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[guitarxe]

Can I give my dwarves both crossbows and spears? Will they drop the crossbow and fight with the spear when in close range, or will they instead try to clobber with their crossbows?

[Witty]

No. They'll pick one or the other, but never both.

[Urist McVoyager]

That sucks. Toady had a warrior alternating melee weapons on him during testing once. I had hoped that would mean the sidearm situation had been solved.

[Codyo]

Yes they can actually (at least in v34) but it seems to depend on chance whether they care to use it or not.

You have to make sure when you assign weapons to your dwarves to have your shield and melee weapon at the top first. Then a crossbow after those two. So your marksdwarves would be able to still shoot from afar and luck willing they will use a sword or whatever in close quarters.

[Kishmond]

I should try this in adventure mode. That would be fun. I'd be like... I dunno. Who's a famous character that uses a ranged and melee weapon?

[NAV]

I remember reading a story on these forums about a squad of dwarves armed with spears and crossbows. They were supposed to use the crossbow to soften the enemy up and then finish it off with the spears. What happened instead they stabbed the goblins with the spears then when they were unconsious finished them off with a bolt to the head.

[martinuzz]

Even though dwarves cannot both wield ranged and melee at the same time, they will use their crossbow to bash stuff if the situation requires it (they have no ammo and are drawn ito melee before they can get to an ammo supply).

Last I know (unless that has changed), it uses hammerdwarf skill. I think crossbow dwarves will even train hammer skill when you set them to spar in a barracks rather than shoot at the archery range.
I remember a topic arguing that crossbows are in fact better at hammering than warhammers, because of the smaller contact area. Then again, that could have changed now.

So you know what to do. Silver crossbows. I think that's the heaviest available metal for them.

[Wimopy]

Yep, crossbows use hammerdwarf for melee.

I should try this in adventure mode. That would be fun. I'd be like... I dunno. Who's a famous character that uses a ranged and melee weapon?

Robin Hood might come into thought, depending on the version. Elves from LotR. Faramir from LotR. Usually, the more badass characters do that in fantasy stories.
Also, in adventure mode it gets even easier. You can hold 2 weapons and a shield easy. Just watch out for the reload time with crossbows, it might leave you exposed.


As for dwarf mode, dwarves can only have one weapon/shield in each hand, so foregoing defence, I think you could make them use both weapons, but in the end, I think they'll just shoot bolts OR melee, but not both (unless they melee with the crossbow after running out of bolts).
Then there's the problem that even with weapons, creatures seem to be preferring unarmed combat, at least if there's no weapon skill difference. So expect to see kicks/punches/bites even when they have a spear and a crossbow. (Don't do spear and crossbow, by the way, both do piercing damage, it's better to give them a sword, then they'll be able to do slashing [sword], piercing [bolt] and blunt [crossbow melee].)

[Quietust]

In Adventurer mode, you can equip a ranged weapon in your main hand and melee weapon(s) in your other and, as I recall, it mostly works (if the ranged weapon is in the wrong hand, you won't be able to fire it). Of course, getting that set up in Fortress mode tends not to be doable.