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Author Topic: Cowardly marksdwarves  (Read 891 times)

Argonnek

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Cowardly marksdwarves
« on: August 09, 2014, 10:28:48 pm »

Due to a perpetual zombie siege, my entire fortress is a mostly self-sufficient underground complex. However, due to the lack of migrants my population isn't very big, so my military is very small and undisciplined. After a FB interrupted my attempts to get underground lumber, I trapped it in a box with a cave-in to leave it at the mercy of my marksdwarves. Unfortunately, they run away in horror every time they see it, and are taking forever to kill it because they are too busy fleeing to shoot.

Is there a way to get my marksdwarves to stand and fight? I'd like to kill this thing sooner rather than later.

Urist McFrustum

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2014, 10:38:19 pm »

You need to train their discipline. You can do it by creating a training area near a refuse stockpile (with some remains on it obviously). Once their discipline is at a high level, they should stand and fight.
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Linkxsc

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2014, 11:14:09 pm »

Really thats how to do it? How does that work for melee dwarves? Just build your barracks, fill it with refuse so they're surrounded by death while they train?
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Baffler

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2014, 12:51:04 am »

The best way I know of to get Marksdwarves to learn discipline is to have them do melee drills with their crossbows before starting archery training. It makes training them more time-consuming, and they can't do much bashing with even heavy crossbows, but the discipline boost is a must have now.
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mobucks

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #4 on: August 10, 2014, 01:11:23 am »

You don't need refuse piles. In a year of regular barracks training they will be good to go. I think individual combat drills train it the most but don't quote me on that.
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cikulisu

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2014, 03:44:27 am »

well they're freaking out because they can see it.

so basically you should find a syndrome that causes them to go blind.

no eyes, no problem!
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Sergarr

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2014, 03:56:52 am »

well they're freaking out because they can see it.

so basically you should find a syndrome that causes them to go blind.

no eyes, no problem!
have you seen the accuracy of a blinded crossbowmen? It's basically 360.
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celem

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2014, 05:33:56 am »

It is Discipline, and yes barracks training is probably best/fastest.

Yes a refuse stockpile with sentient remains works and is fine for buffing lots of entities over time, but so will whats happening right now for your marksmen.  As you watch them fail and run, they are gaining Disc.  every failed Disc check boosts it.  So send them to barracks for a bit or leave it be.
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Argonnek

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2014, 12:28:03 pm »

Good to know. Thanks, all!

dwarf_reform

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Re: Cowardly marksdwarves
« Reply #9 on: August 10, 2014, 05:36:38 pm »

So this is basically saying you need a goodish amount of military training to survive/confront anything?? :| Last night I had embarked on a fully inland ocean and accidentally hit 'e'mbark! before I'd assigned skills to anyone :O So I made them all carpenters and a single woodcutter and made them all build this 5 story tall wooden fort out above the ocean.. By the time I'd made the 5th floor they were tantruming because I didn't set up any food crap..

On the 5th floor I had 2 gaps in the wall that weren't sealed yet, and the first one to berserk was, of course, the axe-equipped woodcutter.. He ended up eventually chasing someone to the top floor, and his prey immediately dived through one of the gaps and climbed around and up to the roof (sneaky bastard even pathed across the roof and to the 2nd hole in the wall and used it to get back down the stairs..)..

After that, this berserk woodcutter dangled from the 5th floor as his full-time job :| He'd climb up and chase anyone who entered the 5th floor, but they'd dart back down the stairs and he'd return to hang off the ledge:| I couldn't get anyone to go confront him at all, and I was hoping an untrained dwarf could at least knock him from the ledge (he was also dangling over the western-side entrance to the ocean fort, so anyone who tried using that entrance would panic, drop what they were hauling, and flee..)

After a couple seasons rolled by he dehydrated and his mummy-corpse fell 5 stories, hit the ground, and bounced about five tiles :>

I was left with 3 dwarves, two happy enough to be productive, and the expedition leader, who was busy splitting his time between having mini-breakdowns and hunting through seven-z-levels-tall treetops.. Eventually even he calmed down and came back to the ocean-fort, where I'd had the other two dwarves focusing solely on fishing/cooking/brewing/coffin-making.. I think I'll actually be able to stabilize it (not planning on military training at all, so I'll focus on being able to safely seal them in) :>

Nice side-fact: the wooden ocean-fort world is genned with severely altered dragons (bigger, many more eggs per clutch, increased semi-megabeast caves/cap, etc..) so around 15 of them lived through world-gen.. The main goal is to get a dragon to torch the all-wood ocean fort into the anchovy-filled ocean below :) Should be glorious :>
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