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[monk12]

I'm working on making my walls patrolable by crossbowdwarves to help secure my perimeter, and was wondering what was known about how wall defenses work.

Does the height of the wall increase range? Does it make it difficult to see things right at the base? How would one go about creating murder holes? Is there an ideal spacing for fortifications?

I'd like to hear if anyone else has done this, and how it turned out, as well as any appropriate/hilarious siege defense stories.

[Rushmik]

Does the height of the wall increase range?
No, it actually decreases it. Each z-level of height is one less range IIRC

Does it make it difficult to see things right at the base?
Yep. This can be fixed by a perimeter ditch to keep things from hugging the wall.

How would one go about creating murder holes?
Closest mechanism I can think of is a cave-in trap; a wall or floor suspended by a support, which is connected to a lever elsewhere. A bit of a pain to reload, but I can imagine it would be quite satisfying to use.

Is there an ideal spacing for fortifications?
Just line your wall with them. Your marksdwarves will shoot through them and the fortifications will stop them dodging off the edge. I can't remember the effect they have on attacking archers, so someone else will have to clarify.

I usually have a single marksdwarf at first, and enjoy imagining him yelling "gerroff ma lawn" as he shoots at the enemies. My most recent one managed to 2-shot a giant with his artifact crossbow.

[Hyndis]

You want to dig out channels at the base of the wall to ensure that enemies don't hug the wall, thus avoiding being shot at.

Easy way to make a wall is to make it 3 tiles wide in total. Fortifications - constructed floor - fortifications. You can then set up a patrol route so that dwarves will patrol along the wall, automatically firing at all hostiles they see.

[BigD145]

If you give archers space on the wall to walk away from the fortifications, they will. And then they won't see anything. Very bad.

[Moonshadow101]

Don't get into the idea of having medieval castle-style walls with the sort of toothed edge to the battlements, just make a big line of fortifications along the edge. Fortifications, for any given dwarf or enemy, seem to either act as a wall or as empty space. The two factors that decide which are skill and distance. Digging a 1-2 width ditch along the out edge of the wall will ensure that all enemy archers are far enough away that they can't shoot, unless they have a high enough skill level to overcome the distance.

This brings us to Snodub PainMiseryMurderDeathKill, Goblin Elite Crossbowman. He is literally the only unit in the game that is actually a threat to your defenses, because his skill level is high enough that he can basically ignore fortifications at any distance. Cower before him as he picks off your marksdwarves one at a time. You can order them to focus fire on him, but they'll usually ignore that order because they've already selected the target that they want to kill and don't switch targets on command.

Also, and this will also disrupt any traditional medieval castle image, but don't forget to put a roof over it. All of it. This not only stops fliers, but if your map isn't perfectly level, it also stops your dwarves from being perforated by a squad of filthy elves who happen to be standing on a hill.

[monk12]

Oooh, wall width was something I hadn't even considered. You've saved many lives.

When I mentioned murder holes, I was thinking of something along the lines of floor fortifications- just something that would let them shoot straight down. Horizontal bars, maybe?

I've currently got a 4 wide, 2 deep moat fed from the major river adjacent to the fort. The map is flat, so I don't think I have to worry overmuch about enemies getting the high ground, but the note about fliers is well taken. Given the setting, I don't think it spoils the traditional castle image so much as it enhances the fantasy castle image.

Since kill orders were mentioned, if I prevent my crossbow dwarves from pathing outside (by raising the bridge) and give a kill order on an enemy within crossbow range, will the go up to the battlements to fire at him, or do I need to order them to station/patrol the necessary bit of wall?

[Hyndis]

Don't use kill orders when using walls. Use a patrol route instead. Have them patrol along the walls. They will spread out if there are no threats but clump up and kill the invaders if there is a threat just due to how dwarven aggro mechanics work.

[Pan]

Snodub PainMiseryMurderDeathKill, Goblin Elite Crossbowman. He is literally the only unit in the game that is actually a threat to your defenses, because his skill level is high enough that he can basically ignore fortifications at any distance. Cower before him as he picks off your marksdwarves one at a time.

 Well, I suppose that would be a good reason to armor them up, hmm? Armor your marksdorfs up, and even if they do get hit through the fortifications, goblin metal cannot penetrate good armor. And the elite goblin only has this many bolts.

 What I do is retreat my marksdorfs off the walls when I spot an elite sharpshooter, let him and his squad run into my melee troopes (behind a corner) or traps.

[Langdon]

Well, I suppose that would be a good reason to armor them up, hmm? Armor your marksdorfs up, and even if they do get hit through the fortifications, goblin metal cannot penetrate good armor. And the elite goblin only has this many bolts.

Copper bolts fired by an elite crossbowgoblin will chip bone, and once your dwarf is face-down and bleeding on the battlements, he'll quickly turn into a pincushion. Armor does ensure that the goblin uses up most of his bolts on one unlucky marksdwarf, rather than machine-gunning your entire squad with instantly fatal headshots.

