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[Innocent Dave]

So, I set up my fort to make extensive use of marksdwarves for defense of the front gate, but I can't get said dwarves to equip any ammo.

I have a single squad so far, with a scratch-built uniform consisting of full leather armour and a bladed repeating gem crossbow each.  I've also assigned the squad 250 bolts via the Military -> Ammunition screen, and it lists ten bundles of gem bolts as 'assigned' on that screen.  I have a total of 50 bundles of said gem bolts, all now stored in a quantum stockpile directly below the barracks.

All of my military have level 5 in crossbow use from the library, and they've happily equipped and trained with their crossbows, just only in close combat.  I did see one of them 'waiting for archery demonstration' once, but then we had some giant rat issues and everyone got distracted.

I have one burrow in place, which covers the entire interior of my fort for civilian alert purposes.

So, is there something obvious I'm doing wrong?

And if not, then as soon as I get some fuel sorted for my furnaces and then some decent armour, I'll probably switch to a melee-heavy strategy as a workaround.  Will all of my dwarves be able to equip halberds, or will I need to be more selective about who I draft?

[misiekm]

Not sure about the ammo, do they all have quivers, and are the bolts assigned as both Combat and Training?

And in regards to training, make sure the weapon rack / armor stand is close to the archery ranges, and their areas overlap. That usually fixes marksdwarves training problems for me.

[Tenderroast]

once you get them to equip the bolts (like misiekm said, check for quivers) change the training to 2 dwarves. 2 will actively train in close combat with their weapons, the rest SHOULD hit up the archery range, as long as they have all civvy duties turned off. For best archery range i find the following usually works

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A = archery target
h = channel

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make sure to set EACH TARGET as an archery range (because dwarves are stupid)
The channels force the beards to stand in the correct spot, and any missed shots are recoverable. Also, make sure you set the firing direction to the correct facing (again, because the beards are stupid)

[Fairin]

marksdwarves are so irritating they diserve their own place in the freakin manual especally since this particular question is asked so often =)

Step one start form scratch, Create barracks(for all) and one archery range per dwarf (works best in squads of 2 or 3)
Step two, create quivers,crossbows,ammo. do NOT use bins, especally for ammo, (Hint: overstock ammo)
Step three, create uniform complete with crossbow
Step Four, assign dwarfs to Military squad with assigned uniform,  and assign ammo for the ENTIRE squad, i reccomend 100 bolts PER dwarf.
Step Five , assign the barracks and archery ranges while making sure they're firing from the correct direction, and at least 10 spaces distance (never confirmed minimum distance)
Step Six, Wait. watch. shoot stuff, if they're not shooting stuff, repeat steps 1~5. double check if they're carrying the arrows ect

subtle game reccomendations, only use/pick one type of ammo for everything. assign hunters zero ammo. assign generic arrows/bolts/javelins ect for combat training , have two squads if you want to train. one elite, one using crappy bolts to train with.

in regards to your question Dave, they have quivers right? you didn't mention quivers. try assigning them more generic "bolts" and see if they equip them, it might be a Z-level issue -or- an issue with a quantam-stockpile try a little patch of ammo stockpile near the archery place to see if they desire to pick them up (after changing them to generic bolts)

[DeathShad0]

do NOT use bins

Well, this explains a lot.

[Arcvasti]

Archery ranges are weird and buggy ATM. I find it works best when you give each dwarf an individual archery range and don't put them on active duty. The only times I've wheedled ranged units into training on archery ranges are when they were on inactive duty and did individual combat drills. Ammo stockpiles are generally a bad idea. Lots and lots of bolts are also pretty essential. Honestly, I usually prefer to station my ranged units on top of archery towers and such so they can snipe wildlife for training.

[kamikazi1231]

Yea the bins are a big issue with it.  Just thought I'd throw in that there are also new types of bolts/javelins in the game like piercing, broadhead, etc.  If you make a bunch of say bronze broadhead bolts the assign bronze bolts to the squad, they won't use the broadhead bolts.  All those new bolt types use a specific name assigning ammo.

A nice way to train too is to pit captured invaders or wild animals into rooms surrounded by fortifications that the dwarves can fire through.  If you don't want to set up pitting levers with cages built work too.  Dwarves train a lot faster firing at a real enemy and if you leave the invaders with their armor on in their cages and give your dwarves crap bolts they will train a lot.  Just don't give them a path to get to the enemy so they won't go melee.

This is a fairly useful video.  Silver was frustrated after so many forts having issues with military set up he experimented for a few days and made a video.  There is a decent chunk in here covering setting up marksdwarves too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVE5ziqk8b8

[fricy]

Archery ranges are weird and buggy ATM. I find it works best when you give each dwarf an individual archery range and don't put them on active duty. The only times I've wheedled ranged units into training on archery ranges are when they were on inactive duty and did individual combat drills.

You can and should train them actively, the secret is building and ASSIGNING one archery target per dwarf AND building one overlapping barrack per squad. Assign every target and the barrack to the archers and set them to train.
Relevant SCIENCE.

[Innocent Dave]

...do they all have quivers?

*facepalm*

I knew it would be something obvious.  Thanks