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[dreadmullet]

In my current fort, I have 20+ melee dwarves and 8 marksdwarves. During sieges (using fortress defense), the archers destroy most of the siege before I send my melee dwarves out to play. I would imagine an all marksdwarf military would be lethal, but you would need to produce THOUSANDS of bolts to allow them to train and fight.

[Starver]

a) I do make loads, but,
b) It's a good idea to make a bolt-friendly training area where few of the bolts (at least when they're still practising, and likely to miss the targets) get destroyed.  After that, you're practically laughing.

[Talvieno]

In the fortress I'm currently working on, I have 10 marksdwarves... And that's it. I've sent two sieges packing without a casualty, as well as hordes of skeletons and two forgotten beasts. Marksdwarves work. A lot better than my melee forces ever did, for sure. Then again, I rely heavily on Rube Goldberg machine traps... Just for the fun of it.

[VerdantSF]

a) I do make loads, but,
b) It's a good idea to make a bolt-friendly training area where few of the bolts (at least when they're still practising, and likely to miss the targets) get destroyed.  After that, you're practically laughing.

Do you just channel the tiles behind the targets?

[Pawns4Mons]

I would think that any kind of projectile would easily trump any melee weapon. Seems much smarter to me to have my dwarfs unexposed, which would be best for FB's and tough enemies. Much better then having those drunks swing those finely crafted weapons hoping to hit something.

[Starver]

Do you just channel the tiles behind the targets?

Behind, to the side, and between the ranges.  It's not the best example, but you can see it in practice here.

Here I've fit it into a smaller space, an even number of tiles wide, which is just one of the points of inefficiency.  (Another being that it is well away from the surface, so not a convenient muster-point.)  For symmetric reasons, alone, I will be putting similar ranges in each of the other three orthogonals away from the centre if this fortress last long enough and I have "miner time" to spare.  You'll note that I went into the cavern layer, with the most southerly extents, and so instead of smoothing the natural rock I built the walls and floors out of blocks of the right material.  (Indistinguishable from normal smoothed stone, blocks of an identical colour and indeed just raw-stone wall/floor, but just for my own delight and delectation.)

My more typical layout is more something like:

Code: [Select]

+#...#+++++++++++#...#+
##...#############...##
.......................
...X...............X...
.......................
##...#############...##
+#...#           #...#+
+#...# X X X X X #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
##...# + + + + + #...##
.....# + + + + + #.....
...X.# + + + + + #.X...
.....# + + + + + #.....
##...# + + + + + #...##
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...# + + + + + #...#+
+#...#>+>+>+>+>+>#...#+
##...##+#+#+#+#+##...##
.......................
...X...............X...
.......................
##...#############...##
+#...#+++++++++++#...#+

Functionally, "." and "+" represents only the difference between corridor floors and 'room' floors.  "#" is regular walls (usually undug, often smoothed) and ">" and "X" the downwards stairs and archery targets (not up/down stairs) exactly as they'd appear.  Spaces are channels.  Denuded of ramps on the level below (or prevented being so by pre-mining through the Z-1 layer).  Though I might leave some ramps, as well as cut the down-stairs and up-stair partners, each ramp just causes problems with the stockpile.  Occasionally (especially if I've hit ores or something else precious) I might undermine (with impunity) the range-floor as well, for more stockpile space.

Spoiler: Some unimportant design info, really relevant only to me (click to show/hide)

In this case, this layout crossing two of my 'roomblocks', and interrupts one of my usual corridors.  The actual longest range distance is slightly longer than I've given here, though, and I may extend it to three-roomblocks'-worth, or five-blocks-worth to fit two back-to-back ranges extending across approx 2.5 roomblocks.

The level below is all/part bolt stockpile.  (Few or no bins to be used.  There's enough space for them.)  I also tend to smooth all the stone through which this is built.  Another aesthetics-only aspect, that.

I've often used an even wider spread, with dozens and dozens of ranges.  Either because I have loads of marksdwarfs, of because I intended to be ready for them.

[VerdantSF]

Thanks!  Why no/few bins? Is there still a bug where marksdwarves won't reload ammo from bins?

