield and an pickaxe as weapon
2. Put all miners in a squad give them the uniform
3. Set that squad should always wear the uniform

And now you have 3 states:
1. Mining jobs (Should wear uniform without weapon/tool)
give your squad members the job miner
2. No mining jobs (Wear Uniform)
Remove mining job from squad members.
Let them do something more productive jobs (Stonecutter etc.)
3. Attack (Wear Uniform)
Remove mining job from squad members

In the cases 2 + 3 the miners should loose the binding to the tool they wear and the item should be released. Then, the dwarf should take the next weapon he could find for his uniform, this should be the pickaxe.

[Fel]

That's a good idea but sadly that's not how it works.

If you do that, the squad will unequip all military stuff as soon as they are not in military duty then go grab a different pickaxe (no matter if they need to be mining or not).

It's the same for all of the 3 "tool" jobs, the equipment required for the job is a uniform itself with nothing else.
You can't even tell them to use the same pickaxe for both.

2 and 3 would work since they would either not have mining enabled or be in active military duty, but 1 would not.

[RLS0812]

Junk quality pickaxes are the absolute best thing to load weapon traps with. Every trapped tile an enemy steps on, has the chance of hitting the enemy up to 10 times with a pick.
Picks cause bleeding, broken bones, damaged internal organs, and have a chance of disembowelment or dismemberment.

[megareader5000]

Originally posted by RLS0812:

Junk quality pickaxes are the absolute best thing to load weapon traps with. Every trapped tile an enemy steps on, has the chance of hitting the enemy up to 10 times with a pick.
Picks cause bleeding, broken bones, damaged internal organs, and have a chance of disembowelment or dismemberment.

Necromancy

[Sander]

had a miner get caught by a visiting minotaur once. first hit the miner made after dodging the minotaur was to cut the minotaurs tendons on one leg, next hit brained him through the skull

as long as your dwarves are brave enough to fight back, a miner and his (preferably masterwork) pick are not to be underestimated.

[Torminator]

Originally posted by mar3usmc:

I have read that this is the overall best melee weapon? Is this still the case in the steam version?

Btw: You can remove the Monster Hunter job from a monster Hunter, make them a miner, and they will keep their armour on while mining 👍