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[Seriyu]

Is there a way to get marksdwarves stationed in a very small, specific area, an archer tower specifically, When a seige comes along?

[meto30]

first of all, there is the simple squad 'station' command. It is accessible from (s)quad-(select squad letter)-(m)ove-(designate tile). It will move any squad to any location on que, provided it is accessible and the squad members are not sleeping or otherwise unavailable. But if they were not equipped at the moment of the command they will run to the stockpiles to get armed first.

To avoid all the hassle of equipping you can set schedules and alerts so that at least some of your militiadwarves are ready at any point in the year. Station orders can also be given through the schedule screen; burrow designations can help you further. More information can be found in the wiki articles below.

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Scheduling
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Military

Provided station order/command is correctly given, the marksdwarves will stand post on the selected tile, watching for enemies and firing away ammunition should the opportunity arise. Make sure your dwarves are well stocked in bolts and if possible keep a stockpile nearby.

[Seriyu]

Oh, hurr, I completely forgot about the station command.

Thanks.

[meto30]

You're welcome.

[Rask]

If you don't want to use the station command, since it overrides all their schedules and can lead to long patrol unhappiness, you can also define your guard tower as a burrow and order them in the schedule to guard that burrow.

[Nigma]

I never use the station command, a single tile burrow is just the same to me.
Are there any differences besides having to make more burrows?

[meto30]

I never use the station command, a single tile burrow is just the same to me.
Are there any differences besides having to make more burrows?

That assigned dwarves cannot get food or drink unless it is already present within the burrow..? Scheduling the 'station at burrow' solves this, but I prefer the intensive training method to part-time militia. Better be the Quater Horse than the Colorado Guard.

[Fellhuhn]

Although both solutions have a problem if you are not careful. Those dwarves tend to only go somewhere close to where you order them, not the exact position. So keeping the shooting position only one tile wide is important.
I also had marksdwarves running to who knows where only because the only door to their designated station was forbidden. Getting them back after opening the door took over a month because the insisted on completing the first (invalid) station order first.

[Nigma]

I have a 3 dwarf squad, with a 1 tile burrow they have to defend right in front of the fortification.
One dwarf is training, one is defending the burrow and the last one idles around.

As soon as the one on duty needs to eat he just leaves and one of the other 2 takes over.
I have no food problems with defending burrows.

Are there any other differences between setting a squad to defend a burrow or stationing it somewhere?