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[dirty foot]

Or my crossbowmen need to follow orders.

Is there a way to make my ambushed military NOT stand there and take it in the rump when there's a wall of traps I ordered them to hide behind after the ambush?

[dirty foot]

Well, too late. Entire army wasted.

This has to be the worst military interface I've ever seen in my 22 years of gaming.

[dirty foot]

And my last crossbowman just refused my order to remain stationed behind my traps.

Instead, he decided it would be better to charge in and fight melee against 6 goblins, with his crossbow.

[yacheritsi]

If they get close enough, they will charge. The only way to stop it is deactivate them. What you need to do is to station the marksdwarves behind fortifications so that they physically cannot charge at the enemy. They can be devastating in just the right circumstances.

[dirty foot]

If they get close enough, they will charge. The only way to stop it is deactivate them. What you need to do is to station the marksdwarves behind fortifications so that they physically cannot charge at the enemy. They can be devastating in just the right circumstances.

I hadn't quite finished my bait traps, so I had to leave the door to my base open.

This is really quote frustrating.

I lost an entire 10 man squad because station doesn't seem to mean "stay put". My 10th man was in the hospital from sparring, and decided to come out purely to pick up equipment off my dead dwarves. Considering I have the universal 'forbid" on all dead/dead person items, I'm just going to assume that entire squad was looking to die from the get-go.

[Yoink]

Marksdwarves (And warriors in general) Are a pretty big pain in the rear in my experience.
But don't give up, you just have to experiment, and you'll get the hang of using them. (Totally not speaking from experience there- I just send my melee dwarves in to kill everything. If a marksdwarf decides to shoot at something, it's a bonus )

[GuudeSpelur]

Yeah, if they run out of bolts they immediately go into "berserk rage" mode.  You really should use fortifications is possible, and if not, a sufficient volume of traps can replace your military until you have some.

Edit: I just remembered something.  I'm pretty sure that hunters that have ammunition will fire it at any hostile target, including goblin invaders.  Since they're still civilians, though, they will run away instead of charging in when they expend their ammo.  So, if you want a marksdwarf defense force that will run away after running out of ammo, assign some hunters to a squad that remains inactive but still has armor and restrict them to a burrow so they don't go out and use their ammo.

[dirty foot]

Marksdwarves (And warriors in general) Are a pretty big pain in the rear in my experience.
But don't give up, you just have to experiment, and you'll get the hang of using them. (Totally not speaking from experience there- I just send my melee dwarves in to kill everything. If a marksdwarf decides to shoot at something, it's a bonus )

I'm noticing that.

I'm also noticing that my dwarves are going to do whatever the heck they want to, when they want to. I ordered the melee squads to move in and kill the three unconscious goblins left in the pit trap I had. They all stood there right next to the goblins until each one woke up, and killed the dwarves one-by-one as they stood there and watched.

I think when I moved my save over, I broke something, because I've never moved a save before, and I've never seen my military act so insanely stupid before. I stand by my original statement though: this game is incredibly awesome, but I'm failing to see how the military aspect of the game could be so crucial, and yet, so broken despite its importance. Nothing can wreck a good game like watching your military do the the one thing that guarantees they're all going to die, when every other option possible is filled with pure win.

I had 32 "dodge this" traps, and an 8-level pit below them. The only way for me to lose this was if my entire military walked out one-by-one. Which they did, despite direct orders.

[Byakugan01]

My favorite traps are rows upon rows of repeating spikes. Worked wonders for me back in 40d! For orcs, anyway. The gobbos...well, see the buttmonkey trope for what happened to the gobbos. It's also my favorite way of dealing with nobles I don't like.

[synkell]

Do keep in mind that DF is still in alpha... Granted that our military dorfs are stupid independantly minded individuals , limiting their options to do what they want to do is crucial IMO. Maybe you might want to make a pillbox and lock the door ? that way the xbow dorfs wont go "HAMMERTIME!"

[dirty foot]

Do keep in mind that DF is still in alpha... Granted that our military dorfs are stupid independantly minded individuals , limiting their options to do what they want to do is crucial IMO. Maybe you might want to make a pillbox and lock the door ? that way the xbow dorfs wont go "HAMMERTIME!"

That's a good idea.

I think for now though, I might just not use marksmen until I feel like they deserve to be treated like people. Until then, the moment I get an immigrant with any shooting skill at all, I'm am straight up murdering them. It's dictator time.

Also, the military should have a new skill they slowly gain over time while training and in battle: subordination. It's a true-to-life concept, so it's not far-fetched, and it will be a perfect loophole for the game's need to allow dwarves their independent thoughts.

Edit: You also gave me a great idea for a fortification. I'm thinking of a pillbox that can only be entered from underground, through the base.

[synkell]

well... there are watchtowers you can build... and you can put a hatchcover to be forbidden so that the dorfs wont escape , ammon bins to be in same room for more dakka.

[Vandersleld]

Wait, military? Whaddaya doin' futzing around with a military? You have an infinite supply of magma. Incinerate the world. Go on, get on it!

[dirty foot]

Wait, military? Whaddaya doin' futzing around with a military? You have an infinite supply of magma. Incinerate the world. Go on, get on it!

I am only just learning how to play with magma, so I wasn't yet prepared for the monstrosity that is dwarven stupidity.

It's not even the loss of my suicidal military that killed me, as I had an amazing series of traps. The issue was the suicidal tantrum that came after my military drank the Kool-Aid.

[Fredd]

Defend burrows is the best order/alert for marksdwarves. Any enemy that enters that area gets attacked. Station is the order to aggressively attack hostiles in eyesight. Patrol seems to be a order to attack enemies within a certain distance of the patrol route. Just treat your marksdwarves like defensive artillery, which you do not want enemy infantry closing with. Use traps, pet sentry towers,judicious use of pressure plates, to warn, then seal off gates then assign the archers to their fighting positions