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[Id Utalrisen]

I've been playing DF for over 2 years now, and I've done everything from massive 20-year forts, to making expertly-trained legendary soldiers, but one thing I have never been able to get the hang of is having a marksdwarf. I understand the military system, but I can never seem to get them to train (I remember once being so excited that one of my dwarves shot one bolt at a target, but that was the last time.)
I know how to make a military, I've had dozens squads of fully-equipped, legendary melee fighters, but I can't make a dang dwarf shoot an arrow.

I've started a new embark, purely to try to master marksdwarfship, but I'm still running into problems.

My problem in this fort:
So I made an embark with a Proficient marksdwarf, full leather armor, a crossbow, 100 copper bolts, even a waterskin and backpack. As soon as I unpause, I make that dwarf a 1-man squad with an Archer uniform. I realized I forgot to embark with a quiver, so I immediately make one of my dwarves kill a horse, tan the hide, and then make a quiver.
My dwarf picks it up, as with all his other gear and weapon.
I still notice that he won't pick up any bolts from the wagon. I deconstruct the wagon to see if that helps, and after that I even make an ammo pile, and that doesn't work. Making a bin doesn't help either.

Anyway, I even make him active, I make "Minimum to train: 1", and he won't pick any ammo up! I make an archery range, and he still won't! I go to the ammo menu, and I see his squad is set to "Copper bolts (250) C T

I even try to make him go into combat, to see if that makes him pick up ammo, but he still just hammers them with the crossbow.

Anything I'm doing wrong? I've googled this problem, and it either suggests I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to make a squad active, or that all marksdwarves are bugged and broken.

[Starver]

If you've also made sure that your (one-mandwarf) squad is assigned to Train at said range, then you may need to fiddle with the military schedules a bit more (although you already said "minimum to train: 1", so I'd have thought you were already in the right place and messing with the right settings there...).


I've heard several people have problems, yet I tend to get my crossbowdwarfs (and even longbowdwarfs, when I find I accidentally have the equipment for a small squad of them!) training quite nicely.  I think there's something I do (while just generally micromanaging) that I don't realise people like them/you doesn't do for some reason or other.  But as this question has been asked a lot (although I can't remember any standard answer), you might find something that helps if you search for older threads in this subject.  Then perhaps post what step(s) you took that appeared to eventually make it work...

[Id Utalrisen]

What would cause this ammo issue though? Am I doing something wrong to make my dwarf not pick up ammo?

[smakemupagus]

Marksdwarfs mostly use the archery range when they are *off* duty.  They give & attend lectures in the barracks when on Training duty.

regarding your other issues, I have no idea.  I use marksmen all the time with no problems and don't do anything special.  If you only have *one* crossbow and *one* quiver and a 100 of bolts, they might be claimed for hunting, so just have some extra.  Remember that (m)ilitary (f)ammuntion screen by default sets aside 100 bolts for hunting.

[Catsup]

do not use archery ranges to train marksdwarves. Thralled semi-megabeasts, thralled blind cave ogres, and other thralled animals make excellent immortal targets that can be re-caged for clean-up and bolt removal when necessary. Necromancers that spawn unending legions of undead can also be trained on in a controlled environment. And finally most non-biological forgotten beasts can be trained on without killing them.

remember to turn off mining, hunting, and wood cutting labors for your military, as this messed up their equipment. Do not use bowmen and xbowmen in the same squad or they'll pick the wrong ammo. Also try avoid using a schedule altogether if you can and micro-manage your military to train and fight when needed.

[mobucks]

Set the hunters ammo to 0

Delete your squads ammo (Copper, 200, C/T) and make a new one that is just (Bolts, 200, C/T)

To get him to use archery target while training is scheduled, build an Armor Stand/Weapon Rack 10 or so tiles away from your archery target, make it a barracks, and enable Training. Resize the archery target so that it covers the Armor Stand +1 tile more. Finally, make sure T(raining) is enabled for your squad on both the Archery Target and the Armor Stand/Weapon Rack.

[Starver]

do not use archery ranges to train marksdwarves. Thralled semi-megabeasts, thralled blind cave ogres, and other thralled animals make excellent immortal targets that can be re-caged for clean-up and bolt removal when necessary.

That's something... although I actually use archery targets, I tend to use the following array of range:



######   ####
#_____...___#
#_X_X_   _X_# <- target end
#_+_+_..._+_#
#_+_+_   _+_#
(continues for 20..25 rows, and as many separate ranges side-to-side as I feel I want to set up..)
#_+_+_   _+_#
#_+_+_..._+_#
#_+_+_   _+_# <- end to fire from, with range area set to maximum possible for a bottom-to-top firing range.
#_>_>_..._>_#
##+#+#   #+## <- entryways from corridor(s) outside the range area...
(sometimes just one entry, and floors between the downstairs on the above row)

# = wall (natural or constructed, smoothed or not, doesn't matter...
_ = channel (can be left as ramp, but best de-ramped at the target end)
+ = floor (natural or constructed, smoothed or not, again...)
X = Target
> = Steps down (if no ramps to do the job).


