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[Fredd]

Never, never, use archers, as melee troops. Toady did them right in adjusting the experience learned at archery practice.
 In the middle ages, archer units were a resource that was conserved, by generals. Took waaay long too long to train a competent archer. When used wisely, could thin out the numbers of assaulting forces, giving melee forces a easier time. With the odd behavior of dwarf archers, on open field, just rethink the fortifications, as your basic line of defense, the goblins will charge. After getting pincushioned, let your melee forces sally out to clean up, the surviving gobbos. Using melee troops and archers mutually supporting each other, sieges are less painful, to all.

[Psychobones]

Never, never, use archers, as melee troops. Toady did them right in adjusting the experience learned at archery practice.
 In the middle ages, archer units were a resource that was conserved, by generals. Took waaay long too long to train a competent archer. When used wisely, could thin out the numbers of assaulting forces, giving melee forces a easier time. With the odd behavior of dwarf archers, on open field, just rethink the fortifications, as your basic line of defense, the goblins will charge. After getting pincushioned, let your melee forces sally out to clean up, the surviving gobbos. Using melee troops and archers mutually supporting each other, sieges are less painful, to all.

You've got that wrong mate. Archers were peasants who had earned a bit of training. Usually weeks, sometimes months, rarely as much as a year. Knights were trained from boyhood to be warriors, and would be quickly killed by just-out-of-training archers. Archers were still valued and kept in the rear, however if the choice was lose 10 knights or 300 archers, there'd be a lot of blood on the ground, and none of it would belong to someone with a title.

[Fredd]

Psycho, google Agincourt

[TheJackal]

Just split the difference and add in a modded weapon that is dwarf only. Start with the crossbow entry, but modify its secondary attack to use the Axe skill, and give it an edge attack! To simulate bad-arse axes that shoot bolts. I can't help but imagine some kind of Frankenstein-style contraption involving steel, springs, and BLOOD of course.

Maybe I'm a cheating wanker, but to my discredit, I can't get my commander to use his. He just joint locks goblins to death. Its actually kind of amusing how all the other dorfs are pulling some A-Team shooting while every combat report for the commander looks like this:

Urist McCommander has taken hold of Goblin McArcher's third vertebrate with his upper wrist!
Urist McCommander initiates a joint lock, shattering the third vertebrate's bone and tearing the nervous tissue!
Goblin McArcher has lost hold of his iron bow!
Urist McCommander has gained a title: Totally Substantial Serpent!
 

[SenorOcho]

Psycho, google Agincourt

The LONGBOW took a lot of training.  The vast majority of ranged weapons used throughout history did not.  See also: the history of the crossbow.

[FrisianDude]

Never, never, use archers, as melee troops. Toady did them right in adjusting the experience learned at archery practice.
 In the middle ages, archer units were a resource that was conserved, by generals. Took waaay long too long to train a competent archer. When used wisely, could thin out the numbers of assaulting forces, giving melee forces a easier time. With the odd behavior of dwarf archers, on open field, just rethink the fortifications, as your basic line of defense, the goblins will charge. After getting pincushioned, let your melee forces sally out to clean up, the surviving gobbos. Using melee troops and archers mutually supporting each other, sieges are less painful, to all.

Archers, yeah, if you want them to consistently shoot accurately. Crossbowmen not, hence why they were popular as mercenaries. Most battle field archery (both bow and crossbow) would rather rely on simply showering the enemy. Archers needed very little skill for that, as long as they could shoot far enough.


However, a knight with decent knightly equipment would not be bothered much by those hails of arrows until he came in closer range; crossbows would have more luck punching through armour. (Not that mail was very good against arrows, but it did slow them down sufficiently so that gambesons would simply stop the arrows.)

Unarmoured horses, of course, would not much like a hail of arrows and would indeed soon die.

[Mechatronic]

I had a squad composed of the half a dozen Marksdwarves that arrived with existing skills between the competent and adept levels in migrant waves. Over several ambushes and a siege they managed to collectively kill a Hoary Marmot that wandered into the fray. In the siege around twenty crossbow goblins arrived with a giant bat. One Macedwarf took seven bolts in his arms, legs and chest with a variety of broken hands, wrists, legs and ribs then fought the bat for a while. The Macedwarf kept training and fighting in with no noticeable ill effects afterwards.

I don't think they're useless though. A lucky shot through the brain and spine could disable an enemy and those shots that chip bones or splice guts can cause them to collapse in pain. Sit them five tiles behind your melee squads and they'll launch bolts in without much retaliation.

[shlorf]

Yeah, they would kinda need a different combat AI than melee troops as they're decent at rendering enemies unable to move or even unconscious but not effective at killing stuff (save for the lucky headshot/eventual bleed to death).

[slothen]

in my thirteen years defending skinportal with a squad of axedwarves and a squad or two of archers, this is what I have learned.

1.  Even dwarves with legendary skill levels in archer and crossbowdwarf do not consistently 1 or 2 shot enemies with headshots.
2.  With 1 or 2 shots they WILL consistently significantly disable an enemy, causing them to drop weapons, fall over, vomit everywhere for hours, and lose consciousness due to extreme pain.
3.  They will often continue to pincushion disabled enemies.  Archers do not appear to use the new aiming system.  A melee troop will nearly always kill a downed enemy in one shot to the head, while archers take longer to kill.  Killing shots are by no means infrequent however.
4.  Squads of steel-equipped, bunker-stationed, legendary archers are quite vulnerable to even a single elite enemy archer.  When said archer arrives among a group of enemies, they do not reliably obey they kill command and focus fire.  However, it often only takes a single shot to disable that elite enemy archer should they aim at him.
5.  This vulnerability can be significantly reduced or eliminated entirely through danger room training and shield demonstrations, the objective of which is to improve their efficiency with steel bucklers.
6.  It takes years of archery practice and hundreds of bone bolts to achieve legendary marksdwarf status (or extensive use of hunting training or pitted prisoners).  At this point further training is meaningless, therefore I transfer them to a second squad composed only of elite marksdwarves.  This squad has no archery targets assigned, only metal ammunition assigned, and focuses its time on raising that shield user skill, again through danger rooms and demonstrations.  These have the added benefit of greatly increasing the marksdwarves efficiency in melee combat.
7. Marksdwarves are great for eliminating melee enemies that are idling near cliffs or dropoffs, since there is little to no risk of them dodging off and falling.  Marksdwarves can safely enter the dangerous area and maim/kill the enemies from 5-10 tiles away.


With the neigh invulnerability of danger-room trained melee dwarves, you can comfortably get by without archers these days, and you would be absolutely crazy to go without melee dwarves of any kind entirely.  The biggest benefit to archers is they add new strategic options to combat.

My favorite tactic thus far has been to station my dwarves along the walls, pincushioning enemies as they enter.  The unharmed enemies will enter an underground tunnel to my fortress.  Then i open the main gates and my axedwarves charge out, one hit killing wounded enemies and generally taking no damage, and furthermore blocking the escape route of those enemies that had entered the underground tunnel.  Enemies that flee quickly with bolts stuck in them often survive, but bleeding, vomiting, unconscious goblins often don't run so fast, and are easy targets from my melee troops.