ARCHERY / MARKSDWARF TRAINING GUIDE - Dwarf Fortress Tutorial

[@mjunhzbgt1]

Ah nice - always wondered, why my dwarves did not train... because only one archery area was assigned to all the targets 😅

[@psychotropican666]

Ic0n says to create separate zones for each target, but does not explain WHY. I have 3 targets setup to one zone and it hasn't given me any trouble. Can anyone explain why Ic0n is doing this or how/why it helps?

[@sorronmies]

You should dig a channel in front and behind the targets to save the bolts. Well, wiki says that only behind since the channel in front would prevent dwarves to use the target, but that is not what I have seen. Any way, falling bolt doesn't break and that way you can collect and reuse the bolts from the channel. Of course in the beginning they may hit the side wall instead of the target or back wall and you will lose the bolt but practice makes champions ;)

[@Ic0nGaming]

Thanks, that's a real good tip I wish I already had known when I made this xD

[@mikloskoszegi]

Same, i've been channeling front and back, and they shoot just fine. I even use bins and they seem to be working fine, tho i separated the bolts according to material, and i'm using a feeding stockpile without bins to fill the bins. It still saves a ton of space.

[@slidhomes3439]

I like to channel in front and then build a stair near my ammo dump, drop down and route it out to the archery channels from below.

[@SSR2902]

i guess not that many people try to use fortifications. but really the way to use archers i think is to put them on borrow defence with just the tile that huges the fortification

[@vaughn1804]

Yes, very effective for me.

[@sab0t642]

thanks for the great guide man. i finally realized the issue i had with archery ranges was not setting the squad for the ranges. cheers mate

[@makingapoint]

Put your good ammo in a room with a door. Connect door to lever. Before training pull the lever and they cannot acces the better ammo. Simply put another stockpile with training ammo in another room and in case of attack pull that lever so they wont use that in combat.

[@Ic0nGaming]

That's one darn smart way to do it =)

[@Zaerki]

If you channel the tile behind your archery target, ammo will be saved during training and can be recollected.

[@no_mnom]

Not in front? I do in front of it and it works

[@mikloskoszegi]

@@no_mnom I do front and back, front seems to be more often but sometimes arrows gather in the back too.

[@dumbleking5172]

@@no_mnom The wiki says that if there's a channel in front of it will prevent the dwarf from using it.

[@skiaelafris759]

@@dumbleking5172 they use it just fine with a channel in front of the target

[@kelvie]

FYI, it's been debunked that each archery target needs to be its own range, so if you could add a note, it would help to prevent the spread of misinformation!

[@Ic0nGaming]

That got changed? Somebody else on this comment section stated it didn't work for him with several targets in one zone. I'm gonna try that myself and bring up some intel, thanks for pointing it out

[@Suhi]

No, ammo bug not resolved in this version. But it's not 100% buggy. Sometimes it works fine, but sometimes they just stuck and stop picking ammo normally. It pretty annoying. To fix this u can remove bins or (sometimes it help) change assigned equipment template to another and one more time set it back to archer. Thx for video!

[@Rzynweg]

Thanks for clear explanation. What about beds and coffers? For barracks there are option to use them within the training area.

[@andrewohagan2962]

Archers can wear metal armour, you just have to manually create the uniform

[@Ic0nGaming]

Thanks, I meant to playtest on my own worlds at some point =)

[@I3orrovv]

Doesn't it make them super slow though? They won't really increase their armor skill because, by definition, archers should not be getting hit. The metal armor then becomes less relevant - better to use leather and preserve their movement.

[@andrewohagan2962]

I can't comment on how it works tbf but they can wear it

[@I3orrovv]

@@andrewohagan2962 Understood, thank you!

[@guimaciel7457]

It works fine if you let them spar a bit, designate your archer squad to a barracks and they'll start to train as hammerdwarves with their crossbows

[@bob3ironfist]

Can confirm that dwarves do not like putting ballista arrows in bins. But that might be intended, I don't know if they're too big.

[@Suhi]

BTW patrol route is buggy also. Dwarfs likes sometimes go OUT from your fortress when they patrol route if it is possible (fortress is not completely sealed). Protect burrow or stand works better for preventing dwarfs to leave their tower.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Very good point indeed! According to the sources you need to calculate a generous extra amount of space around each flag to avoid this from happening. I don't think it's a bug, I just think the patrol function is more generous than you would assume by the handling of it.

[@Suhi]

​ @Ic0n Gaming yeah, it's true. The main problem is if u wanna something like "guards patroling walls" it's pretty hard to release. Dwarfs starting walk inside the walls, but not on walls, or trying to walk outside the walls etc. Some good ideas here is to make moat for example to prevent going outside (and for extra defense layer as well). And as u said - never forget to make roof. Last time i forget it, game punished me and all my dwarfs just climbed on the wall, charged to enemies and... Fall i moat and all drowned. It was really big tragedy of my fortress.

