v0.31:Ambusher

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

Skill: Ambusher

Association
Profession	Template:L
Job Title	Hunter
Labor	Hunting
Tasks
Hunt
Workshop
None
Attributes
None

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Template:L with the hunting Template:L enabled automatically use the ambusher skill while hunting outside of the fortress, which allows them to sneak up on their prey. The ambusher skill is listed among the 'misc' skills. Dwarves using the ambush skill move more slowly, but, if successful, cannot be seen by enemies. Once close enough, the ambusher skill is no longer relevant, and the hunter will engage in standard Template:L with their prey using their crossbow.

Since hunting is employed by players with varying success and your military will go after any game that looks at them funny anyway, you might be better off doing the good old 'hunt with your military'. After all, your military can be told to pick a specific target, and, more convenient, to stop, too.

Caveats

A dwarf with the hunting labour enabled will sleep outside and drink water^[Verify], causing unhappy thoughts^[Verify]. It may thus be necessary to watch the mood of a full-time hunter and take him off the job in time.

Animals will appear randomly on the edge of a map, especially once the map is cleared of all wildlife. This can result in your Template:L hunter suddenly having an unpleasant chitchat with an Template:L, Template:L, or worse.

Adventurer mode ^[Verify]

In Template:L, ambusher skill is gained by moving around while Sneaking. This will greatly reduce your speed just as it does in dwarf mode, but will cause hostile Template:L to not attack you. Until you unSneak or someone spots you, you will gain a small amount of Template:L in ambushing with every step. Presently, smashing a creature's skull in with your bare hands does not count as being spotted, so the best way to tell if you're still sneaking is to check your speed in the bottom right of the screen. Ambusher also helps prevent encounters from enemies while travelling on the world map^[Verify].

Hunting

A hunter picks a mark at random, which he then pursues, ignoring other animals and enemies^[Verify]. Hunters seem to switch marks under certain circumstances. As an ambusher gets closer to his prey, there is a greater and greater chance he or she will be spotted by the animal and stop ambushing. Higher skill allows dwarves to get closer before being spotted, and also increases the speed at which a dwarf can move while sneaking.

Generally, though not always(?), when the dwarf is within shooting range she will move to engage. From there, the ambusher skill has no effect, and only combat skills are used.

Upon killing the prey, a hunter will usually, though not always, carry it home to the Template:L. A hunter may kill other Template:L that are closer to them than the fleeing mark he is intent on catching^[Verify]. They will ignore the accidental carcass and only bring home a carcass they have marked beforehand. This means that sometimes multiple dead critters per hunt will be lying about and start rotting around the map if you do not set the refuse orders to 'gather refuse from outside' (Template:Ls count as refuse). If you do this and have a good system of Template:Ls, available dwarf haulers and a map free of menacing critters (like with calm Template:L), then you should have the outside of your fort just as tidy as the inside, and will be able to salvage the corpses. If you do that on the wrong map, you will see some dwarf carcasses added instead.

Postprocessing

The same caution is advised to the slaughtering process. Hunters will drop carcasses directly into the butchery^[Verify], which will make it cluttered very fast. Animals upon being butchered explode into many many parts, and the clutter will make the Template:L work many times slower. Template:L and Template:L are required, or your animal corpses will rot even while in the butchery and you will lose the Template:L, Template:L, Template:L and (Template:L). Bones and skulls can be salvaged even from rotting corpses^[Verify]. It can also happen that your butcher is not fast enough and some hauler takes a corpse from the butchery and puts it on a refuse pile^[Verify]. Usually this shouldn't be a problem as your butcher will pick it up from there - if the refuse pile is close by.

If you don't have a good stocking and hauling system, you will not get all of the kill, and the Template:L unfortunate enough to need the bones from the rotted critters will have to go out alone several times to get them every time which places a huge strain on production speed and safety.

Dogs

You can assign Template:Ls to your Template:Ls, which can sneak alongside their masters and attack the hunter's prey. You can also assign Template:Ls, which are much stronger and can help take down bigger game, but cannot sneak and may rush into combat early.

Weapons and Tactics

You should consider training hunters in wrestling in order for them to defend themselves. Wrestling will help them to break the jaw-grips that the enemy critter places on him, and will help the dwarf wrestle on his own and even place his own jaw grips if both of his hands are incapacitated, and is the only option if a weapon is dropped or stuck in the animal. You should also consider training them in the Template:L skill, as a crossbow is used with this skill if an animal engages in melee against a marksdwarf, and hunters will fight to the death even if they run out of Template:Ls^[Verify]. Without bolts, he must fight with the butt of the crossbow, which functions similarly to a Template:L.

Using your military to hunt can be safer and more efficient than using hunters, particularly if they are agile enough to simply outrun the creatures.

Be warned that hunters will not stop their current hunt if you disable their hunting labor; hence, your dwarf may end up hunting whatever creatures spawn next, with potentially suicidal results. This may be avoidable by disabling the labor while hunting or returning the kill.

Free equipment

Any dwarf given ambusher skill at Novice level or better before embarking will get a free set of leather armor (leather armor, leather leggings, leather low or high boots, and leather helm or steel cap); a crossbow (made of copper, bronze, bismuth bronze, iron, or steel); and a quiver with 30-40 steel bolts. All of these items will be of ordinary Template:L.

This equipment will only be given if ambusher is the dwarf's highest skill; a Proficient Ambusher/Proficient Cook will have Template:L as a profession, and will not receive any equipment. However, ambushers with other Template:L skills, even ones higher than their ambusher skill, will still receive this equipment^[Verify], as will ambushers with Template:L skills at any level^[Verify]. (Separately, military skills will not influence what equipment is given: speardwarves will arrive at the site carrying nothing, and speardwarf/ambushers will arrive with the crossbow given to all ambushers. Template:L and Template:L have no effect either.)

You can also get the freebies by giving a social/administration skilled dwarf a point in ambusher^[Verify].

Any Template:L hunters will receive a full set of proper equipment.

A hunter armed with a Template:L will increase both his Template:L and ambusher Template:Ls.

Bugs

As of 31.01 there are several severe bugs logged in the bug tracker associated with the hunting labor.

• Hunters refuse to wear armor [1] ^[Verify]
• When hunters run out of ammo, they will not re-equip. The hunting labor must be turned off and back on for them to do so [2] ^[Verify]
• Migrant hunters sometimes arrive with the hunting labor turned off, causing them to drop their equipment at the edge of the map [3]

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