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[Magua]

So, I have a main entrance, in a valley, for caravans and whatnot, and two towers up on hills on each side.  For lumber convenience, the towers have floodgate garage doors that can be opened.  I leave them open unless there is a siege or ambush in progress. 

A siege arrives.  Fine.  I send dwarves to flip the levers that'll close the garage doors on the two towers, so the only way in is through my main entrance, it's Bridge of Death(tm), drowning chamber, etc.  I order dwarves inside, and deploy my military -- a squad of marksdwarves in each tower, and the wrestlers near the main entrance.

Watching the goblin's movements, I see they're going for a tower, not my main entrance.  That's odd.  I pause and investigate, only to find that the floodgates on one tower didn't close because someone's glove is lying on it.  A glove.  Dozens could be slaughtered because someone couldn't be arsed to pick up their clothing.

But maybe it's not so bad.  I should have a squad of marksdwarves there.  Look up near the top of the tower.  A single dwarf.  Where are the rest?  Oh, they're eating.  In the dining room.  Halfway across the map.  Despite the fact that I put a dining room and food supply right there in the tower, to avoid such a possibility.

Ok, ok.  So a single marksdwarf is in the tower.  Well, it was nice knowing her, but maybe she'll occupy the goblins long enough for the rest of the military to finish their meal, maybe have a nice after dinner dessert, cup of coffee, mint, and then get back to doing their jobs.

So I unpause, and watch.  The dwarf fires off a few crossbow shots at the swarm of goblins converging on the tower, but then stops.  I pause and find her.  She's run out of ammo, and ignoring the plentiful ammo stockpile in the room with her, is descending the stairs.  I figure, maybe she's hungry and wanted to get some dinner with her mates.

Unpause.  She skips the stairs to the rest of the fortress, and instead runs outside into the arms of the goblins.  Double check: yep, dwarves are ordered to not go outside, but there she goes.  Goblin arrows converge on her like drunks at closing time, but she keeps coming. 

And then, boom, a goblin's dead.  And another.  And another.  More arrows swarm in, but it's hard to tell in the sea of red letters.  She's in the middle of a pack of twenty or so, and everything's flashing enough to give an epileptic fits, but suddenly the goblins are running in all directions, and she's chasing after them, throttling the ones that she finds with her blood, ichor, and vomit covered hands.

And then she's all alone, covered in the gore of battle, howling her triumph to the sky while she snaps the last neck in half before breaking the goblin's spine over her knee.  Eventually, the rest of her squad makes its way from dinner to the tower, asks her what happened and if she had a nice time, and goes back inside.

Checking her profile, she killed seventeen goblins during that siege, entirely unassisted.  I'd never seen anything like it. 

[Proteus]

Wow, nice twist of events
what were her armor levels?

[Alabaster]

also, did it earn her a title?

[Magua]

Giant mole leather armor and an iron shield, legendary wrestler, adept shield user, and dabbling armor user.  Ultra-mighty, very agile, superdwarvenly tough. 

No, she didn't get a title, but I'm designing her her own suite of rooms to reside in.

[Warlord255]

Giant mole leather armor and an iron shield, legendary wrestler, adept shield user, and dabbling armor user.  Ultra-mighty, very agile, superdwarvenly tough. 

No, she didn't get a title, but I'm designing her her own suite of rooms to reside in.

Was she a legendary wrestler before or after the siege?

[Magua]

Before. 

(After having my first batch of marksdwarves massacred by goblin bowmen, I read somewhere that being a wrestler improved your defense.  So I now start everyone out as a wrestler -- when they hit champion, I give them their crossbow.)

[Shurikane]

And here's proof that drawbridges make better garage doors than floodgates: because drawbridges don't care about whether something's in the way or not. 

Although, man, I wish I had a marksdwarf like yours.  In the case of my eight-man army, here's what happened to them:

-Charged enemy on the drawbridge right after lever was pulled.  Drowned.
-Charged enemy on the drawbridge right after lever was pulled.  Drowned.
-Charged enemy on the drawbridge right after lever was pulled.  Became embedded into the bridge as it atomsmashed him.
-Charged enemy on the drawbridge while elves were on the other side.  Got killed in the resulting friendly fire incident.
-Recruit charges two goblin squads head on without any prior training - but manages to kill one!
-Champion charges two goblin squads head on and brutally loses without even hurting anyone.

