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[McCautious]

Ok. I have two military questions that concern very practical issues (40.16):

1. How do I keep my dwarves "active" as soldier in the middle of a fight?
Whenever I order a kill-command the following may happen: Hostile gets killed, Axedwarf 1, 2, 4 and 5 have become [civilian job description] and run off to haul some eggs or something when there is still another goblin charging at them. It's as if they consider the job done and get reset to their schedule.
Stupidly enough, this can even happen when I have the whole squad assigned to "train" via a schedule ... in this case they don't become civilians and they won't usually go haul something but rather break off from the fight to go training or to pickup equipment ... I mean, wth! You can't just decide to go take some swings at the training dummy in the middle of a battle!

2. How do I get my marksdwarves to equip ammo instantly?
I know this perennial and I have been searching long and far. But they just won't do it. Even when I set all my marksdwarves to "train" via a schedule, order them to move right next to the ammo stockpile (and unforbidden lose ammo), then cancel the move order ... they just won't fill their quivers reliably.
Now having them reequip during a fight is another story I guess. But there must be a way to least initially restock them all before you send them into a fight ... ?
(I have currently set wooden bolts for Combat and Training and there is plenty of wooden bolts around. I have craploads of quivers and they all have one too.)

[Decidophobia]

If there are several enemies, it's usually better to use a move command rather than kill. Then they'll stay active and attack any enemies they see until you move them somewhere else or cancel the order.

[PatrikLundell]

When there are several enemies, I usually use 'm'ove to get sufficiently close, and then multiselect 'k'ill to select the killing of all enemies, not only one. Using 'm'ove carries a risk, however, since they may shed their armor when you shift from station to kill.

I've given up on crossbows because the buggers are very good at deciding that they cannot reach the targets (it would require them to move several tiles to get in firing range!), they either rush in to get killed when they run out of bolts or sneaks away to train (but picks up bolts to train with!). It currently seems impossible to get them to equip both training bolts and combat bolts, so they are sent into battle with training bolts, and they also seem incapable of equipping a reasonable number of bolts (max 25 somewhat reliably, it seems), and that number is of course depleted due to training.
If I understand it correctly they only train marksdwarfship when OFF duty, and that requires the squad to have been assigned at least one archery target (and a target can only be used at one dwarf at a time). They do pick up bolts to train, but in a very unreliable fashion.

[McCautious]

Ok, thanks guys. I will give the move-order method a try next time.

PatrikLundell, I understand your frustration ... My first post was actually inspired by two of my marksdwarves getting pushed into water by Capybaras! They arrived on site without ammo, of course, went straight into melee and ended up getting drowned ... by unarmored guinea-pigs, damnit. Save scumming any trying this with some measures to get them to at least carry bolts initially failed ... one again.

Concerning the archery-range, you may want to try around a bit more. Mine are training "archery practice" just fine during training hours. I have set up 7 ranges and assigned each one individually to the squad of 8 dwarfs. And I regularly see 2, 3 or even 4 of them standing there shooting bolts ... which they then, of course, don't restock right away.

[PatrikLundell]

Oh, I didn't have any trouble getting them to train when I used every second month on duty and every second one "off". It's just that they were essentially useless. I had an unconcious goblin or two laying around after my defenses had taken care of their fellows, and it still took the 10 crossbow dwarves something like 5 minutes to finish them off (after having arrived on site, and, of course, fewer than 10 did actually show up), and I think they did finish them off by whacking them with the crossbows.
I know other people consider crossbowmen to be worthwhile, though.

Capybaras are actually fairly large, in the 35-66 kg range according to Wikipedia, but yes, being beaten by them is humiliating.

[smeeprocket]

crossbow dwarves are probably going to have a problem taking on prone opponents because they are less of a target. That aren't smart enough to go do a "confirmed kill." You want melee to finish them off.

Crossbow dwarves are really good against FBs that have dust and such, and for softening up enemies before your melee engage.

[PatrikLundell]

If you manage to get an FB contained enough to allow crossbowmen to fire at it without being summarily slaughtered you ought to have it contained enough to use other defenses against it (like my favorite: the menacing spike array on manual or automatic repeat).

[Headless]

Who does use cross bows effectively?  I don't even care if they kill suff, if I could get even half the squad to fire at invaders I would be thrilled.

[Magistrum]

I think crossbows are just too micro for some guys, archer towers are pretty effective against all kinds of aboveground and outside fort threats, for me at least... Usually it goes two towers per squad, six or eight towers, with the squads shuffling between the towers. With three marksdwarves squads I only get five of them picking up equipment or something else stupid when in active battle.

[smakemupagus]

ranged guys are pretty fine.  i wish i understood better what other players struggle with, because i can't even put my finger on anything special that i do. 

don't station them in places where they'll be able to stand around too far from the wall fortifications.  don't set anything to Training ammo only, either Combat or C&T.  overproduce xbows and ammo to account for hunters claiming some of it.   have them rotate on and off duty (on to equip, off to use marks range).  obviously, have enough quivers and don't mix weapons with different ammo types in the same squad.

[Aslandus]

I know a common problems with ranged soldiers is people forgetting to make quivers for them to carry ammo, unfortunately they can't just keep bolts in their tunics...

As for the soldier movements, pretty much what everyone else said, use move/station rather than kill orders... I just station them with no kill orders, then they can gather near the entrance of the fortress rather than charging out one at a time and getting shot with arrows before their buddies arrive...

[McCautious]

Been playing a little more last night and I assigned new uniforms to my military (masterwork steel armor ftw) so I ended up screening the equipment row in DwarfTherapist quite a bit to check if they finally got around equipping everything. It's crazy ... my marksdwarf almost never hit "green"-status (=all equipped) and guess what is always missing: 25 ammunition. By the time my close combatants have dropped and reequipped their entire 16-piece uniform set twice my marksdwarves are apparently still playing hide and seek with the ammo-stockpile.

I find it very odd that the player base seems to be so divided on this question. There is literally everything here from "I have given up on crossbows..." to "ranged guys are pretty fine ...".

[Magistrum]

Well, the archery is, like many other features, riddled with bugs. Maybe those who go with "They do pretty fine..." are the ones who do all the workarounds for getting things to work... It's just too micro for some...