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[hollowsteps]

Hello all. I'm currently mourning the loss of 2 masons/engravers and a very fine speardwarf because I couldn't get my darn marksdwarves to shoot at my enemies. I assigned them ammunition and crossbows but they just watched as the goblin ambush waves crammed into my fortress front door. They were in a fortification pillbox a little under 20 square away at the farthest. So... what gives?

[Proteus]

Known bug.

There are some reports of people  who actually got them to shoot at enemies,
but in 90% makrsdwarves just think they´re hammerdwarves with wooden hammers,
even if their  quivers are full of boltrs

[hollowsteps]

So I guess I should retrain a huge hammerdwarf militia then? lol :/

[zwei]

So I guess I should retrain a huge hammerdwarf militia then? lol :/

More like mixed axemen/swordsmen milita. Hammers can not get kill unless you have luck and brain gets smashed. Axemen and swordsmen actually kill stuff as they can chop off extremities and cause foes to bleed to death.

[Shiv]

Just skip the swords all together and go full out axe.  Works wonders.  One legendary axeman walks into a slew of goblins, the goblins all pile on and limbs just go flying out like a blender.  My legendary swordsman take a lot longer to kill with.

[Hyperturtle]

Because I am cruel, I set up a group of hammerdwarfs and a few lashers.  Then they go out and cause EXTREME PAIN.  Occasionally I have seen that the lashers can yank off hoofs/appendages etc.

One hammerdwarf first knocked out the right eye tooth, then the left!  Quite exacting and thorough.

But it is agreed, axe dwarfs seem to be much more useful.  I have had good luck with pike dwarfs, too.

[Bronzebeard]

As a rule, I use anything but crossbows; save those for the hunters (they actually use the damned things). Best equip everyone with melee weapons only. If you really want crossbow dwarves, I've read that the only way to make that work is by flooding the barracks with quivers so that a dwarf will eventually pick one up and fill it with bolts. It's in such disarray right now, though, that all in all it's far from worth it. I'm chiefly faithful to axes, hammers and spears -- in that order.

[BloodBeard]

With extensive arena mode testing, these seem to be the best weapons in 0.31:

1. Axes
(massive gap)
2. Spears
(large gap)
3. Swords
(minor gap)
4. War hammers
(large gap)
5. Maces

So yeah, you can't go wrong with axes untill combat gets tweaked.

[Cruxador]

Just skip the swords all together and go full out axe.  Works wonders.  One legendary axeman walks into a slew of goblins, the goblins all pile on and limbs just go flying out like a blender.  My legendary swordsman take a lot longer to kill with.

Swords have a better chance of stabbing deeper and hitting something vital, though, making them better for big things such as megabeasts. Spears are even more better for this purpose, so ideally, you have a squad with axes and one with spears, and send them where they're best off.