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.
As armor becomes more common, especaly metal armor, slings became less effective on the battlefield. Bows, on the other hand, became more effective with the developement of greater pull bows, such as composite bows, combined with iron or steel-tipped arrmors that could punch through mail.
>
> In message <e04jak+hokl_at_...> "Jane Williams" writes:
>
> >For us Orlanthi who like living in hill-forts, an interesting
fact I
> >just read in a wargaming article. Iron Age hill forts had the
distance
> >between the inner and outer ramparts set at exactly the range of
their
> >slings, that being their main missile weapon.
> >
> >So javelin-using Orlanthi will have the distance set to javelin
range
> >(don't ask me what that is, but no, it's not a mile). And bow-
using
> >Elmali will prefer it at bow range (rather longer).
>
> Effective ranges of slings and most bows are similar. From memory
> there is more variation between lead and stone slingshot than
> between slings and bows. One reason the Iron Age celts used slings
> was that their bows had a shorter effective range than their
slings.
> Javlins have a much shorter range - a third to a half of the sling
> which may put the ramparts rather close together.
>
Presumably the inner ramparts were higher than the outer, giving a little longer effective range to those on the inner, so that the outer ramparts are within effective range of the inner, but not viceversa ?
For what it is worth, I think the move from slings to bows was more related to flexibility and time needed to master them than effectiveness--I'm not the scholar on these matters that some people here are, but I've read some about ancient warfare and never have I seen anything decided because one side used bows and the other slings. But bows can be used from chariots without hitting the driver, and can be used from horseback, and can be used by stealth when hunting.
The patterns seem to be that only the poorest would master the sling, but when they did they were pretty effective--the balaeric islanders (hope I have the name right) were apparently popular mercenaries for their mastery of the sling, in early roman type times. That implies that well trained slingers could be amonst the more effective skirmishing troops. The reference I read about them added that apparently they carried different lengths of slings, to be used depending on the range they were shooting for. Which would imply that the rampart seperation could not be an absolute thing, but probably based on "typical"
-Bryan
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