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[Albedo]

Related question- but my channel is behind the target

As it should be!

As the obvious guess, did you change their weapon of preference in the military menu?

[cancel.man]

As the obvious guess, did you change their weapon of preference in the military menu?

Yep, they're all set to crossbow. And they even carry the crossbows. They even use the crossbows to hammer in sparring. They just don't shoot the crossbows.

Update: Dual Wield article talks about this... but isn't very clear. As far as i can tell, they're not wielding anything but their crossbow.

[Albedo]

I'm wondering if it has to do with squad designations, somehow - they're not behaving as a single unit - could they have gotten mixed up?

Maybe try disbanding and re-creating the unit.  Dunno.

[Shoku]

I think the first problem is a bug and you're screwed out of three ranged units.
The second issue is something I noticed myself when I was fighting some hidden fun stuff still stuck behind fortifications-
I don't remember if they just eventually went on break and then came back to kill off their targets or what but I had this problem almost every time I had something new to shoot at in the enclosed space. Might be another bug?

[ProfessorA]

I've experenced marksdwarf hypnosis myself - chief culprit seems to be that they refuse to take their eyes off the enemy long enough to re-arm.
Lost my champion marksdwarf because he stood staring at a gobbower, only one tile of fortification between them.  Refused to retreat, refused to grab more bolts.  I can only assume he was shouting insults and intimidation waiting for the dogs to clean up.  Two lucky shots later my tombs got a little less dusty.

[Albedo]

...only one tile of fortification between them...

Many players seem to think that fortifications are somehow magically "dwarf friendly", that simply standing next to them is all you need.  They aren't.

They create a barrier that can work both ways.  If you put them on flat land, or just have 1 tile on the other side that some unpleasant archer can stand on, they get just as much benefit from the fortifications as you do - and that would be "almost none" for both if they're face to face.

It's critical that fortifications are either one tile above for safety, or have a moat/ditch in front of them to keep targets away.

[zchris13]

Change them to stay close to station, instead of chase enemies from the squad menu, out of the military screen.  That should fix the reloading problem.

[Shoku]

...only one tile of fortification between them...

Many players seem to think that fortifications are somehow magically "dwarf friendly", that simply standing next to them is all you need.  They aren't.

They create a barrier that can work both ways.  If you put them on flat land, or just have 1 tile on the other side that some unpleasant archer can stand on, they get just as much benefit from the fortifications as you do - and that would be "almost none" for both if they're face to face.

It's critical that fortifications are either one tile above for safety, or have a moat/ditch in front of them to keep targets away.

I don't mind so much that enemies can walk up to the fortifications and shoot through them so long as my marksdwarves are shooting them during that trip...

[IceShade]

Well, time to bring this up again.

Here's the story all about how my marksdwarves got flipped turned upside down..

Right. I had an accident with a marksdwarf. She was an idiot, and charged into a crowd of gobbos with her crossbow. She died within seconds because she didnt have any melee skills.

I decided, from now on, every marksdwarf puts aside his or her crossbow and learns wrestling. That went well, and they got up to legendary quite quickly. I then made 5 silver warhammers, so they could get up to legendary (well, none of em are yet, but they're close) hammerdwarf levels. They all picked up their lovely hammers and started sparring.

Thinking they'd have enough training, I unassigned their hammers and reassigned their crossbows. They pick up the crossbows, walk over to some bins and pick up a quiver. However, they didn't pick up any bolts, much to my surprise. After that, I saw them sparring in the barracks like they had hammers!

The weird thing is, though, I had an injured hammerdwarf (neck injury) that prevented her from sparring. I read somewhere that injured dwarves will still practice with their crossbows.. and that works fine. She's picking up bolts, firing them, leveling up marksdwarfship.

• Archery targets are set up right
• There are plenty of iron and bone bolts
• They have their quivers and crossbows
• I have reassigned their weapons from unarmed to crossbow, but no effect
• Unassigning the barracks has no effect. They'll just happily join the parties and sit around in the dining room. My hammerdwarf is happily firing bolts away

I just want to get my marksdwarves to be freaking marksdwarves again, not gimped hammerdwarves.

[Elvang]

I've had similar troubles, once my recruits are wrestlers I can't get them to practice. Most opt to go sparring instead, never did get them to grab bolts and use them.

[IceShade]

Meh, I can't think of anything to get them to shoot bolts again.

Oh well, lesson learned. I've recruited my other injured guy to pick up a crossbow and start shooting as well. That works fine.

I'll just recruit the rest as hammerdwarves, then. Should any soldier ever get injured, there's always the crossbow squad.