Are slingers useful for anything but boosting archery and upgrading to archer

[criZp]

With their attack range equal to melee range, and practically no defense, they seem like you only use them for faster archers. Perhaps you can use them to finish off one or two dudes when there's no chance of a counterattack, but that's that.

I think they should be given 2 range, to at least have some use on their own. I wouldn't really mind if they were removed either.

 

[anagain]

They're cheap and you can build them if a barb scout gets near your territory and you are under-manned. They won't die to a scout.

Other than that and boosting archery.....?

...No.

 

[cjm81499]

I've only played one game so far, but I liked them. I remember killing a few barbarians with a certain slinger unit. I named them "Teddy's Sharpshooters" (as I was America) and had them almost the whole game, upgrading them when available of course.

Anyway I thought they were good. Not sure about stats though, and maybe it's cause I got Teddy's combat bonus on home continent, but my slingers served me well.

 

[smartcanuck1988]

I like them, in combo with warriors. But I think their use greatly depends on the geography. On attack it's important to move them so they get the first shot, and on defence they are very useful when they cannot be reached in one turn (e.g. two tiles away from river), so units that end their turn next to them will be weakened before you finish them off with your other melee units. So I guess I'm using them the opposite way you're thinking!

 

[anagain]

It will depend where you park them, and civ bonuses will improve them. If a slinger is parked on a hill or in a forest then they're going to perform better.

I think Firaxis could even consider giving them a buff to allow them similar movement to a scout, i.e. ignores forest penalties. It would make them a lot more useful early game. At least you could use them to chase down runners.

 

[redwings1340]

They don't last long before you upgrade to archers, but slingers themselves can help against super early barbarian camps. It also helps to have ranged units before archers, I mean, you say 'upgrade to archers' like its a bad thing, but if you couldn't produce slingers first, you'd have nothing to upgrade once you unlocked archery.

Basically, it's a cheap super early game unit that has its purpose, and doesn't need to have one beyond that.

 

[criZp]

I like them, in combo with warriors. But I think their use greatly depends on the geography. On attack it's important to move them so they get the first shot, and on defence they are very useful when they cannot be reached in one turn (e.g. two tiles away from river), so units that end their turn next to them will be weakened before you finish them off with your other melee units. So I guess I'm using them the opposite way you're thinking!

If they are used on defense you might as well use fortified warriors and let the enemy attack to weaken them that way

 

[pietro1990]

put them next to a river a barbarian who want to approuc you can't atack across a river because he doenst have enough movement wich results in you hitting him then the barb atacks you and loses health at counter atack( you olso) and then you can kill barb

how to use slingers put them in rough terain so warriors can't atack you because they need 2 movement to atack you so they stop right next to. You can hit them twice at youre turn and at counter atack.

 

[criZp]

They don't last long before you upgrade to archers, but slingers themselves can help against super early barbarian camps. It also helps to have ranged units before archers, I mean, you say 'upgrade to archers' like its a bad thing, but if you couldn't produce slingers first, you'd have nothing to upgrade once you unlocked archery.

Basically, it's a cheap super early game unit that has its purpose, and doesn't need to have one beyond that.

You also don't have anything to upgrade into spearmen or horsemen or galleys once you unlock that stuff, it's not any problem really

 

[Ryika]

I find that just fortifying Melee Units does the job a lot better than having squishy slingers that need to retreat whenever they're being approached by more than one unit. Whatever defensive situation I can think of, Warriors do it better, aside from sitting in a city of course. That's partly due to bad AI (Barbs will happily attack over river, and units fortified in defensive terrain), but it works very well.

Slingers have some theoretical use; 3 slingers can move into range of an enemy and kill them without taking any damage, and that's where they shine, but that situation just doesn't happen. They're really just weak units that you have to put up with to upgrade them into archers which then allow you to go berserk.

 

[Browd]

I think building one slinger for capital defense can be useful -- helps defend the city and you can get the Archery eureka by dealing the death blow to a barb unit. Assuming barbs are still an issue, or if I'm dealing with an early DOW (or, more frequently, a joint war DOW from two civs), I'll usually pump out two more slingers as I'm researching Archery -- less for current military use (they are pretty squishy) but to be in a position to instantly upgrade 3 slingers when Archery finishes. 90 gold and I've got 3 Archers (which are far more powerful, resilient and useful than slingers), plus the eureka for Machinery. I've found 3 Archers and a couple of melee more than sufficient to hold off any civ or barb horde.

 

[Tomice]

I think they should get 2 range.
- Slings were known for their range, they surely rivaled (early) bows in this regard
- They are weird due to their uniqueness among land units, it doesn't make sense for such a temporary starter unit to require unique tactics
- It would give us other tactical options than rushing archery (which is the way to go right now in early warfare)

 

[Sascha77]

I'm kinda split on the slingers. Right now, I do build them for the reasons already stated (cheap, able to boost archery and cheaply upgradable to archer). I was never a fan of 1-tile ranged units (Gatling Gun, MG) for offense in Civ V and with the new movement system they seem even less useful in Civ VI. Especially since their melee-strength is so low that they can't take more than one attack.

Upping their range wouldn't be my first choice, since I do think they have to be vastly inferior to archers to justify their existence and to motivate the player to research archery. A tech, I might add, that - weirdly - leads to nothing, when I'm pretty sure that without archery, mankind wouldn't have eventually mastered stuff like ballistics.

S.

 

[glaivemaster]

I generally build one or two slingers precisely so that I can get the Eureka and have Archers online much earlier than I otherwise would. Even if that is their only use, I have no problem with that.

That said, they do add a little bit that warriors can't. Remember that Slingers can chase a unit that has run into rough terrain (notably Barb scouts) and attack it in the same turn, unlike a warrior who doesn't have the movement to do so. They add a little variety to your early game army, and getting Archers with promotions as soon as the tech unlocks is really strong.

 

[Vladesch]

Great to have one in your capital at the start of the game. A warrior has to spend too many turns resting to regain health when you have 3 barbarians next to your city.

 

[Frank327]

Well, slingers are cheaper than warriors. They're supposed to be the midpoint between a scout and a warrior in terms of combat ability. I build slingers knowing full well they can't win combat 1v1 and I'm mostly building them to get early and cheap archers.

 

[joncnunn]

I like of the unit as a slightly cheaper way to build Archers available on turn 1.
As to their use in combat: confined to fighting barbarians; in particular those salutations where a barb scout has retreated onto tough terrain so a melee unit couldn't attack it (due to needing full movement points to enter the tile) while the Slinger still can.

Yes, upgrade all you've built to Archers as soon as practical after discovery of Archery.

 

[Zenstrive]

I like them as deterrent for barbs unit. One get closer to your city? Slink them as you wait for your warriors and scouts to return from their recon mission

 

[Big J Money]

I like of the unit as a slightly cheaper way to build Archers available on turn 1.

At first I thought they had too short of a lifespan 'to matter', but now I feel this way too. They don't add a lot to the game but they're nice to have.

I would also be interested to see what the Aztecs could do with an early rush of Eagle Warriors and Slingers.

 

[Stalker0]

I do find them good for defense early on if I need them, and they upgrade very cheaply into archers. I think they serve their purpose just fine.