And on the level below I put a bolt (and arrow, if I have an arrow-firing squad) stockpile...

Ammo that doesn't hit the target (or, indeed, any target[1]) hits a wall, falls onto the stockpile and is re-usable.  Once a squad is consistently hitting a target[1, again] at this maximum they've done enough practice and they can develop further skills firing down on enemies from my fortification-lined walls and/or catwalks, rather than waste ammo (even of the training kind).

fakeedit: Ooh... @mobucks... never considered doing that... doubling up barracks/training area...  I could possibly modify my above ammo-saver design to have a barracks all along the bottom (or whichever orientation) edge...  Not that I appear to need it, but sounds like something to try in the future.  Also, I always undo any Hunting assignments (not worth my time and effort, food-wise... and the risk of being ambushed, similarly no dwarf remains a fisherdwarf), but I've never zeroed the Hunting ammo setting, but I can see why it might be necessary if I'm generally low...


[1] For this reason, I sometimes debuild (or don't build in the first place) every other target, because really bad archers have a 50% chance of hitting any one of five or so of the archery targets that their often very off-target shots[2][3] might head towards...  Lacking every other target increases my recovery rate for the less competent, but I still have to look out for them getting too good, and no longer needing the practice because they're hitting their own target and producing "broken ammunition" smudges instead of leaving recoverable training ammunition.

[2][3] The cross-section "#_X_#_X_#...etc" would overcome that.  i.e. about half as many ranges, with walls left (or rebuilt) on the alternate "spurs" that don't have targets.  I used to do that, but then started going for as many targets as possible for a particularly archer-heavy fort where I needed more training spaces.  Swings and roundabouts.

[3] True story: When my Dad was doing his National Service (in a non-combat capacity, not exactly being A-1 in health), he was almost heading towards being qualified as a marksman.  When they did the aptitude test at the firing range firing (say) ten shots at the target, his target had 19 shots within the appropriate 'pass' ring of the target (where all had to land to qualify), and one just outside.  The guy next to him had been firing at the wrong target!  Obviously there was no way of telling which of the two had made that one miss, but it was (unsuccessfully) argued that surely if a guy can't even hit the right target, surely he'd be more likely to have fired a disqualifying shot as well...   Anyway, his Physical had already disqualified him from going off to whatever front-line the British Army was currently fighting, so I suppose it was not entirely a loss to the current war effort (unless maybe as a capable instructor?) for him to continue working only in the Administrative capacity that he was involved in.

[Id Utalrisen]

Set the hunters ammo to 0

Delete your squads ammo (Copper, 200, C/T) and make a new one that is just (Bolts, 200, C/T)

To get him to use archery target while training is scheduled, build an Armor Stand/Weapon Rack 10 or so tiles away from your archery target, make it a barracks, and enable Training. Resize the archery target so that it covers the Armor Stand +1 tile more. Finally, make sure T(raining) is enabled for your squad on both the Archery Target and the Armor Stand/Weapon Rack.

That got it! I am excited to finally be able to make squads of legendary marksdwarves, with a series of sniper towers!

do not use archery ranges to train marksdwarves. Thralled semi-megabeasts, thralled blind cave ogres, and other thralled animals make excellent immortal targets that can be re-caged for clean-up and bolt removal when necessary.

I don't know why it never occurred to me to train my dwarves with easy combat. I nearly cried when I saw one of my dwarves go from Proficient to Talented (I have never had that happen in my entire time playing this game)

[Larix]

Just to mention it:
The easiest, lowest-effort method of building a marksdwarf squad is to set up some targets, secure a steady supply of bolts, and make a squad with the targets assigned. No more. Most importantly, one should _not_ activate the squad; or if you give them a schedule, make sure to set them to 'no activity' year-round, instead of training. Don't assign a barracks, either. All measures ordering them to engage in 'training' run the risk of sending them to stand in the barracks trying to teach each other biting.

This off-duty training is reasonably effective (about three years from dabbling to legendary if the dwarf has a lot of free time) and takes no micro-management whatsoever apart from making sure the bolts keep coming. There are faster ways (combat, hunting!) and some people have had good success actively training marksdwarfs, but on-duty training is harder to get started and takes more attention. And with the wrong setup, training orders will actually _prevent_ all archery practice.