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[Ari Lazarus]

So, trying to delve a little deeper into the fine micromanagement of the game. I've run into a few questions I would like to ask:

1. Is there an issue with a stockpile sort of making the items on it invisible in some circumstances? I had a few workshops totally ignore the content they needed from a stockpile until it was explicitly told to give to the workshop. I used an intermediate stockpile (containerless stockpile takes from everywhere, then gives to container pile), if that helps.

2. When giving passive orders in the military schedule, what happens when you have dwarves tasked to defend multiple burrows? Does the squad split up evenly between the burrows, or is there some other method used? I'm thinking of having a single multi-burrow order where squad members stand guard at the depot entrance AND the lookout, and having both done in one fell swoop would be mighty useful.

[knutor]

1.  I know there is hauling issue.  Not sure if there is a priorities issue, right now.  But I have had issues myself, with /R jobs between different workstations do not get divided evenly in the mind of one craftdwarf capable of doing both.  Instead he'll stay on the /R job forever, ignoring other /R jobs, assigned at equal or prior timestamps. 

2.  They pick one, unevenly and defend them.  Leaning towards defending the deeper burrows.  Be sure to use forbidden doors and lift gates, to prevent defending dwarfs on defend burrow from leaving their burrow to die needlessly.  Military, like children, ignore burrow boundaries.

[AndreaReina]

How does that work, exactly? I noticed that my dwarves would stray from the burrow they were told to defend, is there a way to keep them there without locking them there? Would a station order be more effective? I have two areas, an ambush point for melee and a line of fortifications for marksdwarves.

[Ari Lazarus]

1. At least it gets assigned - my repeat jobs get cancelled even though the input they need is sitting in a stockpile right next to them, which is baffling

2. Ah, it looks like I'll have to have more squads then.

How does that work, exactly? I noticed that my dwarves would stray from the burrow they were told to defend, is there a way to keep them there without locking them there? Would a station order be more effective? I have two areas, an ambush point for melee and a line of fortifications for marksdwarves.

There are a few ways to control movements. I don't use station orders because their placement of dwarves is more imprecise than burrows.

1. Ranged - I typically use a one-tile wide arrow slit corridor and designate the area as a burrow. Works flawlessly for me so far. When your burrow is between a wall and a fortification, it's hard not to go there.

2. Melee - Important thing to remember is that once a military dwarf sees an enemy, he charges headlong into combat and doesn't withdraw unless you disband his squad. Design your melee combat area to be after a corner, so that your melee team doesn't charge all the way to the entrance of your fort if they see an enemy. By forcing enemies to turn a corner first, you force enemies to go through traps / marksdwarf arrow slits first, and your dwarves will only dogpile into the enemy once they are very close.

3. What is your military schedule set to? Typically if you're just posting sentries on patrol / watch duty and have 1/2 minimum dwarves per squad it's normal that other members of the squad wander off to do their own thing, i.e. train or just civ duties. If they are wandering off during a 10-dwarf-minimum red alert burrow, usually it's because they're exhausted and need to sleep, or need to reload ammo. So put your barracks nearby and set the alert to 'sleep in barracks at need'.

[knutor]

How does that work, exactly? I noticed that my dwarves would stray from the burrow they were told to defend, is there a way to keep them there without locking them there? Would a station order be more effective? I have two areas, an ambush point for melee and a line of fortifications for marksdwarves.

I do what Lazarus does, I believe.  1x1 burrow in 4 spots. One in each corner of fortress, behind a smoothed-fortified wall.  All four 1x1 are just ONE burrow however.  Not 4 seperate burrows.  I name it 'Roost' for sniping roost, then I schedule 8 of 10 marksdwarfs to defend 'Roost' burrow every month, every year, giving 2 of 10 soldiers, leave. 

What happens then, when toggled active, is they go to whichever 1x1 is closest, sometimes 3 here, 2 there, 1 here, 2 there.  By the time I have 24 marksdwarfs, or four full squads visiting the 4 1x1s, they all get covered decently, sometimes 6 soldiers ea, sometimes 8 here, 3 there, etc...  Most of the time, they are inactive, and doing Civie chores.

Only takes one to observe a nasty, nearbye.  Then the plinking starts!  I go one step further and assign a metal ammo stockpile, copper bolts usually, in reach of the 1x1 burrows.  This keeps them firing long into the night.  I don't pick up spent bolts, to avoid casualties.  By late game the 5x5 region border is covered in spent bolts. 

When a lull occurs I pick some up to melt down.  Some fun can also be had, by turning off the marksmens food and water supplies, and overlapping that Roost burrow with your Danger burrow.  Your nurses will bring drinks up to them.  Never had any starve on me, but I suppose they could.  Reason, for removing their supplies is so they hold more ammo. 

Not sure if that works, but its sound logic. I like sound logic. Knutor

[AndreaReina]

How does that work, exactly? I noticed that my dwarves would stray from the burrow they were told to defend, is there a way to keep them there without locking them there? Would a station order be more effective? I have two areas, an ambush point for melee and a line of fortifications for marksdwarves.

There are a few ways to control movements. I don't use station orders because their placement of dwarves is more imprecise than burrows.

1. Ranged - I typically use a one-tile wide arrow slit corridor and designate the area as a burrow. Works flawlessly for me so far. When your burrow is between a wall and a fortification, it's hard not to go there.

2. Melee - Important thing to remember is that once a military dwarf sees an enemy, he charges headlong into combat and doesn't withdraw unless you disband his squad. Design your melee combat area to be after a corner, so that your melee team doesn't charge all the way to the entrance of your fort if they see an enemy. By forcing enemies to turn a corner first, you force enemies to go through traps / marksdwarf arrow slits first, and your dwarves will only dogpile into the enemy once they are very close.

3. What is your military schedule set to? Typically if you're just posting sentries on patrol / watch duty and have 1/2 minimum dwarves per squad it's normal that other members of the squad wander off to do their own thing, i.e. train or just civ duties. If they are wandering off during a 10-dwarf-minimum red alert burrow, usually it's because they're exhausted and need to sleep, or need to reload ammo. So put your barracks nearby and set the alert to 'sleep in barracks at need'.

That fort failed, so I don't have the save to tell me what my schedule was set to, but I think it was minimum of 10. It didn't have a corner behind which the melee squad was waiting, but something else that also blocked LOS -- the path followed a ramp down, flat ground, ramp back up. The upper level had the wall between the ramps unmined, and kept my squad from seeing any enemies until they were in the channel, at which point the 4 dwarves that were waiting rushed them and took them apart.

I had the marksdwarf burrows set up like that, single tile wide right next to the fortifications. Never got it tested though, didn't get around to setting up that squad.