> Historically, on Earth, the move from slings to bows had to due with
advances in bow design and arrows vs. advances in armor. Most of the
cultures that used the sling tened to ware little armor and fought
foes who also wore little armor. Warfare typically consited of lots of
single combats, with opponets calling each other out n the
battlefield. Missile weapons were used more for hunting and harassing
the enemy.
Ok, I'll try to keep somewhere near on-topic for the group :)
There were a number of factors in the move from slings to bows:
Improvements in bow technology
An increased use of armour on the battlefield
Better logistics to carry all those arrows around
Close formation tactics (for which the sling is not well suited).
As for horse slingers I can only think of the Byzantine skirmishers for an example although using a sling from horseback should not be especially hard. Perhaps its just that the sling is less appealing if your ammo supply is out of reach on horseback. In Glorantha I would have thought that the most obvious mounted slingers would be the Impala tribe, I can't remember off the top of my head if the old preferred weapon info for them included the sling.
For the sort of skirmish combats that PCs typically get themselves into the sling is no worse than a bow. As you do not need to carry lots of ammunition around it can be better for skirmishers who want to travel light and move fast across rough terrain - so perfect for Heortlings then.
Mass combat units will tend to use bows and the Foot Soldier (Archer) occupation in HQ seems to have been written with this in mind - they are disciplined and more inclined to stand their ground and keep shooting as an opponent charges. When using soldiers in a game or playing an ex-soldier character its maybe worth knowing as it can be a useful bit of character colour - slingers will tend towards hit-and-run whilst archers are trained to stand firm. Members of a slinger unit would see no shame in running away, whilst for an archer this would be almost as serious a crime as it is for a heavy infantryman such as a pikeman.
Slingers make good guerilla fighters. Which brings us back to Heortlings :)
-- Nic
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