Are Crossbows as bad as they seem?

[king.steve1]

I've got a reasonably good hunter running around chasing Emus and using buckets of ammo to do it. Said hunter has currently shot the Emu 23 times doing all sorts of damage to it, but not killing it.

On the other hand, when I've targeted an Emu for death with an actual squad, it just seems to take a few hits with a mace or axe to kill it.

Is there something I'm missing about Crossbows? I have a grand master bone carver making bone bolts that seem to be very high quality most of the time but it takes more bolts to kill an Emu than I get out of the animal I kill.

[zverozvero]

Try metal bolts - iron, bronze or steel. Light weight of bone/wood arrow might betray its efficiency no matter the quality.

[Loues.S.Cat]

yeah... light bolts /would/ be best used for training except dwarfs seem to get confused about picking them up when they run out... so... best not use light bolts at all.
Bone or feather wood crossbows can be good for your Guard Squad so they are less likely to beat your people to death while remaining 'effective' when invaders show up. Otherwise good, heavy crossbows are best for instances where you don't have bolts (which happens a lot when dwarfs decide they don't need none of those silly things).

There is also a huge impact of skill level on damage.
comparing crossbows to axes is always going to be crazy because axes are one of the best weapons against non undead/blob monsters anyway... the odds you just straight up lop someones head or other important bits off is amazingly high. Similar to why whips are good, but axes tend to be more reliable in smaller numbers.

But Yeah... try heavy bolts and check the skill of the shooter and make sure he is reasonably decent or train him up before making him a hunter (to train him disable the hunter job, give him armour with a crossbow and stick him in military assigned to train in an archery range).

[Fel]

Emus are a bit larger than dwarves so it can take a while to kill them regardless of the weapon if you don't get a few lucky hits.
Crossbows are generally not that good in terms of lucky hits unless you hit a leg or a vital organ.

Metal bolts make some difference but it is true that crossbows are relatively weak overall now (a change from when they were overly deadly instead).
Hunting in general tends to be a bit weak, crossbows as part of the fort's defenses against invaders on the other hand can be quite decent if the setup is right (funneling the enemies through a corridor where the crossbowdwarves can shoot through fortifications and no path to jump at the enemy after emptying their ammo).

Not sure about the current mods but it is possible to make bolts that are significantly deadlier through mods, especially for hunting (since the targets are generally not armored)

[king.steve1]

Thanks all - all very helpful information!