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[The Philosopher]

I've recently had my fort seiged by 2 squads of goblins, every single one mounted on beak dogs. The first squad, full of wrestlers, attacked and were quickly dispatched by my marksdwarves, who were 1 z-level up and were firing through fortifications.

The second squad, led by an elite marksgoblin, proceeded to attack my fort. When they got close, the elite marksgoblin started shooting from 10 squares away and one z-level up at my marksdwarves through the fortifications. 3 of my marksdwarves died. Is this a bug or are elite marksgoblins that good?

[Footkerchief]

They really are that good.  Your elites can do it too, not that they'll have many opportunities.

[The Philosopher]

Is there some way I can get around this problem? Like making the fortifications higher up?

[Jay]

Make your marksdwarves better.
Fortifications aren't (and shouldn't be) impenetrable, no matter what you do.
Losing is Fun!

[kuro_suna]

Right now I don't think fortifications or z-level do anything in a crossbow vs crossbow battle

[Sunday]

Distance makes a huge difference when confronted by normal bowusers.  It does nothing when confronted with Elite or above. 

[Jay]

Fortifications do confer a defensive bonus when you're right next to them vs somebody who's not.
Not that it's worth anything against an elite anyway.

[Krash]

Fortifications do confer a defensive bonus when you're right next to them vs somebody who's not.

Is this confirmed?

[Yanlin]

Make your marksdwarves better.
Fortifications aren't (and shouldn't be) impenetrable, no matter what you do.
Losing is Fun!

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Fun

[muwahahaha]

Fortifications do confer a defensive bonus when you're right next to them vs somebody who's not.

Is this confirmed?

It's well known that fortifications DO give defensive bonuses. But to be correct, they don't actually boost your defense in any way, rather, they give a penalty to anyone trying to shoot through them while they are more than 1 square away. Unfortunately, this applies not only to the enemy but also your dwarves if they happen to not be standing next to it.

That said once a unit gets to a high enough skill level, the penalty from the fortifications is negligible.

"Archers firing through fortifications must pass a skill test of some sort if they are not standing directly next to the fortification. This test is more difficult from further distances."

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Fortification

[BurnedToast]

Is there some way I can get around this problem? Like making the fortifications higher up?

cross train your marksdwarves in shield use and wrestling, once they hit legendary shield use and legendary wrestling switch them back to bows.

I suggest using hammers to train them rather then wrestling directly, just in case they have to use the crossbows in melee combat. Crossbows use the hammer skill, and while they do less damage then a real hammer when used by a legendary hammerdwarf they are still quite deadly in a pinch

[Jay]

Losing is Fun!

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Fun

That's exactly the reasoning behind the sentence.
Way to repeat what I said with a link.

[Glacies]

Losing is Fun!

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Fun

That's exactly the reasoning behind the sentence.
Way to repeat what I said with a link.

Yes, you repeated what jay said in his post. That was the exact reasoning!

[Lightman]

The second squad, led by an elite marksgoblin, proceeded to attack my fort. When they got close, the elite marksgoblin started shooting from 10 squares away and one z-level up at my marksdwarves through the fortifications. 3 of my marksdwarves died. Is this a bug or are elite marksgoblins that good?

I recommend you place your marksdwarves more than one z-level up. I think that makes a difference. More importantly, don't carve fortifications on every square where you marksdwarves are because that makes them much more likely to be hit (in my experience). There's always a chance that you'll get hit by an elite archer/crossbowman, though. No bugs there.