> >He might want to look into missle weapons and pratices used in the
> >West during the Ancient and Classical period. Slingers were
considered
> >MORE valuable than archers due to range and hitting power. Thrown
> >weapons were also the rule - axes, javelins, whatnot. It didn't
take
> >TOO much training to make you good at them compared to learning
> >slinging or archery.
>
> but I thought with e.g. the Celts, every kid (boys anyway) learned
to use
> the sling effectively to while young to scare off wolves, catch
rabbits etc.
> so when you are defending a hillfort all you need to do is collect
lots of
> stones and pile 'em up near the ramparts to give everyone (not just
your
> trained warriors) a good, cheap and fairly skilled ranged attack....
>
> Of course this tactic only really got used in times of desperate
defence as
> Celts seem to have prefered warrior elites earning glory with herioc
hand to
> hand combat against enemy champions to massed ranks of commers
dealing out
> real amounts of death in warfare... (although summit you can bung
toward
> your foe as you dash headlong toward him is alway useful)...
>
> Dougie.
True but the really _good_ slingers seemed to come from places like
the Baleric Islands and Crete and similar places (which only seem to
have rocks and fish?)
But you're right - the sling is often nicknamed as the "shepherd's
bow." I was just pointing out that the sling was widely used in
earthly cultures _similar_ to the Orlanthi. I think that chucking
javelins and using slings is probably well in character for them.
Bows...? Self bows and the like, sure. I just don't see them having
massive numbers of ubernifty composite recurve (etc. etc. etc. add
your prejudice) bows. But that's just my wapentake on the matter.
Jeff