Slings and whirling...

[kenjib]

Hello, has there been a discussion on slings yet?  I couldn't find one searching.  I notice in the rulebook that part of the prep time is getting the sling whirling, after which you aim (refresh) and fire.  This seems to imply that slinging involves spinning the sling around in a circle multiple times before release.  There seems to be some debate, however, on whether this was actually how it was used.  The sling can also be used with a single arc and then over-hand or under-hand release.  I imagine this technique should reduce the prep time a little bit with no practical impact on velocity or accuracy.

Keeping in mind that slings were often considered preferrable to early bows, except for the increased difficulty in training people to use them effectively and accurately, I don't think it would be all that much of an issue to make such a change since they do still have a shorter range than a shortbow.

Does anyone know much about slings and how they were used in ancient times?  I believe they are still in use today in some parts of the world too, but all of the info I can find on the net seems to be from people who have pretty much learned to sling on their own and, therefore, might not have the best technique, nor the techniques that would have been employed in historical combat.  Does anyone know how they are usually used?

[Valamir]

I know that slings were amazingly, incredibly deadly, the projectiles flew at some ridiculous velocity and that the technique was perfected by Ayla
:-)

They made a mockery out of early armor, were not all that difficult to learn (pretty much every preadolescent shepard boy could use one reasonably well) and were surprisingly accurate.

I know that the shepards on the Island of Majorica (off of Spain) were concidered slinging phenoms (like Welsh Longbowmen millenia later) and that a large portion of the economy of Majorica involved payments for supplying companies of mercenary slingers to ancient armies.

I know that the story of David and Goliath as commonly presented where Goliath scoffs at facing a mere boy armed with a sling is highly unlikely.  A Philistine soldier would have been well aware of how devastatingly powerful a sling was.

I don't know when or exactly why its use declined.  I suspect it was a combination of many factors such as:
1) the decline of predominantly semi nomadic sheparding societies and the rise of largly agrarian societies where the majority of wild beasts could be cleared out and kept clear from centers of civilization reducing the recruiting base of shepards.

2) the change in social status as this shift occured which relegated the nomadic herders to second class citizens likely relegated their weapon to such status as well.  Choice of weapon historically is almost equal parts status and effectiveness.  The sling likely lost in the status race.

3) the improvement of bows combined with #2.  i.e. not so much that bows were a better weapon than a sling, but that they compared well enough to a sling and held more status making them the weapon of choice.


Most of the above information is from memory from an article I read years ago, I believe in Military History Quarterly.  It would take some digging to uncover the exact issue.

[Eamon Voss]

They made a mockery out of early armor, were not all that difficult to learn (pretty much every preadolescent shepard boy could use one reasonably well) and were surprisingly accurate.

Apparently being accurate with them was a skill that took lots of practice to develop.  Remember, being a shephard is very boring.  The shephards had little to do but practice with the sling at tree limbs, rabbits, wolves, etc.  Think your average kid or teenager with nothing to do outdoors but watch over dumb sheep and armed witha sling for plinking anything in range.

Unlike the bow, though, strength was not as much an issue with the sling.  This meant even an ill-fed underweight peasant could be deadly.

[toli]

A sling would also be pretty cheap.  Ammunition would also be moderately easy to come bye even if it needed to be prepared a litte a bit before use.  I remember reading something about slingers in Xenophon where during the retreat they were important because they could pick up ammo on the march.

As for skill, it isn't that hard to hit a mass of hoplites with a sling and it doesn't require the same strength as a long bow.   That would make it a pretty good weapon in a war sense...NT

[Mike Holmes]

Slingstaffs anyone? Real thing? Sounds just silly lethal (like you're own personal catapult), but hard to use.

Mike

[Valamir]

A sling staff is basically just an alternative way to get leverage.

There are several different designs of slings.  Some are very short, no more than a foot and spun (though as has been pointed out, not necessarily with multiple revolutions) primarily with wrist action.  The longer the sling the more leverage you get so you increase the range and power by spinning the bullet farther and farther away from your hand.

For a verticle swing you're limited in length to avoid hitting the ground.  Horizontal swings can be longer yet but run into obvious issues with neighbors and obstacles.

The staff sling operates on a similar principal to a trebuchet.  Because it is rigid you don't have to spin it to move the bullet out to the end of the motion arm.  For this reason it can used vertically and since there is no need to employ the bottom half of the circle, the ground doesn't interfere.

I would guess that accuracy is an issue.  The one time I saw one employed he used a technique similiar to lacrosse and hurled the bullet on the run (a couple steps).  Instead of a fixed basket like a lacross stick it had a sling on the end like a trebuchet arm.  It was also longer and less choked up.   I have no idea if this technique was at all historical.