Both require training to get fully competent with, but as far as just picking a weapon up and doing okay with it, both bows and crossbows have some basic technical know how to even get a projectile in the air, whereas the sling is relatively trivial (though still difficult to do with any accuracy). Regardless, I'm 90% sure that wziards of the coast were thinking more of a slingshot type thing instead of what would have been used by a proper Balearic slinger when categorizing it.
[Obligatory shilling for ad astra]
Objectively, no. Slings require years of training to reach a good level of proficiency with at a high projectile weight, and they also do damage on par with Warbows, so WOTC was just smoking crack, but problems are inevitable with any game of that scale.
It's wierd I'm pretty sure they describe a traditional sling, but on the other hand the morons who make dragonlance think that slings and slingshots are the same.
No, slings are infamously difficult to git gud at, the big benefits were you could use any old rock on the ground as ammo, so you could have entire blocks of soldiers turn into rock artillery without having to carry around bows and arrows.
Though if you did manage to git gud you were one scary motherfricker, there's a reason the Balearic slingers were feared
Wrong. Slings are considerably easier to use than bows because most kids would have grown up using them. It’s a skill almost every boy/man would have from their youth.
Archery takes a lot more time and skill and typically is not a common skill.
>I never understood why they were simple weapons.
This comes from two things:
1: Ammunition is everywhere and requires little to no manufacturing. A good bow requires more advanced technical understanding both to make and to operate, and on the manufacturing part the crossbow is even more complicated.
2: Use in mass volleys by groups of (sometimes poorly trained militia) infantry either as harassment of enemy formations on the move or before an assault, neither which requires more than getting the projectile to go in the direction of enemy formation.
For some reason the use of other highly trained sling troops is less remembered and discussed.
Odds are someone will be able to get at least close to the target the first few shots with a bow, but with a sling they probably won't be able to even get a shot off, and if they do it's probably going entirely the wrong direction
No, slings are infamously difficult to git gud at, the big benefits were you could use any old rock on the ground as ammo, so you could have entire blocks of soldiers turn into rock artillery without having to carry around bows and arrows.
Though if you did manage to git gud you were one scary motherfricker, there's a reason the Balearic slingers were feared
Wrong. Slingers always took ammo with them and sling ammo was made of expensive metals like lead.
Even very rocky terrain is not going to have enough ammo for an army of slingers, and that's before accounting for the fact that you can't use "any old rock."
Almost any stone can be pressed into service as a sub optimal slingstone in an emergency, and many millions of stones and even clay balls were used by slingers throughout European history.
Almost any stone can be pressed into service as a sub optimal slingstone in an emergency, and many millions of stones and even clay balls were used by slingers throughout European history.
there's a middle ground. slingers had their own ammo they'd collect and reuse, but they wouldn't want to waste it on hitting a mass formation.
It's not about easier to use or harder to use, slings are just cheap and easy to make. Bows aren't that much harder than making a sling but you also have to make arrows as well.
At least for peasants, kids would learn sling because they can scare off wolves with it, so any shepherd boy would know it.
Slings are definitely harder for anyone who didn't learn it their entire childhood though, a bow takes about ten minutes to learn, a few days to git gud.
You can kind of self-learn a bow, self-learning a sling is pretty hard, I never managed it and I can put an arrow on target most of the time without formal instruction.
Crossbow is an hour for basic proficency.
Basic proficency for the sake of argument is load it and be able to hit the side of a small shed from 25 ft away without hurting youself.
We arent concerned about power, speed, accuracy or anything like that. That shit takes years of practice to refine regardless of weapon choice.
It would take 1-2 days with a bow.
Sling would be about a week before you stopped being a danger to yourself or others. Maybe a month to actually hit that target when you meant to. Still people back then had that time. Dudes gotta stand in a field for months with nothing to do.
It is a lot harder to use than a crossbow and about as hard or even harder to use than a bow. A huge part of why it's so difficult is that aiming it is really fricking hard. It's point and shoot, can't brace it, sometimes the sling on staff sling releases to late, etc. If you want a game that simulates it well, play GURPS.
Both require training to get fully competent with, but as far as just picking a weapon up and doing okay with it, both bows and crossbows have some basic technical know how to even get a projectile in the air, whereas the sling is relatively trivial (though still difficult to do with any accuracy). Regardless, I'm 90% sure that wziards of the coast were thinking more of a slingshot type thing instead of what would have been used by a proper Balearic slinger when categorizing it.
