How I set up my militia squads

[ostlandr]

Hey, gang!

Started to write this as a reply to another post, but decided it deserves its own thread.

Here's how I set up my militia squads:

Step one of course is to appoint your Expedition Leader as Militia Commander, and throw your embark group into a Squad. I create an initial custom uniform that is any type of armor and personal choice of weapon.

First Squad is my "old timers." They always get the best armor and equipment. Not heavy armor, though- my traditional Dwarf outfit of mail shirts and leggings, metal caps and bucklers, gauntlets and low boots. Conversely, these guys tend to be the most valuable Dwarves- elite craftspeople and such. So I don't pour their blood out like water. I throw them into all the easy fights. But when things get really FUN, they end up either patrolling Route 1 (Main Gate to top of Main Stairwell to the Main Tavern) or doing a burrow guard at the Fortress' last redoubt:

"They have taken the Bridge and the Second Hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. . . Drums. Drums in the Deep. We cannot get out. A Shadow moves in the dark. . . We cannot get out. . . They are coming."
-The Book of Mazarbul- final entry.


Second Squad is my "Red Shirts." They get First Squad's castoff armor and weapons. The most common order they get is "Go kill that." Any early game mercenaries go in Second Squad.

Third Squad is the "lokum äkil" - the point of the spear. They are basically professional soldiers rather than militia. The core of Third Squad are the mercenary veterans of Second Squad. They get full plate armor.

Haven't played around with a dedicated Marksdwarf squad yet. When I do, the commander will be the Ranger from early game who is the elite Marksdwarf, unless anther Marksdwarf or Merc has better Command skills. Will pull all the Marksdwarves out of the other squads. FYI grab the best bows and arrows you can get through trade or loot, in case you pick up a mercenary archer or two.

[Fel]

Well, step one is appointing a dwarf as militia commander, not necessarily your expedition leader.
You want to appoint a dwarf that is likely to like being in the military and wouldn't be needed for civilian jobs.
More often than not your expedition leader is also you broker, bookkeeper and manager, which goes badly with the military.
Given that your first squad is effectively "important civilians, to give them armor" rather than a squad for battle I guess the choice of the expedition leader as the commander makes sense though.


I prefer to make my squads a bit differently, more importantly the whole squad always shares the same weapon type, making training more efficient.
Usually I have a single squad for a while, with spears or warhammers.
I make a point of giving them a set of iron armor, switched for masterwork steel when I can afford that.

Sometimes I also make a squad for crossbow dwarves just because it's fun to watch them fire voleys after voleys from a safe place while the rest of the military gathers up before rushing out together.

At some point I make a second small squad with the other weapon (spear/warhammer).


When I get to the point where I can make several squads without harming the production of the fort, I take the trained members of the two weapon squads to act as leaders and teachers for those, quickly getting the new recruits to decent enough levels so they won't die too easily.