Which ranged units do you prefer?

[R'as al Ghul]

I made good experience with slingers lately.
In a battle against the Macedons (me being Greece)I only had one slinger unit and one cretin archers as ranged units + 4 Militia Hoplites, 2MercHoplites, 1BarMercCav, 1 General. The Macedons fielded at least 6 hoplite/phalanx units plus 1 Archer and 4-5 Cav. In addition to their superior numbers they had the high ground. I approached him with my whole army stopping just out of range of his missiles. I then moved my slingers forward and started to shoot at his hoplites. He countered with his archers. I put my slingers to loose, changed the target to the archers who were mixed up with his hoplites, one row standing in front of the hoplites.
The results of my attack were devastating, the number of archers dropped quite fast and every missed shot would hit the hoplites which were constantly shuffling their ranks. When the slingers finally ran out of ammo, being down to 35 from 80, I swapped them with my archers. The slingers had killed: at least 60 out of 80 archers, 25 of a 120 phalanx unit, ca. 30 each out of two 80 Hoplites. About 150 kills if not more. My archers focussed their fire on his cav, while his archers had used up their ammo.
Result: After he finally charged me downhill, his weakened lines broke on my solid phalanx wall, everyone routed and I only managed to get two of his hoplite units because of my limited cav.
Of course, the AI won't always sit and let itself be shot to pieces, this is where the speed of the slingers comes in. Deploy them very much forward and give them some cav protection.
In asia minor, when facing phalanx or hoplite strong armies, you'd better bring some slingers. Especially since they require less infrastructure as archers.
Peltasts didn't really work for me, yet. If someone has tips for them I'd appreciate it.

R'as

[Magraev]

Slingers have the edge in a shootout since they have shields. Rhodian and balearic versions are both good while the basic kind (like the carthagenians have) is kinda limited in both range and damage potential.

I have no luck shooting over my formations or walls with slingers though - the trajectory is more flat. They have to be at the front or flanks.

The pharaohs bowmen are absolutely lethal. The only downside is that they take 2 turns to make and have an upkeep of about 330. They'll probably win a shootout with any other bowmen.

[Jeanne d'arc]

Cretan archers are not bad either, 3 units of them with flaming missiles are hell for the enemy thats receiving them.Protect there front with phalanxes and the flanks with light cavalry and u have a solid formation.
I find the flaming missiles to be very accurate sometimes also.

[Kekkonen]

Cretan archers are good with their extended range and all. They do run out of ammo a lot faster than slingers, though.

[Lichgod]

Archers get 30 shots, Slingers get 40 shots.

[andrewt]

Horse archers get 40 as well.