[Obligatory shilling for ad astra]
Objectively, no. Slings require years of training to reach a good level of proficiency with at a high projectile weight, and they also do damage on par with Warbows, so WOTC was just smoking crack, but problems are inevitable with any game of that scale.
It's wierd I'm pretty sure they describe a traditional sling, but on the other hand the morons who make dragonlance think that slings and slingshots are the same.
Wrong. Slings are considerably easier to use than bows because most kids would have grown up using them. It’s a skill almost every boy/man would have from their youth.
Archery takes a lot more time and skill and typically is not a common skill.
>It's not hard to use if you've been doing it for fifteen years every day
lol
It's really incredible you managed to write something so goddamn stupid, it stands out from the crowd of total dumbfrick posts.
Claim your crown king.
it is an upgrade to throwing rocks. if you play lacrosse you would know that a rock thrown form a long pole will go up to 120mph easily.
>I never understood why they were simple weapons.
This comes from two things:
1: Ammunition is everywhere and requires little to no manufacturing. A good bow requires more advanced technical understanding both to make and to operate, and on the manufacturing part the crossbow is even more complicated.
2: Use in mass volleys by groups of (sometimes poorly trained militia) infantry either as harassment of enemy formations on the move or before an assault, neither which requires more than getting the projectile to go in the direction of enemy formation.
For some reason the use of other highly trained sling troops is less remembered and discussed.
Odds are someone will be able to get at least close to the target the first few shots with a bow, but with a sling they probably won't be able to even get a shot off, and if they do it's probably going entirely the wrong direction
No, slings are infamously difficult to git gud at, the big benefits were you could use any old rock on the ground as ammo, so you could have entire blocks of soldiers turn into rock artillery without having to carry around bows and arrows.
Though if you did manage to git gud you were one scary motherfricker, there's a reason the Balearic slingers were feared
Wrong. Slingers always took ammo with them and sling ammo was made of expensive metals like lead.
Even very rocky terrain is not going to have enough ammo for an army of slingers, and that's before accounting for the fact that you can't use "any old rock."
Almost any stone can be pressed into service as a sub optimal slingstone in an emergency, and many millions of stones and even clay balls were used by slingers throughout European history.
there's a middle ground. slingers had their own ammo they'd collect and reuse, but they wouldn't want to waste it on hitting a mass formation.
ausgay here, I'm fricking moronic I try to create these out of rope all the time and frick it up
It's not about easier to use or harder to use, slings are just cheap and easy to make. Bows aren't that much harder than making a sling but you also have to make arrows as well.
At least for peasants, kids would learn sling because they can scare off wolves with it, so any shepherd boy would know it.
Slings are definitely harder for anyone who didn't learn it their entire childhood though, a bow takes about ten minutes to learn, a few days to git gud.
You can kind of self-learn a bow, self-learning a sling is pretty hard, I never managed it and I can put an arrow on target most of the time without formal instruction.
bow takes years to master
any weapon with variable initial speed and pronounced ballistic curve is hard to master
but yeah bow is still way easier than sling
crossbow on the other hand is kinda easy to learn
>I can put an arrow on target most of the time without formal instruction.
But how far away can you make hits with the bow?
That hobbit's gonna get it
Get what anon.
Mah dick.
(Verification not required.)
They aren't. Your le heckin' D&D and big tiddy drow gfs lied to you.
Crossbow is an hour for basic proficency.
Basic proficency for the sake of argument is load it and be able to hit the side of a small shed from 25 ft away without hurting youself.
We arent concerned about power, speed, accuracy or anything like that. That shit takes years of practice to refine regardless of weapon choice.
It would take 1-2 days with a bow.
Sling would be about a week before you stopped being a danger to yourself or others. Maybe a month to actually hit that target when you meant to. Still people back then had that time. Dudes gotta stand in a field for months with nothing to do.
It is a lot harder to use than a crossbow and about as hard or even harder to use than a bow. A huge part of why it's so difficult is that aiming it is really fricking hard. It's point and shoot, can't brace it, sometimes the sling on staff sling releases to late, etc. If you want a game that simulates it well, play GURPS.
It's not point and shoot*
Actually, once you've gotten the crossbow spanned it's basically point and shoot. You still need to aim but you can correct off previous shots.
They are simple to make.
>easier
they were actually way harder to use
bump
Man who throws a purple rock.