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[Wiles]

This new ammo management system vexes me.

Sometimes my dwarves have ammo, most of the time they don't.

I have 400 of any material bolts assigned to my marksdwarf squad, for both combat and training. What am I doing wrong?

[CapnUrist]

I am going to assume you have ammunition on hand for use, as it would be silly otherwise.

There are numerous issues with ammo and marksdwarves, some of which may or may not have been resolved in recent game versions. Problems I've heard of include marksdwarves ignoring orders to collect ammunition, preferring to go beat enemies to death instead of reload their quivers when they run out of carried ammo, refusing to use bolts that have left a workshop to be moved into a stockpile, and ignoring bolt material orders (player assigns bone bolts for practice and metal bolts for combat; marksdwarves completely ignore and either do the opposite or only use one type of bolt regardless of situation).

The best solution I've seen is to have your marksdwarves stationed in protective (and restrictive) pillboxes with bolts stored directly within, so that they don't have to go anywhere for more, as well as their training areas (barracks and archery ranges) in the same complex.

[Wiles]

Thanks. I've been watching them and the only time they seem to have ammo is when they are practicing at the range. Otherwise they are empty despite my large ammo stockpile

I do station my marksdwarves behind fortifications, but I hadn't thought of putting ammo up there, that's a good idea. Last siege they got riddled with arrows from a goblin master bowman. I had been proud of my little guard tower set up until I realised how useless my marksdwarves are.

[CapnUrist]

Yeah, enemy elite ranged units will tear though pillboxes; best to evacuate or block the fortifications using a raising bridge and send in melee units.

Marksdwarves work very well when they're actually shooting the enemy, but as is true of all weaponry in DF, they work far better paired with other units. Two batteries of crossbows combined with a squad of axe- or speardwarves makes for quite a meat grinder in a controlled area (chokepoint!).