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[davidc]

I built a channeled out area, dug out the down ramps, then built a drawbridge overtop of it. The goblins have fallen 1 z-level down into that, and I have fortifications on the main Z level.

I think I should be able to shoot down at them, right?  Currently they're sitting in the pit shooting arrows at anyone that comes near them, it sucks lol.

How many arrows do goblins carry when they attack as part of a seige?

Mainly my problem is that my military dwarves seem to use their bows to hit people with instead of shoot. I'm also trying to get the military dwarves over to the fortifications but that's a little tough to do.

Any ideas?

I'm starting to read the dwarf military wiki now, but it's painful.

[FrankMcFuzz]

Mainly my problem is that my military dwarves seem to use their bows to hit people with instead of shoot. I'm also trying to get the military dwarves over to the fortifications but that's a little tough to do.

Make sure they have enough ammo, and definitely a quiver so that they have more than a couple shots. Whem you say bows, you mean crossbows, yes? Crossbows and bolts :3

[Garath]

goblins usually carry 25 arrows each. One other problem with your dorfs hitting people instead of shooting might be that you give a kill order. Station them somewhere within range and they shoot, order them to kill something and usually they try to engage in melee

[Larix]

In my experience, they'll only go into melee once their quivers are empty. Of course, in a siege or ambush situation, empty quivers are guaranteed sooner or later. And often they'll be too busy, drunk or addlebrained to fill their quivers properly. Nothing like half of a squad starting with empty quivers or maybe five bone bolts.

Goblins have a theoretical minimum loadout of 25 ammo, but usually they'll have 30-40. You can actually check that with 'v'iew unit - 'i'nventory and checking their quivers.

[davidc]

I asked them to line up along a row of fortifications and they stood near it in a checkerboard pattern or whatever. Is there a command that you can use to get them to hug a wall or something?    Or do you have to order individual units to specific places? Is there a way to assign a squad to a burrow?

When you're using fortifications do you stand IN them or beside them?

[Raphite1]

I asked them to line up along a row of fortifications and they stood near it in a checkerboard pattern or whatever. Is there a command that you can use to get them to hug a wall or something?    Or do you have to order individual units to specific places? Is there a way to assign a squad to a burrow?

When you're using fortifications do you stand IN them or beside them?

There's no special order for hugging a wall; the best they'll do is stay within 3 or so tiles of where you put the cursor when you moved them. I know that you can have squads guard certain burrows in the scheduling screen, but it's been awhile since I've used that feature so I don't remember the details.

Once, a siege full of goblin bowmen attacked a new, very-unprotected fortress that I had going. I was sure that I was about to see the end of that game, but then a flock of giant keas swooped down on the goblins and stole all their ammunition. It was glorious.

Another time, a squad of bowmen crippled one of my few steel-clad dwarves who also had ridiculous toughness and healing stats. The bowmen completely depleted their ammo trying to kill him, and then my paltry military was able to safely charge and easily slaughter them. A good day, and an admirable showing of true dwarf stoicism.

[WhimsyWink]

I had been experimenting with stationing marksdwarfs on top of a wall with the fortifications built into a wall offset on top:

   F_
__W__

the idea was that the one-tile-thickness of the wall forced them to be adjacent to the fortifications to fire thru.
I have not yet tested to see if I need the wall to be 3 z's high to foil the 'within 3 tile' mandate of station orders since theoretically any of the underscore positions would qualify

edit:

1) what happens to a station order if the tile it was set to is built upon or excavated?
2) can you set a station order for a tile they cannot path to as long as they can path to 'within 3'?

[davidc]

aren't you concerned about the dwarves dodging off the wall and falling to the ground? 

[Garath]

1&2: They go to the level of the station order and as close as they can, I think. So in that case yes, your set-up will probably work. Dorfs dodging and falling off will only be a concern when faced with elite bow goblins, at which point you shouldn't go up there anyway