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[LaikaBauss]

Anyone?

Making a awesome marksman tower to watch over the surface.

[Taffer]

I don't have a tower design off the top of my head for you, but using this as a reference, you could make a circular tower with balconies from which to fire from. Ramps spiraling up the center recommended.

[Uristoteles]

the wiki has a basic design, which works pretty well:
simple 5x5 archer tower

[Oaktree]

For "bunker" towers outside my main fortifications I just build a variation of the 5x5.  A 3x3 wall around an up/down stair coming from below ground and a 5x5 above that with a central stair with hatch.  Which is fully roofed using a temporary stair on one of the edges during construction.  The tower is then accessed via shallow tunnels connecting to the fortress.

For the fortress itself I usually have similar style corner towers with galleries for archers facing the edge most attackers will be channeled into.

If you are using lots of inexperienced marksdwarves who have trouble with firing through fortifications then you need some open elevated galleries for them to use - being able to seal these off with bridges would be a good precaution.

Something to be aware of is that if you place squads using (m)ove orders that they will go somewhere accessible within three tiles of that spot.  Which with some designs will lead them to go outside the fortifications or too far inside them.  For that reason I prefer elevated positions, or dig two-wide ditches outside my ground-level fortifications.  You can also use statues to block spots - and into which the marksdwarves can dodge temporarily if necessary.

[Kumis]

I remember a post where someone outlined their pillbox design. He'd set up a patrol route across z-levels so when the marksdwarves ran out of ammo they'd continue on their patrol to somewhere were they couldn't see the enemy and where there was ammo (underneath the tower) where they'd then restock before continuing the patrol back upstairs.

Seems like a fantastic design, my only problem is I have such rotten luck with patrol routes, especially across z-levels. Anyone found a way to stop them acting like mad ants?

I tried searching for the post again, but couldn't find it, if I find it I'll be sure to post the link.

[Uristoteles]

I think you're talking of this thread from Psieye:
Auto-reloading Marksdwarves

[Kumis]

Ah, maybe that's it. I might have combined it with another thread in my memory; dunno where I got the z-level thing from.

But yes, convoluted front-door routes and patrol routes to ensure reloading marksdwarves!

[LaikaBauss]

Okay, i did the wiki designand it works quite well...

However, how tall should the tower be for maximum range???

Using a 3zlvl tall tower, it seemed to be just as effective as a 1zlvl tower.

Also, does being higher up increase the damage/accuracy?

AND does it decrase the chance of being hit by invaders???

[krenshala]

From a side view, the effective* range of a marksdwarf is a diamond shape.  A three z tower has a two tile shorter effective range than a one z tower.  From a practical standpoint, three to five z levels is probably all that you would ever need for height.

* edited to show the word I attempted to type the first time

[CapnUrist]

This is purely theoretical, but when I learned of the diamond-shape firing range of marksdwarves, I thought that perhaps one could get more marksdwarves covering the same distance with an "inverted ziggurat" tower design. Basically, since each additional z-level up decreases the distance fired by 1, by expanding each floor out one additional tile, many dwarves could cover the same area. Best used covering one or two directions, as an independent tower would need many dwarves to take advantage of its size; at 3 levels tall, there would be room for 36 dwarves to be stationed, and at 5 levels, it would take 80 dwarves to fill.

To answer your other questions, height doesn't affect the effectiveness of either your or enemy archers beyond range.

[GrimDark_Majyyks]

I don't know if this has come up or not but if/when you run into troubles pertaining to tower design (especially with regard to levels above fortifications) you can make pretty good use of floor tiles to reach otherwise unreachable corners and such. One of the added functionalities of towers is that you can integrate them into your fortress to make them (mostly) entirely invulnerable from the outside, but this generally requires cliffs.

Bonus: Make the top floor of the tower tap into a water reservoir, then attach a bridge or floodgates and profit. Having the top floor jut out a little bit from the tower should prevent unwanted spillage, and the mist generated might incidentally give your military dwarves happy thoughts while they shoot their crossbows if the mist somehow gets into the tower.

Double Bonus: Replace water with magma; probably best to avoid any mist related activities here though. You probably would need to use pumps to pressurize it into being effective and make sure the materials are magma-safe.

Triple Bonus: Why not both? Instant obsidianizer. Just make sure to keep the water and magma separate until they need not be.

Actually I find myself suddenly totally enamored with the idea of integrated tower structures. If I have time outside of my current fortress project I'll see if I can provide some designs for the general public's perusal, because there is just so much you can do with towers given the time and dwarfpower.