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[flight]

I had the bright idea of making an execution chamber. I stick a cage with any captured enemy (or elephant) in a room with a drawbridge that goes up to lock them in. I then pull a lever to open the cage and have my marksdwarf plug them through fortifications as you see below.

The problem is that the marksdwarf doesn't do anything. He has a crossbow and a quiver full of bolts, but he doesn't shoot. In the image there is a 1x1 drawbridge to the left of the goblin and 2 squares of fortifications between him and my marksdwarf.

Can dwarves only shoot one way through fortifications? Maybe I built it wrong. Now I can't even tell my marksdwarf to go anywhere else as he no longer responds to set points. He definitely sees the goblin, he just doesn't know what to do with it. What is wrong here?

[RPB]

You may be stuck. If it's just a goblin thief, station another soldier outside the bridge and open it up, the thieves aren't really any threat to an armed dwarf.

In the future make sure you have your marksdwarf stationed up against the fortifications before releasing the victim, that usually seems to do the trick. I have no idea why they get stuck like this sometimes though, since sometimes they don't.

[BurnedToast]

fortifications are 2-way, enemies can even shoot through them back at you.

try stationing him right next to the fortification. You can shoot through with no penalty if you are right next to it, and maybe he won't shoot if he has the penalty?

[Turgid Bolk]

I believe this is in the bug list as "marksdwarves' brains turn off after failing a shot-check" or something to that effect. Basically if a marksdwarf misses a shot through fortifications they get stuck (and become sitting ducks to return fire). Stationing them right up against the fortifications usually prevents this, I think. Don't put a captured goblin marksman in there!

[flight]

Thanks, this explains it. This damn execution chamber has been more trouble than it's worth. First time I tried to move some elephants into the mechanism-connected cage and they got away during transit... into a few rows of traps luckily.

Hopefully I can get this to work.

[BurnedToast]

I just had an idea, consider just using a lava moat (water should work OK for most things actually) instead of fortifications. Ranged attackers will shoot back through the fortifications anyway, and this way you don't have to worry about getting them right up on it. The crowd gets a better show too (the goblin executions ARE public, aren't they?). goblin marksmen can just be executed via chasm or lava flooded room.

Don't give up, it usually takes a few tries to build new things just because of the bugs/features/quirks of DF.