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[billw]

In my new fort I am thinking about getting a head start on Archery training by having a single hunter/recruit training with the crossbow from early on. Hoping that when he is highly skilled I can put him in a full squad of new recruits and have their arching skills increase more quickly that it would otherwise.
Is this a worthwhile tactic? One problem I have with archery squads is that if they are set to Training and only have archery ranges assigned to them for training then they get the "cannot follow order" problem all the time and don't train. If I set them to inactive/offduty they train by themselves at the ranges. But I can't imagine that individual training would be accelerated merely by having a well trained archer in the same squad. Only the group training sessions would be improved right? But they don't seem to work for marksdwarves...
Any solutions, other ideas, rebukes?

[Lancezh]

Did you set the direction of their shooting on the built range correct ? (q)

[billw]

Yep, like I said, they train fine individually on their own time (when set to Inactive), but not as a squad. Does marksdwarf squad training actually work at archery ranges? i.e. they all gather round to watch the best guy do some shooting?

[Lancezh]

You'd have to ask more educated people on that subject than me, but i believe you need one target for each dwarf. What is your Training minimum set to under orders ? And how big are the squads ?

[billw]

Okay, I only had 8 ranges they were probably set to 10 min training (in a squad of 10). So group archery training is confirmed to work? Also having a more experienced marksdwarf in with the recruits in a squad will increase training speed? I'm going to try it anyway I guess but would be nice to know for sure...

[RAKninja]

Also having a more experienced marksdwarf in with the recruits in a squad will increase training speed? I'm going to try it anyway I guess but would be nice to know for sure...

yes, but he needs good teaching skill, and the recruits need good learning skill.  even without those, having experience in the combat skills will train the recruits faster than if it were another recruit doing the teaching.

[MonkeyHead]

They probably want to train dodging or some other skill. ensure you give them a barracks somewhere - I typically do this with a weapon rack near my firing range... dodging, shield use and armour use is good for marksdwarves, and sometimes they train "crossbow use"...

[i874236951]

I believe the "Practice Archery" task, which is when a dwarf gets in front of target and shoots at it (and generally levels up faster), is a solo activity, as in, nobody will watch or otherwise participate with that exercise.  I think there might be an archery demonstration that can go on that does not involve shooting at the target, but, like most demonstrations it's pretty boring and only provides a bit of experience.  If you have an experienced (and, if possible, high teacher-skilled) marksdwarf giving the demonstrations, it should help with the experience gained by the other members of the squad, but from what I've seen, it still won't level them up as fast as individually shooting at a target will.

[Lexx]

They wont always train archery. Also have them a barracks assigned for training. Set schedule to train actively one month in every 6. The squad leader will give a group demo that 1 month and the rest of the time they'll now and then fire arrows down the range. Try giving them crafts labors to raise agility. It makes them fire faster and therefore get more xp. The fastest way to raise their skills is to let them do individual combat drills in the no scheduled order months.  (bar danger room but thats too easy for my liking ). Try making sure both the barracks and the targets are fully assigned to the squad. You could also set up a pit for your marksdwarves to fire upon prisoners in.