[Jing]

there are some weird issues with the "don't go outside" order that, as far as I can see, can't really be solved unless you allow the user to designate what is the interior of the fortress (a la bedrooms).

For example, I like to have a uniform front for the fortress.  That often involves digging away a line or two of a cliff, etc.  However, those now empty spots are designated inside and NOT outside (presumably because they were part of the mountain).

Refuse placed there, although logically outside, is in an "inside" space and thus will generate miasma.

If you have enough of these spots near to each other, dwarves will use them to hop outside to pick up things, fish, etc. in spite of a stay-inside order.  Because the job priorities don't change and, as far as the game tells them, they are still inside.  Even though, you know, they aren't.

Even more problematically, stragglers might find themselves into such an area and be locked there - it's too far to another 'indoor' area, so they just mill about outside in their faux-indoor area.

This issue is, however, remedied if you remove ALL the z level tiles above the area in question.  I think.

Frankly, there should probably be a siege-condition-order... which would strongly encourage Siege operators and soldiers to stay at post and shoot goblins, etc... and encourage all other dwarves to stay behind the "Main doors" (which would be another way to user-designate indoors from out... and permit multiple user forts on a given map)

[Vaftrudner]

And here's proof that drawbridges make better garage doors than floodgates: because drawbridges don't care about whether something's in the way or not. 

Although, man, I wish I had a marksdwarf like yours.  In the case of my eight-man army, here's what happened to them:

-Charged enemy on the drawbridge right after lever was pulled.  Drowned.
-Charged enemy on the drawbridge right after lever was pulled.  Drowned.
-Charged enemy on the drawbridge right after lever was pulled.  Became embedded into the bridge as it atomsmashed him.
-Charged enemy on the drawbridge while elves were on the other side.  Got killed in the resulting friendly fire incident.
-Recruit charges two goblin squads head on without any prior training - but manages to kill one!
-Champion charges two goblin squads head on and brutally loses without even hurting anyone.

My favorite was the hubris I got after making my first full set of adamantium plate. Gave it to my champion axedwarf, proficient in armor use, and sent her out to fight a goblin ambush by herself (you know, one of those that your cat discovers five miles away so that you have time to consider a hundred ways to still screw up). Three bolts from their marksgoblin and she was history

[Neoskel]

For example, I like to have a uniform front for the fortress.  That often involves digging away a line or two of a cliff, etc.  However, those now empty spots are designated inside and NOT outside (presumably because they were part of the mountain).

You should channel them away from the top, you left the 'floors' on the level above, so they are actually inside.

[Overdose]

there should probably be a siege-condition-order... which would strongly encourage Siege operators and soldiers to stay at post and shoot goblins, etc... and encourage all other dwarves to stay behind the "Main doors" (which would be another way to user-designate indoors from out... and permit multiple user forts on a given map)

I always make a courtyard for exactly that reason, so dwarfs don't "think" they are indoors when they are really just under a ledge you mined out underneath. Setting your marksdwarfs to stay near station will help keep them from running off sometimes if your lucky.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Also, marksdwarves seem to prefer beating goblins with their crossbows when they run out of ammo, rather than going to pick up more ammo.
Thus, it can be a good idea to cross-train your marksdwarves in hammering.

[Magua]

Also, marksdwarves seem to prefer beating goblins with their crossbows when they run out of ammo, rather than going to pick up more ammo.
Thus, it can be a good idea to cross-train your marksdwarves in hammering.

Now, *this* might explain something.  'Cause I've had legendary wrestlers run off into battle before and get massacred -- but this dwarf did have a *Iron Crossbow* or similar, and some level of hammering...

Hmm.  Now, if only I could figure out an easy way to get them to spar with hammers without killing eachother...too bad wooden sparring weapons are such a pain.

[chris_acheson]

Hmm.  Now, if only I could figure out an easy way to get them to spar with hammers without killing eachother...too bad wooden sparring weapons are such a pain.

Give them shields and put them in full plate.  Have them train wrestling and shield use up to legendary before you give them weapons.  Make practice weapons out of copper, which is almost as weak as wood (66% vs. 50%, respectively).

You should probably also make sure that your sparring soldiers are of roughly equal skill levels, so that your new recruits don't end up getting killed by your legendary wrestlers.

[RebelZhouYuWu]

I wonder, will a marksdwarf try to chase after a carp that is in the middle of the river, becuase if so my plan to train up my marksdwarves and remove my carp problem at the same time is doomed.