[lanceleoghauni]

I usually make my armies entirely out of marksdwarves in blue cloth/leather or cotton candy. They usually fire silver or copper bolts, because those are both common, and heavy. I prefer using bone though, because I always have tons of it.

[acetech09]

I explained a neat bolt supply trick to my friend over Skype yesterday (the same person in the 'Days of being a noob' thread):

Use a manager and make a metal forge that is only avaible to dwarves with no skill to a maximum of proficient. Find a plentiful metal (something you have the capacity to be willing to put a whole bunch of metal bars into, type of metal doesnt matter - copper works as well as iron in this case), set that forge to make that metal bolts on repeat. (might wanna make alot of forges, and only really works with magma forges so your fuel demands don't get out of control). Give all your dwarves weaponsmithing labor. Your weaponsmith dwarves will make bolts, and get skilled up in metalworking and provide tons of bolts, but since the skill cap for the forge is proficient, once they start getting good at making bolts, they're not allowed to. This has 2 benefits: First, you get plenty of low-quality bolts. Bolt quality doesn't matter for potency, but you put a single weaponsmith on it and he gets to master, you'll start getting masterwork bolts. When masterwork bolts are carried off-screen by fleeing enemies, the forger gets a bad thought. You put alot of masterwork bolts by one dwarf into circulation, you'll potentially end up with a miserable and tantrum-prone dwarf. Having all your dwarves build low-quality bolts reduces that risk by making sure no masterworks go into circulation. That segues into my second benefit - you'll end up with all your dwarves with some metalworking capacity. When dwarves get strange moods, they make a item based on their highest skill. Unskilled peasant haulers/inactive military dwarves who had bolt duty will have a highest skill in weaponsmithing, so you'll get an actually useful weapon artifact. Paired with clever forbidding of metals, you can bend your artifact creation to your will.

[Garath]

after some time, when i start trusting less in traps, i start the militairy. though some probably had been training and in it a long time, then is the moment every able body who does not have a vital role somewhere gets drafted

vital is high siege engine operator, any doctor stuff, but only highest, high farming or brewing and high weapon/armor smith, the bookkeeper and any truly greatest specialist like a 10 or 12+ mason or carpenter

those will keep my fort supplied with materials, furniture, food and booze, take care of the ill and practice firing those near useless siege engines (why do it then? cause its fun)

[VerdantSF]

I explained a neat bolt supply trick to my friend over Skype yesterday...

That *IS* a neat trick re: the prevention of masterwork bolts!  Thank you for sharing!

[Sutremaine]

Well, it doesn't eliminate them entirely, just makes them less common and therefore more of a mood hit should they get lost. I smash lone bolts all the time and the makers don't care because they have so many others.

[Roraborialisforealis]

Has anyone else tried forts with a military composed of mostly marksdwarves?  Did you enjoy them as much or even more than traditional melee-heavy forces?  Hails of bolts seem to be a much better way of dealing with giant spiders and syndrome beasts.

Make a new uniform, I always have deleted the default uniforms.

[DrKillPatient]

A few questions:

a) Is there a way for marksdwarves be made to use another weapon along with their crossbow and use it instead of crossbow-bashing? My tests say no so far.
b) What's a good material for bolts? Does weight need to be balanced with edge for better momentum and thus perhaps deeper penetration, or is it only the edge that goes into the calculation?
c) What's the best kind of enemy to supplement marksdwarves, which tend to cripple more than kill? I'm thinking warhammers, because they penetrate armor very easily and a blow to the head of all but the largest enemies will usually kill instantly or shatter the upper spine, leading to suffocation. Since the enemies will most likely be unconscious, the head will be open for a strike.
d) Is movement speed tied to firing speed, and if so, is it enough to warrant leather over full armor?
e) Does bolt or crossbow quality matter at all? Being the densest crossbow-making material, is copper the best option for making Xbows?

[Urist Da Vinci]

I tried making haulers into untrained squads of marksdwarves. All they got was a crossbow, quiver, and bolts. The crossbows were wood or bone, while the bolts were copper. They didn't train or go on duty, but instead of fleeing when they see an enemy, they open fire. Much laughter was had when an escaping goblin prisoner (who was supposed to be dumped into a sparta pit) tried to flee the fort via the meeting hall.