So in my current fort, I decided to not use a danger room. I made three squads of 10 soldiers, one of axes, one of mixed maces/hammers, and one of crossbows based on the skills the dwarves I drafted had. While I managed to get the marksdwarves up thanks to a nigh-invulnerable forgotten beast I trapped behind some fortifications (it now has over 500 bolts stuck in it!) the melee squads were training very s l o w l y with most troops around skill levels 1-4.
Reading the wiki and forums, there was a suggestion that squads of 2 soldiers trained the fastest.
So I reorganized the axe squad into four squads of 3/3/2/2, with a minimum of 2 troops training at a time. While there was a long delay after the reorg before they started training (all the troops decided it was time to reshuffle their armor) within about 6 months of game time the axers were up to level 7-8, while the 10-man blunt weapon squad was still around skill level 3-4. Interestingly enough, rather than the most effective training happening in a high skill/low skill pair, when two troops were closely matched they both gained skills faster. After this, I reorganized the other squad into smaller squads as well, and their skills started improving too.
I also started cross-training them by setting up some standalone pumps near their barracks, turning on the Pump Operator labor for all my military dwarves, and turning it off for all civilians (yay Dwarf Therapist). It's like the weight machines in the gym... the off-duty military come and pump til they are drowsy, hungry and thirsty, then stagger off to eat/drink/rest, and the additional skill levels train their attributes up.
While it's still not as fast as using a danger room, it's nice to see that you can actually get the military to train like they're supposed to.
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