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[AzuredreamsXT]

So this time around i'm running a fort that is keeping it natural for the most part, using wood for everything except swords, shields and crossbow bolts. The crossbows are wooden (quality wooden crossbows do as much damage as metal ones, sans the bashing, right?)

Anyways, i was looking for tips to make marksdwarves effective in combat. In previous games i found they rarely chose to practice archery at the target ranges and took ages to skill up. I'm going to assign each soldier a war dog, and fire from behind fortifications or inside pillboxes when possible, but i still think my obviously poor training scheme is going to get me crushed in the end.

How do you get your marksdwarves to train efficiently? Any other tips? (non exploitative please, e.g no danger room)

Thanks in advance

[Bordellimies]

Training marksdwarves is bugged. They refuse to attack at the ranges, and instead join normal combat drills (bash with the crossbows).

[Garath]

capture as many animal men, animals and goblins as possible and realease them in the kill room for marksdwarfs to practice on. Life target practice is always better.

[Stil]

Make sure they have quivers, ammo (and that ammo is enabled for both combat/training), can path the targets, scheduling is ok and so on. Xbox material isn't an issue if you're fighting at range, I think quality determines accuracy.

I find - as with all military - that to start out it's slow and painful progress, fresh recruits dont like doing weapon drills at all it seems   Kill some wildlife or pit a gobbo and use him as target practice, they'll more readily fire at living things - once they're a bit more proficient try putting them on the ranges again, you should have fewer problems.

Also - what version are you running, because a few bugs are in previous versions of DF2012 that prevent archery targets working.

[kaijyuu]

Archery ranges work fine for me.

Make sure
1) They have a crossbow.
2) They have a quiver.
3) They have bolts.
4) Their orders are set to training.
5) The archery ranges are set to train for their squad.
6) The ranges aren't blocked (note: open space blocks them).

[Diamond]

4) Their orders are set to training.

In my observations that I posted in similiar thread, I figured out that marksdwarves are much more likely to train at ranges at their spare time, off-duty, than when set on train. Well, at least for me 
I had 10 dorfs, 10 ranges and when set to train 1 or 2 were shooting at ranges and the rest hanged out with "cannot carry order" in meeting area, waiting for training area to be assigned to fight with crossbows. The 1-2 dorfs shooting were probably the free ones, as training schedule was set to 8/10. So I removed all training from schedule and 6-8 dorfs were constantly training while off-duty.

[rawrcakes]

In general, I've found that if you assign a marksdwarf squad a training area linked to a non-archery target, they'll do regular military training, but with only an archery target assigned as training area, they'll train marksdwarfship untill out of ammo, then idle in whatever meeting area you have. Combining both regular training for normal combat skills and marksdwarf practice doesn't seem possible without a lot of micromanaging. That said, I'm not all too versed on the variety of month-based orders, so there might be a decent workaround to make them use different practice zones in different time periods.

[Starver]

I've not noticed any archery-training problems, either.  (Not tried combining possibilities, though.  When they're not supposed to be levelling their archery skills they're either being used, doing their alternate civvy jobs or specifically being given a non-archery combat course.)

On the off-chance that you can get it working, you might also like Bolt Preservation Ranges, as follows:

Code: [Select]

# = Wall
. = channel
X = Floor with target constructed
+ = Open floor (along which the range spreads)

######     Continue this way
#......    far enough to allow
#.X+++     maximum range-length
#.....  -> before entry/exits.
#.X+++     (And back-to-back
#.....     ranges heading in
#.X+++     opposite direction?)
     |
     v
(continue this way
for as many parallel
ranges as you want)
     |
     v
#..... (last gap as per first)
######


On the Z below, you could find yourself with "fingers" of ramps, between the spurs of natural (or built?) wall you have the ranges running atop-of, but I tend to remove most ramps (that get created when I channel down), and even cut under the range floors themselves to make an area I can assign as a (custom, for training-types only) bolt stockpile.

Bolts that don't hit the target (or an adjacent one..?  ..never noticed it, but I suppose it's possible) hit a wall and fall to the Z-1, surviving.  And as they've landed directly on a stockpile spot (or at least close to one) there's not much hauling to be done, and bolt resupply from the stockpile happens fairly quickly if you haven't managed to make it difficult to get from the range's firing-end down to the stockpile.

[miauw62]

Training marksdwarves is bugged. They refuse to attack at the ranges, and instead join normal combat drills (bash with the crossbows).

Wanst that fixed recently?
The should shoot targets now.

[Flying Dice]

Training marksdwarves is bugged. They refuse to attack at the ranges, and instead join normal combat drills (bash with the crossbows).

Wanst that fixed recently?
The should shoot targets now.

About 1/15 of the time. The rest of the time they'll either loiter around with (Soldier)No Activity or train their melee skills if a barracks is assigned.

4) Their orders are set to training.

In my observations that I posted in similiar thread, I figured out that marksdwarves are much more likely to train at ranges at their spare time, off-duty, than when set on train. Well, at least for me 
I had 10 dorfs, 10 ranges and when set to train 1 or 2 were shooting at ranges and the rest hanged out with "cannot carry order" in meeting area, waiting for training area to be assigned to fight with crossbows. The 1-2 dorfs shooting were probably the free ones, as training schedule was set to 8/10. So I removed all training from schedule and 6-8 dorfs were constantly training while off-duty.

Thank you! I knew I had figured out a training trick a few versions back, but I'd forgotten that it was this.

[Garath]

 never assign both a barracks and an archery range to train at the same time. When it's just the archery range and everything set up properly I can get 6 out of 10 to train usually.

[slothen]

Here's a tip, set an alert for defend burrow, and in scheduling, schedule all archer squads to defend that same burrow.  Then, when you want to station them at fortifications, redefine the burrow to the exact places you want them to stand, and set to the alert only the squads you want to go there.  The station command is still good for more general movements and orders, but if you want them to stand in a specific spot for defense, the defend burrow seems the way to go.

My only problem with marksdwarves is that I don't ever notice 'individual combat drill' has any effect.  Has anyone seen if this improves archer or marksdwarf skill?  If I want them to train but I don't have spare bolts to do it, I'd prefer to have them just do demonstrations and improve their secondary skills like shield user, and the teacher/student/concentration/observer skills.

[Naryar]

Catch a bronze colossus (or an iron man) , pit it, train marksdwarves on it with bone bolts.

[simonthedwarf]

Training marksdwarves is bugged. They refuse to attack at the ranges, and instead join normal combat drills (bash with the crossbows).

Works for me in this version. Try to use a

• without channeling a hole to reclaim bolts.

[starvingpoet]

Depending on your fortress type - I find having a long perimeter with fortifications coupled with archers on a patrol route levels them up fairly quickly.