[@MarvinMcDougle3]

I've not seen anyone comment on how differently armed dwarves function on the world map. I'm about ready to start hitting the goblins back with 2 units of Melee Dwarves and 2 Units of Marksdwarves. My idea is that combat outside of my map is based on a formula with individual dwarves skills and equipment contributing as variables to an inequality, and that ranged attacks will be a necessary/beneficial function in the final analysis. However, it occurs to me that the combat would just be simulated, and my marksdwarves will just club goblins with their crossbows when not forced to stand behind fortifications in my own map... Thanks for the good series of videos. Keep up the good work.

[@wielkiedrzewo]

People told you about the channel so Ill just add that the bins do work, at least for me, as an ammo containers. Imho 1x1 stockpile with only 1 bin will do the trick (Im using 2 though)

[@Ic0nGaming]

I've heard conflicting voices regarding this. There seems to be a infrequently recurring bug, making some people having trouble with bins (sometimes) and sometimes not. Looking forward to see what time will bring.

[@meemigemeemes7875]

So crossbowman suqads just need the archery training range? Not the barracks also?

[@allcidus]

One of my forts has this bug where archers really don't pick up available ammunition, has that ever happened to you?

[@I3orrovv]

How do you set specific "training ammo?" I have read about it countless times but can't figure it out for the life of me. I have done all of these things in the video EXCEPT making individual archery ranges, because every other source I have gotten information from has not made that distinction. Will definitely try it though!

[@Ic0nGaming]

They always pick the stuff which is closest nearby. The most common tactic seems to be to store training ammo near the training site and have the good ammo in the archer tower in a separate stockpile. Once they reload in combat, they'll pick up the good stuff. You cannot assign any ammo directly to them (yet) sadly.

[@I3orrovv]

@@Ic0nGaming Thank you! Love the DF content, keep it coming!

[@spikygamer987]

Kinda thinking, for hunters to increase their shooting skill, if I made 2 squad and 1 squad trains and the other hunts and trade places each month will that work ?

[@Ic0nGaming]

Probably? I never tried something like that, cause hunters get me way too suicidal in general :D

[@spikygamer987]

Ahaha I see, are giving them some leather armors will help though ? Or am I just better using cage traps or butcher livestocks for food and material ?

[@I3orrovv]

One MORE question! Is it okay for dwarves to use shield in one hand and crossbow in the other? Seems like a valid default but I couldn't get my archers to reload during training and wondered whether that was a product of their off-hand being occupied.

[@Ic0nGaming]

I haven't seen any information saying shields are a no go for Archers.

[@dumbleking5172]

Quick question, should I be concerned about cave adaption? I've read it off from the wiki and it sounds really bad for military dwarves to get it. I don't really mind having some of them stationed outside and have 4 months off in a year of constant training.

[@Zaerki]

Makes dealing with things outdoors harder, your dorfs will vomit uncontrollably if they're exposed to sun.

[@dumbleking5172]

@@Zaerki That's when cave adaption becomes fully developed or serious. Early stages are just getting irritated by the sun, then Nausea (this itself has a negative impact), then uncontrollable vomit. I'm just asking how concerned I should be even if I have spare some time in thier schedules for free time.

[@vonsch9793]

I haven't seen cave adaptation in the Steam version to date. It may no longer be a thing.

[@txeitu]

So I read somewhere that a marskdwarf will check for usable ammo at the time you assign the archer uniform. Meaning if you make more ammo later, you must re create the squad and reassign the uniform. Can anybody confirm this? Also, you can forbid metal bolts in the stocks window while they train, just sayin

[@petergraphix6740]

I was reading a Reddit thread on this topic. Someone was mentioning that hunters also affect the ammo count. A hunter will lay claim to X number of bolts (not sure of the number). If you have Y hunters you have to have X*Y bolts above and beyond the number you want your marksdwarfs to use.

[@clem2526]

@@petergraphix6740 X=a stack of 25

[@feetoorourke]

Can archers shoot up/down z levels?

[@dumbleking5172]

Yes but take note, it does NOT increase thier range. If memory serves, it decreases it at a certain distance.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Yes and it's also a good way from preventing them from rushing into melee. But as has been pointed out: It doesn't buff the attacks in any way, but it's a good safety measure.

[@vonsch9793]

Yes, but need to be certain they can't jump down and melee. They will try when they shoot last bolt in quiver.

[@estherc3618]

Thank you for this video

[@I3orrovv]

One more question! If we are using fortifications for dwarves standing on top of walls behind them, do the fortifications need to be stacked on top of other walls such that they are on the same z-axis as the marksdwarves, or can we simply put fortifications in front of our walls on the same z-axis?

[@Ic0nGaming]

I'm not sure if I understood your question correctly. But Fortifications are just like walls, they need to be connected to another solid wall above or right next to it. If I misunderstood lemme know =)

[@I3orrovv]

@@Ic0nGaming Sorry I may have made this more confusing than it has to be. I put archers on top of walls by using a ramp - do the fortifications in front of them need to be on the same height as the wall they are standing on, or the same height as the dwarf who is standing on the wall? Does it matter?

[@topkek996]

@@I3orrovv dwarf layer, fortification is a wall that lets projectiles pass. If not on the same layer as the dwarf, it doesn't protect them

[@walli6388]

My archer squad just consists of hunters.

[@lucasisr8801]

thaaaaaanks