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[Beeskee]

Every time I need to kill something with my military, it turns into a "hilarious" Benny Hill-style chase with the military chasing around whatever it is. I've tried everything I can think of, and it's getting really frustrating. "OMFG WARTHOG" is too tough for my military.

Edit: It looks like they are trying to move to where the enemy WAS rather than where the enemy IS, even if the enemy is only a few tiles away.

[Urist Imiknorris]

cage traps + arena.

Really, anything that you actually need to kill will be more than willing to aim straight for your army.

[Beeskee]

cage traps + arena.

Really, anything that you actually need to kill will be more than willing to aim straight for your army.

Doesn't help if a hostile is already inside...

[Urist Imiknorris]

Lots of lockable doors? Even building destroyers have to pause a moment to destroy them.

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

I find it's best to micromanage this. See in what direction the thing is running, and then make a station order in front of it.

[shoowop]

^yea. Kill order is bugged.  You don't even necessarily have to station them in front of it, once the order is given and the enemy is within sight they act just fine for me.

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

^yea. Kill order is bugged.  You don't even necessarily have to station them in front of it, once the order is given and the enemy is within sight they act just fine for me.

Well, yeah, but stationing them in front of the enemy makes them more likely to arrive in time to see the enemy.

[Meanmelter]

Kill order works for me, they kill everything.

[slink]

I agree about the Benny Hill style chase, although I was thinking Keystone Cops (generation difference ), looking as though they are trying to path to where the creature was instead of where it is now.  Also, some of them run into apparantly unrelated places due to that same bug that puts caravan guards outside the courtyard if your depot is next to the courtyard wall.  War dogs solved this for me once (a hoary marmot), and the other times I used cages in strategic doorways (mostly deer, once a fox).  Eventually the intruders will become trapped and the cages can be hauled away.  What you do with the captive then is another problem.  Pitting even a groundhog seems to be a problem for Dwarves.

[tigrex]

Try marksdwarves?

[ledgekindred]

I had the exact same thing happen to me.  Two Elk Birds got inside the fort (I managed to tunnel into the caverns unexpectedly) and ran around the place while my military ran around and around.  I agree that it seems like the military pathing follows where the enemy was and not where it is.  Case in point: an Elk Bird would run down a long 2-tile-wide hallway, hit the end and U-turn back up the other side.  My military would pick up the chase from where they were stationed, run down the same hallway passing the Elk Bird running the other way until they reached the end and turned around.  Likewise, if a bird ran into a large room and ran to the far wall and then took a 90 degree turn, rather than running diagonally towards it, a dwarf would enter the room, run to the far wall and then make a 90 degree turn. 

This went on for some time. I couldn't set traps because my engineers would get scared away by the birds. I finally managed to corner the things in a room with a lockable door and station the military outside.  Once everyone was present I unlocked the door, they filed in, then I locked them in there.  They eventually killed the birds but it had already led to a Total Party Kill, I just didn't know it yet. 

They had been kicking and beaking a lot of my dwarves while being chased, and interrupting everyone else, so I had a hospital full of injured, starving and dehydrated dwarves, since everyone would get interrupted trying to take care of them ... and then we had an ambush.  Everything was in chaos from the stupid birds, half my military was in the hospital and a dozen goblin pikemen walked in and slaughtered everyone.  It was especially sad watching them waltz into the hospital zone and splatter a bunch of helpless dwarves against the floors and walls.

[Zafmg]

Looks to me like the dwarves are updating their pathfinding goal only occasionally when they're given the "KILL" order. As others have mentioned, constant stationing seems to work well enough.

[ledgekindred]

Looks to me like the dwarves are updating their pathfinding goal only occasionally when they're given the "KILL" order. As others have mentioned, constant stationing seems to work well enough.

It generally works, unless the target tries to run away.  The stationed dwarves will chase for a certain distance, repeating the Benny Hill behaviour, then return to station if they don't catch the target.  After enough chasing, they get too tired to catch the target at all.  At least that was my experience.

[Hyndis]

I usually have a few cage traps to protect the interior of my fortress from things like annoying animals sneaking in to cause mayhem. The cage trap stops that annoyance instantly.

Anything that is actually dangerous to you will eagerly attack your dwarves. Goblins, megabeasts, and large predators will run right at your military dwarves. Against animals a few traps will work fine.

Weapon traps if you prefer automated passive hunting. Let the animals path in to the fortress, over a bunch of weapon traps crammed with steel discs. The annoying camels get shredded, hauled to your butcher shop, and -camel tallow roasts- for everyone! Blood gets cleaned up and the trap gets reset if its jammed, all done automatically.

[Miggy]

I barely ever use the kill order, using move to get the dwarf close, then having the dwarf sprint off after the target as a result of this seems to work good for me.

Best way to make the chase shorten... Recruit dwarves that are already agile or spend more time sparring.