Archery poll

[Oversway]

Yes slings are just too short range! Same problem with c'tis poison slingers... great idea but most of the time only half of them get one shot off (and they all miss) before the opposing army slaughters them.

Maybe I need to try putting slingers (of any kind) above or below my main force and try fire rearmost or fire archers? Has this worked for anyone?

[Ironhawk]

Due to the range problem, I've given up using slingers as a field combat unit. I do recall recruiting them once as Arco in a particular game that favored the use of Flaming Arrows. Used them there as fort garrisons, since they had cheap strength/cost ratios and the wall of the fort would prevent them from running headlong into the enemy. They would just mob up against it for a while until the enemy got close enough and then pelt them like they were supposed to. It was ok.

My other (rare) use of slingers is as archer decoys. Since they are technically "archers" you can use them to absorb anything that would normally target your worthwhile missle units.

Edit: On a side note.. you know what might be a fun unit? Some kind of Seige Engine type thing. Size 6, 1 strat move, 0 tac move, 0/0 att/def, 50 hp maybe, some prot perhaps? maybe a kite shield for equipment to make it hard to kill with arrows. And all it would do is cast Flying Shards or something with range 15-20. So - not useful in the field due to the short range. But if you put it as far forward as possible during a siege it would be able to fire at the attackers/defenders over the wall.

[PvK]

I have too. Sometimes, 16-hour days, including weekends... for a week, anyway.

PvK

[PvK]

Slingers were useful because they were missile units, and historically, missile units were rare. That is, not just people who could shoot a bow or sling, but groups of them who could be brought on a military campaign. Professional archers took years to learn their trade. It wasn't just "how many bows and arrows can be whip together and give to random conscripts?". So part of the problem with trying to match historical reality is that there are so many provinces that offer shortbow troops, and part of it is that they require _fewer_ gold and resources than other generic troops.

The rest of the issue is the typical one, that Dom2 makes summons and super-powerful spells really cheap for their effects, putting mere mortals into the "overpriced" category.

PvK