v0.31:Military

The military is one of the most important aspects of a successful fortress. Even with many Template:L, Template:Ls and Template:L, your military will still need to fend off Template:L Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, and fiendish Template:L Template:L. Turning your dwarves from useless migrants into bloodthirsty killing machines never hurts (unless you're the enemy).

The military screen is accessible through the m key, the squads screen is accessible through the s key, and the points/routes/notes screen is accessible through the N key.

See also:

• A Template:L to the military interface.
• For a general overview of threats and considerations for fortress defense, see the Template:L
• For specific suggestions on the physical defenses that will defend your military, see Template:L.
• For complex traps that are not a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan, (but might be adapted or plugged into one) see Template:L.

Creating a Military

Forming Squads

Before you can do anything with your military you need to go into the noble screen (n) and designate a Template:L. Subsequent squad leaders are also designated through the nobles screen; once you designate a militia commander it will open up a slot for a Template:L, and once you designate one of those it opens another captain slot, etc. These roles are all functionally equivalent.

When you have designated a commander/captain, going to the military screen will show that dwarf under the "Squads/Leaders" heading and you'll notice an option to create a new squad. Doing that moves the the display of the dwarf from his name to the squad's name. You can then fill out the squad from anyone in the fort by filling in the "Squad Positions" heading.

Equipment and Uniforms

In the military screen, press u to open the uniforms tab. Each listing under the 'Uniforms' header is essentially a pre-designed set of equipment that you can quickly apply to any individual soldier or entire squad, much like a template. You can create new uniforms if you want and add or remove items from any uniform by navigating this menu.

While still in the military screen, press e to open the equipment tab. The default sub-tab, 'View/Customize will be open. In this screen you can select individual dwarves and apply individual pieces of equipment to them, from Armor, Leggings, Helms, Gloves, Boots, Shields, and Weapons, as well as Material and Color depending on the piece of equipment highlighted. To select a specific piece of equipment (such as an artifact), select 'specific _____' under that equipment type (eg. 'specific armor' in the Armor field); for your convenience highest-quality equipment is listed first.

To apply your preset uniform templates, press U in the equipment tab to open the Assign Uniforms sub-tab and move the selector to the Position Uniform header. Pressing enter will apply the selected uniform to the individual dwarf of your choosing, and shift+enter will apply the selected uniform to the entire squad.

For ranged soldiers, head over to the ammunition (f) tab and assign them something from there. If you don't care what they use, you still need to give them ammo - just pick 'bolts' and it will default to any bolts they can find.

In the early stages of your fort your dwarves will equip themselves, but once enough migrants have arrived your fortress will require an Template:L (designated in the nobles screen) to manage your armory. The arsenal dwarf serves the role of quartermaster; without him your dwarves will be unable to change their equipment. Once you have a dwarf selected, make sure to give him an office - like a Template:L, an arsenal dwarf will need to sign off on equipment changes before they can be made.

Note that if you don't have an option for Arsenal Dwarf, it just means your fort isn't big enough to need one yet. Dwarves will equip themselves until your fortress grows too large - just keep an eye on the nobles screen every time you get migrants, and assign an arsenal dwarf when you need one.

Directing Squads

Alert levels

The alert level is a fundamental concept of military management. In each alert level, you can program instructions for your military and civilian dwarves to follow. The game contains two alert levels by default - 'Inactive' and 'Active/Train'. In 'Inactive', all squads are assigned no orders. In 'Active/Train', all squads are assigned to train the entire year.

Your entire fortress is always set to exactly one 'Civilian alert level'. This restricts where civilians may go. To define the restriction area, you must first create a Template:L encompassing the area you want to restrict your civilians to. Then, go to the alert screen (m then a), create a new alert level (call it something like 'Danger'), highlight it in the left pane, then press enter on the correct burrow in the right pane. You can change the currently active civilian alert level by pressing enter on the correct alert level in the left pane.

Each alert level also carries instructions for military dwarves when it is activated. Unlike the civilian level, which applies to your entire fort, the military alert level can be set individually for each squad. To set a squad to an alert level, either select it from the squad menu (s) and press 't' until the desired alert level is selected, or go to the alert menu (m then a), highlight the correct alert level in the left pane, then highlight the correct squad in the middle pane, then press Shift-Enter.

Scheduling

Each squad can be given a schedule to follow for an entire year, broken up by month. Each squad has a separate schedule for each alert level; it can be swapped between these schedules with the procedure outlined in the previous section. The main scheduling screen can be accessed by pressing s from the main military screen.

