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[Liosan]

Hi folks, new here, cool game except for the military part

I've played a few forts, but still can't get the hang of using the military properly. My current problem are marksdwarves - they used to work (and be much easier to handle) in my previous version, but this time they just... got lazy.

I've done the irritatingly long and tiresome configuration the same way as in the previous forts, and everything worked fine for about 5 minutes. I created a uniform using metal armor and crossbows; I had the crossbows ready, but not the armor. I created a squad out of 8 dwarves, two of which were previously hunters. I assigned them a barracks with a few beds and a chest, several archery ranges, created a schedule for training on the default "Active/Training" alert, gave them supplies, checked the ammunition screen, and switched the squad to the proper alert. Ok, they went to train, then I had them take out a single goblin leftover from an ambush, then they went to train some more, then... stopped.

So now I've got 8 military dorfs with job "Soldier (cannot follow order)". They're equipped with crossbows and bits and pieces of armor, but no bolts - which seems to be the heart of the problem. I checked the ammunition screen - there are some ammo groups assigned, but they're empty. Creating new ammo groups doesn't help - still empty. So I go and create 30 bone and 30 wooden bolts - still nothing. I go into status->stocks, some bolts are forbidden - I unforbid them. Still nothing. I thought - maybe the bolts are unaccessible; but they're lying on a stockpile right near the barracks, I can see them with the k-cursor. So I go and delete the squad, and create a new one with the same parameters - still no effect. My hunters also are idle, and if I issue a kill order they just bash stuff with their crossbows. Everyone has quivers.

Generally, I'm running out of ideas... marksdwarves were much more reliable than axedwarves (at least for me), but now I can't get them to shoot stuff Any ideas, folks? I'm running 0.31.25.

Liosan

[zooeyglass]

Hi, welcome!

Sounds like you are sharp on the mechanics of it all. I wonder if it's on the ammunition screen that something is going wrong. Can you check again that their specific squad (rather than hunters) has been added a bolts slot? I usually don't tamper with bone for training / metal for combat, and just assign "bolts CT" (that's how it appears) to avoid any potential slip-ups with dwarves getting confused.

If they all have quivers though... hmmm.

You mentioned unforbidding some bolts - do you have it set in 'o'rders to forbid used ammunition? If so, does that imply that they have been firing some bolts already? Are you using a ditch behind your archery targets to catch missed bolts?

I recall reading something about unskilled crossbow dwarves being very slow to fire. That might be playing a part. Similarly, I have observed that my crossbow dwarves more often do archery training on their 'no order' months and training dodging (et al) during their training months. What kind of schedule do you have them on?

That's all I got.

[Liosan]

Thanks for the reply,

yup, the squad has a bolt slot with 250. Or more, or two slots, depending on what I try Still, the slots have no bolts in them - the rightmost column is empty.

They have been firing bolts - as hunters, during training and at a goblin. The order is to forbid used bolts, no channel/ditch behind/near archery targets. The problem is not that they stand there and don't fire - they hung about the meeting zone saying "unable to follow order". It's hard to mistake the meeting area for the archery range (although I might consider this an evil plan for some other day ). I'm pretty sure I know how an unskilled dwarf trains - I've trained 2-3 squads in the previous version (.21) with no problems and with good results.

I'll try scheduling them to "no orders", maybe that'll help; currently they are at train at 6 dwarves minimum, all 12 months. But then again, I think something is wrong with the bolts - my hunters are also idling. I don't know if it matters, but my squad captain is captain of the guard.

Liosan

[Psieye]

1) Nowhere near enough bolts. Try having at least 1000 - 300 for the hunters and 700 for squad training. You have 8 marksdwarves so they will get through those bolts very fast during practice.

2) For training, sometimes I find it's best to tell them to be in Inactive mode and give them no civilian labours so they'll do the equivalent of Indivdiual Combat Training for archery ranges. Active/Training alert means they're likely to have demonstrations which I guess saves ammo but is really time consuming.

3) In actual combat, never give them a station or a kill order. Stick to Defend Burrow orders and make sure those burrows are confined spaces they cannot go to melee from.

[Marble_Nuts]

HAd te same problem. To me it seem like a bug... Half of my marksman are actually 'Soldier (cannot follow order)' and the other half is training.

Everything is set right, it just seem it breaks somewhere, might be with burrow and pathing

[Liosan]

@Psieye - thanks, but nothing applies to my problem. They don't "eat through the bolts", kill orders work fine but defends works better (but neither involves shooting), and they don't do demonstrations.

@Marble_Nuts - no burrow... I think. I may have a burrow on the civilian alert, I'll double check. Thanks for the idea... shouldn't matter (they aren't civilians) but who knows. I still have no idea why I don't have any bolts on the m->f screen... it's not quite the same problem as yours - in my fort, there is no shooting. Zero. And I like shooting.

Liosan

[Liosan]

(bump) So... no burrow, so that's not the problem. Inactive mode doesn't work. I got some bolts to appear on the m->f screen, but still no shooting. Eh. I struck adamantine so I think I'm going axedwarves...

Liosan