"slings vs thrown rocks" Topic

I just got some packs of Footsore dark age Irish. The "slinger" packs also have stone thrower figures. Does it make sense to mix these together on the same stand as the sling. Sling range is maybe 1300 feet, and a stone can be thrown 80 feet. I do not know why they packed both weapons in same bag. Would it be more "realistic" to put the stone throwers on one stand and the slingers on another so there will be homogeneous effect? Thanks

Maybe the "stone throwers" are loaders for the slingers LOL ?

Are you sure they're throwing rocks?

I'm thinking they may be hurling morale-damaging faeces. I believe such a weapon is particularly effective against enemy horn players & other musicians.I'm sure you're familiar with that old Irish saying: "when the whatchemacallit hits the band"?

If you put them one sort per stand, and the stands don't have too many figures on them, you can then mix the stands for a mixed group if you change your mind.

I suspect it's likely enough they would have been mixed historically though. From what I understand, later medieval Irish armies weren't big on dividing up based on weaponry or tactical role. Slingers would start peppering the enemy at considerable range, and rock-throwers would join in when the lines got closer.

I agree with The Last Conformist: keep them separated, by stand, but mix them on the table, in a single unit. I've mixed my figures, with similar, but different, weapons, due to not having enough to separate them on different bases, unless I mounted them individually.

They give variety, this way, but in your case, I like the separate, but united, approach. Cheers!

Sling range is maybe 1300 feet

Hmm, is there one to many "0's" since that is around 433 yards or more than four football fields.

That is some serious slinging.

Some ancient period wargame rules assume that missile weapons in ancient battles were not used at theoretical maximum or long ranges but rather at the closest range possible which still allowed the users an acceptable degree of safety, in order to maximize the effect of the shooting in relation to ammunition expenditure. If your rules reflect this (DBx(x) come to mind) then your figures throwing stones and figures slinging stones actually had a similar "effective" range and could be based together, which is probably why they are packaged together.