What I do is retreat my marksdorfs off the walls when I spot an elite sharpshooter, let him and his squad run into my melee troopes (behind a corner) or traps.

In one of my previous forts I resorted to penning my flock of chickens on the wall, reasoning that I'd much rather have the gobbies using up ammo on livestock rather than my meager supply of skilled marksdwarves. Once the bolts stop coming, my squad pops up for some payback.

I find it useful to cross-train my marksdwarves in the normal barracks (enable training) so they pick up some Armor Use and Dodging skill. Maybe in my current fort I'll try adding bucklers to my marksdwarf uniform - I know crossbow+shield was bugged in the past, but perhaps it's fixed now.

[dirty foot]

Well, I suppose that would be a good reason to armor them up, hmm? Armor your marksdorfs up, and even if they do get hit through the fortifications, goblin metal cannot penetrate good armor. And the elite goblin only has this many bolts.

Copper bolts fired by an elite crossbowgoblin will chip bone, and once your dwarf is face-down and bleeding on the battlements, he'll quickly turn into a pincushion. Armor does ensure that the goblin uses up most of his bolts on one unlucky marksdwarf, rather than machine-gunning your entire squad with instantly fatal headshots.

What I do is retreat my marksdorfs off the walls when I spot an elite sharpshooter, let him and his squad run into my melee troopes (behind a corner) or traps.

In one of my previous forts I resorted to penning my flock of chickens on the wall, reasoning that I'd much rather have the gobbies using up ammo on livestock rather than my meager supply of skilled marksdwarves. Once the bolts stop coming, my squad pops up for some payback.

I find it useful to cross-train my marksdwarves in the normal barracks (enable training) so they pick up some Armor Use and Dodging skill. Maybe in my current fort I'll try adding bucklers to my marksdwarf uniform - I know crossbow+shield was bugged in the past, but perhaps it's fixed now.

I could swear it's intended that you can't use a shield and crossbow at once. Most games aren't a fan of that.

What I don't understand is why I can't equip two shields and just shield bash the day away.

[Duntada Man]

Oooh, wall width was something I hadn't even considered. You've saved many lives.

When I mentioned murder holes, I was thinking of something along the lines of floor fortifications- just something that would let them shoot straight down. Horizontal bars, maybe?

I've currently got a 4 wide, 2 deep moat fed from the major river adjacent to the fort. The map is flat, so I don't think I have to worry overmuch about enemies getting the high ground, but the note about fliers is well taken. Given the setting, I don't think it spoils the traditional castle image so much as it enhances the fantasy castle image.

Since kill orders were mentioned, if I prevent my crossbow dwarves from pathing outside (by raising the bridge) and give a kill order on an enemy within crossbow range, will the go up to the battlements to fire at him, or do I need to order them to station/patrol the necessary bit of wall?

If you order them to kill it, they will either ignore the target entirely if they can't walk to it, or they will attempt to club him to death with their crossbows.

If I want my marksdwarves to move to battlements in dangerous times I set a burrow specifically in the spot I want them to stand and order them to defend that burrow. It's more complicated than a patrol route, but I tend to be bad at preventing murder by catapult with just a patrol route.

[Langdon]

I could swear it's intended that you can't use a shield and crossbow at once. Most games aren't a fan of that.

I seem to recall crossbow+pavise (big wooden shield with a slot on top for the bow) was the historically correct way to deploy crossbowmen in the Hundred Years War. The pavise would function both as a shield against enemy archers, and as a stable rest for your crossbow (it was big enough to hide you completely as you bent over while reloading).

40d had some issues with the shield interfering with quiver use, but I haven't tried it again in 31.x.

What I don't understand is why I can't equip two shields and just shield bash the day away.

In one of my .19 forts, I had a military dwarf equipped with two shields. He used to be a hammerdwarf, I have no idea how he lost his hammer and picked up the extra shield. He eventually named the shield in his right hand, because he had so many goblin and elf kills with it (over fifty I believe). I had set his uniform for individual choice, melee -  I guess the game looked at his shield skill and saw it was higher than his hammer skill, so he picked up a second shield as a melee weapon.

[Phant]

Pavais Crossbowmen were common through much of the middles ages and, if we are to believe the Illiad has any historical veracity at all, the technique itself is as old as Homer.

[Naryar]

Eh, crossbows in 1250-1500 BC ?

But yes, tower shield and crossbow combo is generally effective. Reload under cover, shoot, reload under cover, etc...

[Dutchling]

Eh, crossbows in 1250-1500 BC ?

(wikipedia)
Bronze crossbow bolts dating as early as mid 5th century BC were found at a State of Chu burial site in Yutaishan, Hubei.
The earliest reasonably reliable date for the crossbow in the Greek world is from the 5th century BC.