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[indyofcomo]

I got a goblin siege. I tell individual squads to kill individual goblins. Then my soldiers say "Soldier (unreachable target)" or something close to that. What's the issue? I know there's a path to the goblins, cause the goblins clearly path to me.

Also, really how useful is the station/move command? Or the defend burrow. Station seems to have a fairly short activation range, and defend burrow doesn't keep them on patrol in the burrow, which is what I would think it means. (Yes, I know it wouldn't act just like patrol since that's a separate order.)

[sal880612m]

Not all that familiar with military but I have seen the unreachable target issue. One of the times I saw it was because the creature left the map another time was because my dwarfs decided that the Giant Tick was in some way more of an issue than the Kobold or Goblin I ordered them to kill.

[WanderingKid]

I got a goblin siege. I tell individual squads to kill individual goblins. Then my soldiers say "Soldier (unreachable target)" or something close to that. What's the issue? I know there's a path to the goblins, cause the goblins clearly path to me.

I've had that while my xbowmen were standing on top of the enemy beating on it with their crossbows.  I believe that shows up when there's no movement to be done to engage as well, but I'm not sure.

Also, really how useful is the station/move command? Or the defend burrow. Station seems to have a fairly short activation range, and defend burrow doesn't keep them on patrol in the burrow, which is what I would think it means. (Yes, I know it wouldn't act just like patrol since that's a separate order.)

I use station pretty often to stage my military near the combat point, so they'll go get their gear, food, waterskins filled, etc before going near where I'm about to have them engage from a dropped drawbridge or the like.

Defend Burrow I find very useful, but you need to use small burrows.  IE: North by Northwest Wall Corner Archery, West by Northwest Wall Corner Archery... etc.  This puts those guys EXACTLY where you want them.  Rough rule: Once you're past 20-25 squares, make a new burrow.  And it will keep them on patrol there, they go to the burrow and stand around.  If you're looking for them to patrol, say, the entire civilian alert burrow than no, that's not what it'll do.  They just station up in the burrow.

[indyofcomo]

Thanks guys.
Another one for the masses: By any chance does an engraved slab count as an item differently than an unengraved one? I would really like to have a staging stockpile for the slabs which need to be placed at coffins.

[greycat]

I tell individual squads to kill individual goblins.

Also, really how useful is the station/move command?

I use kill orders extremely sparingly.  They usually don't cause the behavior you want.  Typically what happens is the dwarf "chases" the guy you ordered him to kill, which is OK if the target is a thief who's running away.  But if it's an invader, what happens is your dwarf heads to the spot where the invader was at the time you issued the order.  When he gets there, he finds no invader to kill, so he finds out where the invader is right at that moment, and heads for that spot.  Meanwhile the invader has moved again, etc.  Dwarves have absolutely no ability to predict enemy movements.  "Looks like he's heading toward the statue garden.  If I leave now, I could intercept him in the hallway on level 9" is a thing only you can figure out.

That's where Station orders come in.  If you think you can get your military dwarves to the hallway on level 9 in time to intercept the bad guys, give a Station order for that part of the fortress.

Another good/bad thing about kill order is that once the target is killed, the order goes away.  If your military dwarves were inactive at the time you gave the order, then they revert to inactive state (civilians) when the target is dead.  So, if you gave a kill order for one goblin in an ambush squad or siege, your axedwarves might revert to cheesemakers in the middle of the battlefield, at which point they will panic and run around.  (If the squad was already active, that won't happen, but it's easy to forget....)

Finally, never use kill orders with marksdwarves.  This causes them to run toward the target until it is in sight, and then start combat, rather than standing behind the fortifications where you actually want them.

[sal880612m]

How many types of booze do you need to avoid getting the is tired of drinking the same old booze lately. I currently have 3 different types but I am not sure I do have more than 3 types of plants and I am not sure if 3 is too few or if I simply didn't notice the thought until it was on it's way out as I used to only have one.

[fortydayweekend]

Thanks guys.
Another one for the masses: By any chance does an engraved slab count as an item differently than an unengraved one? I would really like to have a staging stockpile for the slabs which need to be placed at coffins.

You can set a slab stockpile to take from the craftdwarf's workshop (and set it to take from links only). It would fill up with only the engraved slabs.

[Victor6]

How many types of booze do you need to avoid getting the is tired of drinking the same old booze lately. I currently have 3 different types but I am not sure I do have more than 3 types of plants and I am not sure if 3 is too few or if I simply didn't notice the thought until it was on it's way out as I used to only have one.

4 seems to be fine. You may be suffering from overproduction of one particular type if you have mixed stockpiles (normally dwarven wine due to excessive plump helmet production.) There's 4 types of indoor booze (ale, wine, rum, and beer) from 4 indoor plant types (pig tail, plump helmets, sweet pods, cave wheat), if you have access to a cavern layer the gather plants order should net you some seeds\plants to start producing what you need.

Personally, I'd try the surface first to see if you can get some whip vine.

[sal880612m]

Currently on the surface and using only surface plants. I have Longland Beer, Strawberry Wine, and Sunshine. I also have access to Prickle Berries, Fisher Berries, Rat Weed, Rope Reed (tend to save it for clothing), Hide Root and Blade Weed (pretty sure neither of those can be brewed). I don't have any Whip Vines at the moment but I might set my herbalists to gathering again.

[Victor6]

Fisher berries are the way to go then. Rat weed and prickle berries make poor value booze - Whip vines are only found in savage regions, but they make the 2nd best booze type and you can normally get them from the beardless traders.

[My Urist Eternal]

I keep reading about setting up seed-only stockpiles, but I cannot figure out how to do that. "Seeds" are not an option in the stockpile menus anywhere that I can see, and googling/searching the forum hasn't given me the answer either. Thanks! I am a newbie so if anyone can tell me how to do this very specifically, I would appreciate it. 

[greycat]

I keep reading about setting up seed-only stockpiles, but I cannot figure out how to do that. "Seeds" are not an option in the stockpile menus anywhere that I can see, and googling/searching the forum hasn't given me the answer either. Thanks! I am a newbie so if anyone can tell me how to do this very specifically, I would appreciate it. 

You create a food stockpile, then q s it to change settings.  Arrow down to Food, and press b to block all food.  Right-arrow over to the middle column, arrow down to Seeds, and press p to permit seeds.

[sal880612m]

you set up a custom stockpile. 'p'-'c'-'t' will get you to the point where you can decide what you want the stockpile to hold from here for a seed stockpile you go down to food hit 'e'-'b' then move over to the sub menu and go down to seeds and hit 'p'. You can also use this menu to create other types of custom stockpiles such as a stockpiles that only take certain types of wood, metal or stone and you can link those stockpiles to give to workshops to control what materials are used. It is important to note that your choices for a custom stockpile do NOT clear themselves, so if you create a seed stockpile and then go to make a booze stockpile you will need to disable seeds.

ninja'd

Edit: Both this and the method from the post above work. If you need to create multiple stockpiles of the same sort for something like a QSP it is probably better to use custom stockpiles as once you have set it up you can just hit 'c' and paint that type of stockpile like any other. Which is simpler when you end up creating things like feeder stockpiles.

[My Urist Eternal]

Yes!!! Thanks. Just could not figure out that I needed to create a food pile first, then change the settings for seeds! 

[Heathen]

Hails!  I'm new to DF and so far finding my way.  Something that has me stumped at the moment is creating things in the Craftsdwarf Workshop.  I've got a dwarf with Wood Crafter, and the wooden nest box and hive in my workshop just aren't being made.  The materials are there, so I must be missing something.  What's up?