Thearos wrote on Apr 18
th, 2010 at 7:48pm:
I suppose in the ancient world (say 1000 BC-AD 300), people fought with slings in two ways:
-- slinging at formed-up bodies of men. The target is unmissable, and shootings takes place at extreme ranges (150-200m). Slings outrange bows.
-- slinging in the skirmishing line: aimed fire with limited tactical loads. I suspect this in fact takes place at "Andean" style ranges, namely hard slinging straight ahead, at distances ca. 70-80m, aimed straight at enemy skirmishers. But this means that the slingers are fighting within bowshot, and also even long range javelin fire; rushes by shielded javelin men are a definite danger.
Unlike ancient armies in Eurasia, andean warriors like the Incas places their slingers in the very first line. The opposite of what you'd see in armies like the Greeks. Without horses, the rules of combat changes in unexpected ways.
What the Incas did, I think, was more like a low tech musketmen attack. The men would march in close formation (As close as you can for slingers) Then, unleash their somewhat inaccurate (but very powerful) slingshots at relative close range to soften enemy ranks.
Once the men ran out of ammo, the second line comes in: Infantry with war maces and axes. For musketmen, this would be a bayonette charge. And unlike musketmen, Incan slingers could protect themselves from enemy fire with shields they carried.
All this is, of course, complete speculation.