Editing v0.34:Archery

{{quality|Exceptional|15:30, 9 August 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}
{{category|military}}
{{category|skills}}

'''Archery''' is the term given to the practice of firing ranged [[ammunition]] at targets by a personal weapon. It is also the military skill, (Archer), which is trained alongside the [[marksdwarf]] skill in Dwarf Fortress.

The '''Archer''' skill increases with the use of any ranged attack including throwing weapons.

In terms of weapons this naturally encompasses the [[crossbow]], the [[bow]] as a foreign or natural weapon depending on [[modding guide|modding]]; and the [[blowgun]] which can only be made as an [[artifact]] in a [[bowyer's workshop]] by a [[strange mood]], and which does not have any ammunition for its use outside [[Attack types|bludgeoning]]. 

==Archery==

In order to engage in archery a dwarf needs five things: a [[weapon|ranged weapon]]; a [[quiver]] and [[Weapon#Ammunition|ammunition]]; proper [[labor]]/[[military interface|military]] assignments; and a [[cat|target]]. For further information, see the [[archery target]] page.

Dwarves will fire at targets 20 tiles away and are able to engage targets that are 3 z-levels up or down without any loss in firing distance.<!-- Easily tested in the Object Testing Arena, maybe Dwarf fortress will give a different result. -->

Assignment of ranged weapons is done through the [[Military interface|military equipment screen]] ({{k|m}} -> {{k|e}}). If you only have a few ranged weapons, [[military]] squads get first pick, and then [[ambusher|hunters]] can choose from the leftovers.  [[Squad]]s can be assigned a particular ''type'' of weapon, but hunters cannot be controlled so finely.

Assignment of ammunition is done through the [[Military interface|military ammunition screen]] ({{k|m}} -> {{k|f}}) for both military squads and hunters.  Ammunition must match the weapon: bolts for [[crossbow]]s, arrows for bows.

A living target can be selected from the {{K|s}}[[squad|quad]] menu, by selecting the squad(s) you wish to have attack, then selecting attac{{K|k}} target. You can then select a single target with the cursor, a number of targets by enabling selection by {{K|r}}ectangle, or selecting a number of targets through a {{K|l}}ist. Note that if your dwarves don't have the required ammunition, quiver or bow/blowgun/crossbow, the squad members missing these components will attempt to engage the target in melee. There is no way to force dwarves to only attack from range, but adequately equipped dwarves stand the best chance of remaining at range.

===Subsections of Archery===
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[[Crossbowman]] -- [[Crossbow]] -- [[Equipment#Quivers|Quivers]] -- [[Ambusher|Hunters]] -- [[Ammunition|Ranged Ammunition]] -- [[Ranger]]

===Effects of Skill Leveling===
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Higher skills in the bowman, crossbowman or blowgunner attribute equates with greater accuracy and higher rates of fire. In order to increase the crossbowman/blowgunner/bowman skill a dwarf must fire at something; if it misses a target it will gain the same amount of experience points even as if it had been hit.

<!-- Copied and reworded from [[Crossbowman]] References 40d data! -->
Firing at live targets gives much more experience points than firing on inanimate [[archery target]]s. The difference is about fourfold. Tests found that by firing around 67 practice bolts provided 7.5 experience for each shot at the archery target; the same experience total is gained by firing 17 bolts at a live target, providing 30 experience per bolt.

Testing in 0.34.11 found that grand master marksdwarves fire 1.5 times faster than unskilled marksdwarves, given identical agility physical attributes. That is, reloading time at high skill is reduced to 66% of the unskilled reloading time. It is unknown if legendary ranks further improve firing rate. {{verify}}

==Value in the Military==
Dwarves using archery have their place in the military: They may fire at a distance without the threat of being attacked by [[weapon|melee weapons]] or by [[undead|being mauled to death]]. They may fire from higher or lower [[Z-level]]s than the target intended. [[Archery target]]s must be engaged from the same Z-level and with no empty spaces in between the ranger and target. They may fire at enemy targets through [[fortification]]s and over empty spaces although their usefulness is thwarted by proper armor and tactics.

[[ambusher|Hunters]] use the archery skill and will use ranged weapons in general.

You '''cannot''' provide soldiers with a secondary weapon to which they may fall back to if they engage in melee combat. Archers will use their bows or other ranged weapons for melee combat if given the choice. [[Crossbow]]s train the [[combat skill|hammerman]] skill while bows and blowguns use the [[combat skill|swordsman]] skill.

==[[Known bugs and issues|Issues with Archery]]==
* If you assign both arrows and bolts to the same group dwarves who are holding a crossbow may grab arrows and dwarves who are holding a bow may grab bolts.
* The way weapons get assigned is bugged. {{Bug|535}}  The basic problem is this: when a hunter which is equipped with a crossbow goes on duty as a marksdwarf it will look for a different crossbow rather than the one it is currently carrying.  One workaround is to have lots of spare weapons.
* If a squad is set to use two different materials of a certain kind of ammunition one for practicing, and one for combat, (an example of this would be metal bolts for combat and bone/wooden bolts for practicing.) Oftentimes the most expensive kind will be grabbed and stored inside a quiver, the dwarf then being unable to practice with the ammunition will be stuck on "Archery practice" and stand around doing nothing. Workarounds for this include only assigning one type of bolts at a time when in combat or training mode. Only [[military interface|assigning]] bone/wooden bolt and nothing else, or assign metal bolts and nothing else. {{Bug|4530}}
* If archers don't equip ammo a remedy may be lowering their dedicated ammo counts. This is done by going into military screen: {{k|m}}, ammunition: {{k|f}} and lowering ammo counts for all squads by pressing NUM MINUS. 50 bolts are more than enough.
* If an archery target is enabled to training a squad but no one of the squad is willing to use it, you can encourage them by disabling all their labors and stationing them near the target. When they come close, remove the "station" order. This issue happens more often to untrained archers.

=See also=
*[[Military]]
*[[Combat skill]]
*[[Weapon]]
{{Skills}}
{{Category|Military}}