cool

Nice link!!!

Wow..  What a wide ranging question! 

Depends on what your goal is, but there are some generalities that you can employ in just about every conflict.

1.  "Standardize" your troops as much as possible without restricting their effectiveness.  The fact of the matter is that there are situations where forming tight formations is desirable and when forming loose ones are desirable.  Standardization allows the military commander the greatest flexibility.  For Example, I have Joe Schmoe who is great at figure 8, and Bill whos good with helicopter.  As a military commander I will train and drill them to use an Apache throw for close formations and encourage loose formation drilling with freestyle techniques.  This is a widely accepted military concept.  While in the service I learned "Standard" ways of deploying my M-60 Machine gun.  The beauty of this is that I can now be transferred to any other military outfit and seamlessly blend in like I've been there the whole time and the rest of the team knows what they can expect from me.

2. Deploy your units (all of them, not just the slingers) in ways that maximize their ability to inflict harm while minimizing their exposure to harm.  Slinging units are un-armored and therefore, themselves, vulnerable to harassing fire.  The trick is to direct their fire against targets that can't fight back.  Because slingers can achieve longer ranges with standardized lead ammunition, this for me, would be first, other Ranged Units like archers.  Once they are broken(or destroyed), you can direct your (now unchallenged) slingers to fire upon the most threatening units. Above, some of us were saying to deploy slingers to the front to maximize their range.  The problem with this is that your slingers are now exposed to being fired upon by the enemy slingers (because if the enemy is in range, so are you.), or being cut to ribbons by calvary units.  A good general formation to follow should be Armored units with shields to the Front, at least two ranks deep.  These Shield men should "overlap" their shields one on top of the other to create a "wall" of sorts.  Slingers directly behind them launch projectiles from behind this wall.  This maximizes their range and damage potential, while also providing them with protection from other ranged units and ground attack units.

3. Always use volley fire when possible.   Volley fire is great because it provides what appears to be more devastation to the enemy which can demoralize enemy formations.  I say “appears” because the damage is done at the same time to a “chunk” of the enemy, instead of numerous casualties staggered throughout the formation.  It also ensures that the most fire is directed at the same target.  Once you break into loose formations and start firing “at will”, you take away much of the effectiveness of fighting as a unit. 

4.   Ah, who am I kidding here? I could list probably another 30 things!  LOL..

Thearos wrote on Dec 27^th, 2012 at 11:08pm:


Ha!  Sounds like shoddy leadership to me!  Lol.  

Jk!  Anyway, my above example is just the way that I personally would deploy them.  Ideally speaking, I would actually place my slingers on the high ground, behind something solid.  Walls, dense tree lines, siege towers(which could actually function as slinging platforms now that I think about it), etc.

If slingers can launch past the wall,opposing slingers could also sling past the wall (ballistic trajectory) if they receive enemy fire in volleys,and they are a small unit,they could shelter themselves during a volley,then get out,sling,hide,sling.

Yes,it could work,but as i wrote,and i imagine,mostly in small units. Having a slinger unit of 5-8 men deep,couldn't really benefit of the shield wall. with 2 slinger deep ranks it could work.
Also the shield bearing guys can very well be regular infantry with big oval shields for ex.
This might,and probably was used sometime ,somewhere in the past.
The infantry,has to shield themselves anyways of the enemy hail ,and the slingers might use their defense as well.
Or,there could be multiple lines of shield walls,and slingers behind them,with some cavalry on the flanks.
Aaand because most ancient armies had more melee infantry than ranged units,this multiple lines of shield walls and archers,and slingers behind them could be the ultimate solution.

hybrid_throwback wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2010 at 7:50am:

I have the range, but im not so sure about the speed. I will have to try it.
Also, how to measure the time accuratly.