Quote:
Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker
Slings were just a non-magical shards spell. A rain of stones whose affects were less about damage and more about the raining down and minor wounds on morale. I handt considered the "hitting yourself on the head" thing. Yes slings might have fallen out of favor with the use of tight formations. The same timing and reasoning as quarterstaffs giving way to pikes, swinging swords giving way to stabbing ones, etc.
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I'm sorry to say, but I disagree with every point you make here.
Sling bullets were deadly. It's not throwing a rock at someone, but shooting it with enough force to break bones, or to go through your skin into your stomach. I never learned to aim properly, but it isn't hard to fling a stone with enough force to hear it ricochet even four or five times when thrown into a forest. You can't see it, of course, but the thunk-thunk-thunk sound it makes when it hits tree-trunks is quite satisfactory, and I saw small branches falling from where the stone flew. Small in this case being about the thickness of my thumb.
As for quarterstaves being replaced by pikes, well, quarterstaves were not weapons of war. They weren't meant to be, either. Pikes were designed to be used in formations, quarterstaves were not. Neither could be used to replace the other. Not to mention the size difference; short staff was half the length of a pike, or about two-and-half to three meters. There was also a long staff, but I don't think it's called quarterstaff.
Finally, "swinging swords giving way to stabbing" having "the same timing" as slings giving way to shortbows just isn't accurate to my knowledge. I was talking about slings being used in Biblical and in Roman times, and Romans used short thrusting swords but still relied on slingers. Balearic islanders were known as skilled slingers and were often recruited as mercenaries, including in Hannibal's campaign against Rome.