I've long been of the opinion that that both runequest and now HW have been a bit schizoid about slings. In many cultures herders used slings because they were cheap, easy to carry, and sufficient to drive off all but the most determined predators. The heortlings have lots of herders, spread around in pretty wild country. Certainly it would make sense for them to use slings. And then there are thunderstones, mostly manifested as sling bullets, which encourages the concept of orlanthi as slingers. But I've yet to see any character generation rules giving the sling skill (barring if Hedkoranth initiates can use thunder sling as a substitute for actual skill).
As written, I'd say that most heortlings know about slings, and would have played with them a bit as youths, but very few have any particular degree of skill with them. Many clans might have one or a few Hedkoranth initiates, and a few might have a more substantial number. I would guess they use slings mostly as a disruptive weapon. A long corded sling isn't so quick or as easy to aim (if I'm recalling correctly), but does have better range. Combine that with a not too heavy thunderstone, and you might be able to really discrouage people from clumping up just out of range of most of your other missiles!
> too, that sling 'stones' need not be little pebbles - ancient
> slingers carried a variety of lengths of sling for different
ranges,
> and a variety of weights & types of missile for different ranges &
> targets, up to massive fist-sized lead cubes to smash shield walls
at
> close range (with lots of corners & edges to improve damage).
I seem to recall that one set of Mediteranean islands was famous for its slingers, and that they were purported to carry three different lengths of slings tied around their head for ready access. Each length would be used for a different range. This sort of focus, however, would seem to me more what you would expect from the infamous thunder delta slingers (please let them be given a key word in She Guards Us!) than from the less specialized heortlings.
--Bryan
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