On the main scheduling page, you will see a list of months on the left side, and a list of all of the squads in your fortress along the top edge. Scheduling is done separately for each alert level; to switch between alert levels use the / and * numpad keys. You can use the + and - numpad keys to scroll through the squads at the top if you have more than will fit on one screen. Use the up/down arrow keys to navigate up and down the month list, and the left/right arrow keys to navigate between the squads. The orders in the currently selected cell are displayed in blue towards the bottom of the screen. When you've highlighted a cell, press Tab to switch focus to this order list. From here, you can press e to edit the orders.

When you press 'e', a screen will come up saying something like 'o: Train'. Press o to change the order's type. This cycles between 'Train', 'Defend Burrow', 'Patrol Route', and 'Station'. To use any of the orders other than Train, you will first need to set up the appropriate Template:L, station, or route. When you cycle to the order you want, highlight the burrow, station, or route you want the order to go to and press Enter. It should be highlighted in green. When you are done, press Shift-Enter to save the order and return to the schedule screen.

Note that the text displayed on each cell (like 'Train') is a completely customized text; it does NOT reflect the actual orders in the cell! When you have a cell highlighted, you can press 'n' to edit the label. Don't be confused by the fact that when you edit the orders in a cell, the label does not change to reflect your changes. You need to update the cell text yourself to be consistent with the orders.

To eliminate some of the tedium in scheduling many months, you can copy-paste orders from one cell to another with the c and p keys. Press c in the cell you want to copy from, then go to the cells you want to paste to and press p in each one.

By pressing Shift-Tab in the main military screen, you can flip the rows and columns in the main grid. This allows you to see more squads, but fewer months. This can be useful if you want to see all your squads at the cost of not seeing the entire year's schedule. This change is cosmetic only; the tools still work the same way.

Warning, dwarves who are set to do nothing but train with no downtime have been observed to begin to starve themselves keeping to the rigorous schedule, and thus grow unhappy. Do you really want to find out how much damage that practice spear can do? To allow some of your dwarves to go sleeping when they need, you need to lower the minimum number of dwarves of the squad that need to follow the current order at any time : from the schedule screen, edit (o)rders, and use (-) until the value is 1 or 2 less than the current number of soldiers in your squad. This will change the limit for the current month only, so use the copy/paste feature to update every month.

<<A squad automatically defaults to 'training' all year until otherwise defined.

The squad defaults to training all the time (see its 's'chedule on the military screen). To actually make them train, though, you need to activate them: 's'quads from the main screen, then press the letter of your squad, then 't' to change it from inactive to active. You also need to create a barracks from a bed, armour stand, archery target, or weapon rack, then assign the squad to train in it with the 't' key. This makes them immediately start to train there.>>

Stations and Routes

Stations are set in the Notes menu. Simply place a point where you want a squad to stand, give it a name if you want to be able to find it quickly, then give your desired squads orders to guard that station.

Routes are made by combining stations. Once you have stations set along your desired route (at least 2, or you can't make a route), hit routes while in the Notes menu. add a route, name it something appropriate, then edit its waypoints. You need to add the points in the same order you want the dwarves to follow. They'll loop back to the initial point when they reach the last one.

Kill orders

The kill command allows your military to focus their attack on one or more specific targets. It is a very unsubtle way of beating into your dwarves' booze addled minds that they are to kill your target or be killed in the attempt. It may very well be your last command to your dwarves.

Kill Order steps - as new DF can be confusing:

1. Have a squad(s) set up through the 'm'ilitary menu at the main screen. Start a new squad if necessary by moving over to the dwarves and selecting them. Now assign proper weapons and armor. You do not need to mess with alerts or schedules at this time. You should always have a squad set up before everything goes to Armok, but this command may be utilized to have civilians join in a last ditch defense.

2. Go back to the main screen, then press 's' to access the 's'quad menu.

3. Press either 'a'/'b'/'c'/etc or 'A' 'B' 'C' to select the squad(s) that will execute the Kill Order. You may press 'p' if you want to toggle between having an individual dwarf or the squad perform the kill order.

4. After selecting which dwarves will execute the kill order, press 'k' for "Attack".

5. Now you have several options, you can move the cursor to what you want to die and press 'enter', press 'l'ist and select what you want to die from a list, or 'r'ectangle to select an area of things you want dead.

6. Watch your dwarves fulfill their beardhood or join the halls of their fathers.

Training Marksdwarves

To get marksdwarves to train in any way other then bashing each other with their crossbows, you need two things. First, they must have quivers. Archers will no longer fire bolts without a quiver to store them in. Second, you need to have an archery range that is set up for the squad and listed as a Training area for that squad.