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[bobhayes]

Anybody else noticed that highly-trained military will sometimes fight even when off-duty?

My squad of legendary marksdwarf females was outside gathering up goblinite from an ambush. Their umpteen children were hovering around them in a cloud, as usual.

A goblin snatcher chose this extremely poor moment to pop in. I moved to activate the squad, so they would pincushion him instead of running away.

But before I even did that, the screen was a blur of flying bolts and the snatcher went down about three ticks after stepping foot on the map. They were firing as civilians - I could tell because their appearance didn't change to their armor like it does when you activate a squad.

Related: legendary marksdwarves have seriously enhanced range. The same squad had been sent out to clear the ambush because the stupid ambushers wouldn't come around to the entrance to be killed properly. I had expected casualties because the ambushers were also crossbow users - but ONE of my girls (she got there first) opened fire from 40+ tiles away and took out half the squad with brutal headshots before the rest fled. The goblins died without getting off a single shot.

[Urist McGyver]

Aren't legendary military dwarves considered Champions(or heroes, can't remember), and thus are always on duty?

[Urist Imiknorris]

That's 40d.

[ZCM]

My 31.23 fort has a hunter who has never, ever been in the military and isn't legendary. A goblin thief popped up near him. He did his very best to fill the goblin with bolts.

[fox967]

Maybe it has something to do with the fact they were equipped with bows? Im only guessing here, but ive noticed that most dwarves will run from an enemy, unless they are in an active squad. But bowdwarfs wouldnt be near the enemy, so wouldnt feel the need to run, and therfore able to use their weapons.

Maybe?

Im only guessing, so who knows.

[Poindexterity]

every dwarf in my fort has a crossbow, quiver and bolts for just such an occasion

[Minnakht]

Hunters are like that. My hunter also helped with a giant that came as an uninvited guest, together with 15+ wrestlers, one of which was missing a foot and uses a larch crutch to bash the giant on the head.

...good thing one person brought a steel axe eventually...

Oh, and a previous giant in another fort back in .18 died of a pick to the head, in a single blow, from a non-military miner.

It's a good thing that civilians help out sometimes! When they have tools to do so...

[NewsMuffin]

I think Miners and Woodcutters are considered to be in the military / and active squad, when it comes to running from enemies, because they have a uniform that gives them their pick or axe.

[bp1986]

every dwarf in my fort has a crossbow, quiver and bolts for just such an occasion

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but could you expand on how you pulled that off? The military windows are still rather confusing to me and I would love to have my civies actually stand and fight Urist McAngryMason. (or at least try to get in a hit before dieing)

[psychologicalshock]

every dwarf in my fort has a crossbow, quiver and bolts for just such an occasion

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but could you expand on how you pulled that off? The military windows are still rather confusing to me and I would love to have my civies actually stand and fight Urist McAngryMason. (or at least try to get in a hit before dieing)

I believe the trick is that you put everyone into archer squads but keep them inactive, that way they'll carry a crossbow on their person. Haven't tried it myself as I don't have enough crossbows to do that yet.

[Marsunpaistii]

every dwarf in my fort has a crossbow, quiver and bolts for just such an occasion

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but could you expand on how you pulled that off? The military windows are still rather confusing to me and I would love to have my civies actually stand and fight Urist McAngryMason. (or at least try to get in a hit before dieing)

I believe the trick is that you put everyone into archer squads but keep them inactive, that way they'll carry a crossbow on their person. Haven't tried it myself as I don't have enough crossbows to do that yet.

I would try that out but assigning every dwarf into a squad is just pain in the ass because they show up in the list even though they are in a squad already so you accidentally assign the same dwarves to different squads every time

[Sunday]

every dwarf in my fort has a crossbow, quiver and bolts for just such an occasion

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but could you expand on how you pulled that off? The military windows are still rather confusing to me and I would love to have my civies actually stand and fight Urist McAngryMason. (or at least try to get in a hit before dieing)

I believe the trick is that you put everyone into archer squads but keep them inactive, that way they'll carry a crossbow on their person. Haven't tried it myself as I don't have enough crossbows to do that yet.

I would try that out but assigning every dwarf into a squad is just pain in the ass because they show up in the list even though they are in a squad already so you accidentally assign the same dwarves to different squads every time

On the upper right-hand corner, on the screen when you're selecting a dwarf to put them in a squad, it tells you whether that dwarf is already in a squad or not (and which squad).