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[VerdantSF]

In the early years of my fortress, marksdwarves were great.  Patrolling behind fortifications, they made pin cushions out of invaders.  However, now my melee dwarves are able to push ahead in battle out of the range of crossbows and the marksdwarves are left twiddling their thumbs.  As an experiment, I added 2 "frontline marksdwarves" to each of the 4 veteran melee squads.  Unlike my usual wooden crossbow & leather ones, these soldiers all have steel crossbows and steel armor. 

The idea is to actually have some ranged support when bringing the fight far outside of my fortress.  The melee veterans are so good at blocking enemy ranged fire, they're like moving fortifications.  I'm not concerned about the frontline marksdwarves reloading, since fights are over rather quickly, but... they're not loading up at all .  I suspect that it's because the squads are mixed ranged and melee, which is causing some weird issues with ammo allocation.  Anyone else have any luck with a similar setup?  I still have a squad of traditional fortification pew pew marksdwarves, but I'd really like for some of my marksdwarves to be more mobile and versatile.     

[ORCACommander]

i forget do you have to assign quivers to uniforms? no quivers no place to put ammo

[Man of Paper]

If I recall, in mods like Masterwork there's a specific bit of advice about not mixing different ranged types in the same squad due to ammo allocation issues. I figure you're right about it being a ranged/melee squad mix issue. Sadly, I can offer no more help, as for some reason I can never get my ranged dwarves to train properly until my fort is a week from implosion.

[Urist McSpardbane]

Im not sure about using them mixed in with your melee midgets, but what about scattered Bunkers or Archer Towers around the map with underground tunnels to link them to the main base so you can more easily shift the archer squads around as needed, without having them be exposed.

It's not ideal, but it would let you still make use of your well-trained archers and give your melee guys some cover in certain ranges of the map I would think.

[BlackFlyme]

All I can think to ask at the moment is what you mean by 'mixed melee and ranged'. Are they assigned both melee and ranged weapons? That may cause the oddness.

Otherwise, the basic questions are

Do you have different training and combat ammunitions?

Is the ammunition stored in bins?

And how long ago did you assign them to the squad? They seem to like to take their time gathering their gear. 

i forget do you have to assign quivers to uniforms? no quivers no place to put ammo

Quivers are assigned automatically if a dwarf is issued a ranged weapon, just as flasks and backpacks are auto-assigned if they are allowed to carry food and drink.

Which reminds me, did you check how many quivers you have? Usually when my marksdorfs don't pick up ammo it's because I forgot to make enough quivers beforehand.

Sadly, I can offer no more help, as for some reason I can never get my ranged dwarves to train properly until my fort is a week from implosion.

There seems to be an oddity, or it may just be my imagination, but when you designate an archery range, even if it encompasses other targets, only the one used to designate the room will be used to train, and the rest will not, unless I designate them all as their own separate rooms.

It's also worth checking that to make sure you've set the direction they are to be shot at and that the right squad is set to train there.

[VerdantSF]

All I can think to ask at the moment is what you mean by 'mixed melee and ranged'. Are they assigned both melee and ranged weapons? That may cause the oddness.

Mixed squads as in some melee-only troops and some ranged-only troops together.  I have all the equipment needed, as the original setup was 2 marksdwarf squads that were doing fine.  I disbanded one squad and split the members between four melee squads.  Now the marksdwarves in the originally melee-only squads are the only ones who refuse to pickup ammo .

**Edit** Just as I was typing this, one of the frontline marksdwarves finally filled his quiver and took part in a battle .  I guess it really does take a LONG time for them to fill up.

[Gargomaxthalus]

Mixing like this just doesn't work with the games extremely simplistic military model that we currently have. The new combat system will likely alleviate some issues, but real tactical options will probably have to wait for the world level military stuff that's planned for the future.

[VerdantSF]

Ah!  I got it to work!  I set up two 1x1 ammo piles in each squad's barracks.  1 feeder pile and 1 with bins.  The bin pile rids the feeder pile of bleh-worthy single bolts until a 25-bolt stack arrives, which can't fit.  The marksdwarves snatch those up and are ready for combat! 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here's a look at my first successful outing with a mixed squad.  The melee troops quickly engaged the enemy, keeping them off the two marksdwarves, who pew pewed away .

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm not fond of the metal-ammo exploit, so I'll probably just dump & atom smash the single bolts.  Goblinite provides more than enough to keep my ammo stocks up.