Heavy Slingers

[brymht]

Was there ever such a thing? It seems like they would be very useful. Were the Rhodian's the ones who came closest?

From what I read of Balaeric slingers, it seems like they might have been better armored than they appear to be in game.

[stupac]

Good question. I'm no historian, but as I understand it, in many cultures your weapons were a symbol of status, i.e. sword wielders were often more respected than those that carry spears; many Greek city states considered the bow a coward's weapon and that in the phalanx is where the courageous men fought. Furthermore, slingers were often levied from poor peasants, especially herders and were often few in number and not well regarded. Plus, since in many armies you had to provide your own equipment, it is unlikely they would be able to afford armor. Not to mention, mobility was extremely important to a slinger, they were considered skirmishers and were not intended to close and engage hand to hand with the enemy, so armor would be more of a hindrance than a help. Well, what about missiles? Well, an unrealistic thing, it seems to me, in the RTW engine is the ability for missile units to aim at enemies outside their field of view, namely units behind other units. I would think in real ancient warfare, after throwing their volleys, the slingers would merely retreat behind the heavy infantry, thus out of sight of enemy missile units.

Balaeric slingers may have been somewhat of an exception because they were well respected for their skill and served widely as mercenaries, thus they could afford better equipment, but the question would be why waste money on armor if you don't need it?

Maybe a real historian from the EB team could comment.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

We talked about them and I did research and set up the differences (in look and stats), and even recruited another artist whose first test was to make them, but he never followed through (it was his second time as a trial member, oh well) and no one on the team ever made the model changes or textures and eventually another unit took their slot. They were finally pushed aside when arguments were made that the difference in regular and heavy slingers (the heavy ones were mainly going to be an eastern version) was not going to be big enough - I just didn't put up much of a fight because I was tired of trying to get it made.

[zooeyglass]

We talked about them and I did research and set up the differences (in look and stats), and even recruited another artist whose first test was to make them, but he never followed through (it was his second time as a trial member, oh well) and no one on the team ever made the model changes or textures and eventually another unit took their slot. They were finally pushed aside when arguments were made that the difference in regular and heavy slingers (the heavy ones were mainly going to be an eastern version) was not going to be big enough - I just didn't put up much of a fight because I was tired of trying to get it made.

what was his first test? (if it was slaying a hydra, i've heard that they are really tough to take down, so, mebbe that's why he got a second chance?)

[Teleklos Archelaou]

It was basically to skin a unit and don't disappear. Grade: F.