Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward
I've already posted the results of Thom Richardson's Egyptian sling the last time this subject came up.
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Indeed.
Of course, there are other researchers achieving velocities of at least 50% and sometimes 60% higher than he is, even with the same sling and same ammunition. Those are not even master slingers, but simply young people in decent condition who train for several weeks. See Eric T. Skov, Experimentation in Sling Weaponry.
Richardson himself admits that his ranges are below what most other tests yield and acknowledges that he might be using inferior technique.
So I'd be inclined to believe that his results are not representative of the sling as a weapon of war, even if the sling he used may have been used in warfare. It is, of course, far safer and more comfortable for a novice to avoid full-power launches in favour of more leisurely throws.
This also matches results that people from cultures that use the sling as a toy and shepherding tool achieve. If they are not specificallly instructed otherwise, they'll use a sling, ammunition and technique which are optimised for accuracy at short ranges and which do not reach very far. That's good for scaring wolves, killing small game and anything else these cultures would actually use the sling for.
However, just like most warbows are not designed or used in the same way as toy bows or even bows for hunting small game, this does not tell us much about the use of war slings. I'd expect them to at least match the velocity achieved by Skov and probably exceed it. Indeed, the ranges confirmed by the small fraternity of enthusiastic slingers indicate that much higher velocities must be achievable with training. If you can launch a 40-50g
stone more than 450m, an equally skilled user with a lead glans can achieve
significantly more impressive velocities and ranges than Richardson. There's no way to come close to that range with an initial velocity around 30m/s, not unless you suspend gravity and air resistance.
Unfortunately, no one among the very small fraternity of skilled slingers has as yet performed sufficiently exhaustive testing with slings designed to kill humans at long ranges, probably because that's not a competative sport. Some of the best slingers for achieving long casts are competing in an event where only stones may be used, for example. They'd need to get used to a new type of sling and a new shape of projectile to demonstrate the range and velocities achivable with replicas of the archeological lead glandes. Not to mention that lead glandes, unlike stones, are not easily visible in flight.
As a result, we lack reliable velocity data for people who actually can sling with anything approaching the power to be useful on a battlefield. Extrapolating from the distance of world records, does, however, indicate that velocities up to 90m/s may be achievable. As with bows, the ST of the user is important more for how heavy a projectile can be launched to those speeds than for determining the velocity itself. With slings, however, that's not determined primarily by material properties and design principles (although these are important), they are skill dependant. That argues that untrained use of the Sling ought to suffer damage penalties and that Perks to improve performance, much like Strongbow, ought to be available.
Aside from other considerations, it seems to me that 28g-40g glandes are probably more economical than effective, with heavier glandes being much more likely to wound and kill humans and larger animals. A 36g glans can be lethal, yes, but a more important consideration is that you can obtain more of them for the same amount of lead than you can make of more lethal 62g or 100-120g ones.
The reason we find a lot of those small glandes is that in most historical warfare, something that did 1d(0.5) cr was a scary enough weapon and it was better to put more of those in the air than try for 1d+2 cr at the cost of spending x4 as much and having to carry x4 as heavy ammunition. Adventurers in GURPS may feel differently.