| Slingers | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Race | Halflings | |
| Req. Town Buildings | Armory | |
| Construction Cost |
 100 | |
| Upkeep Cost |
 2 1 | |
| ||
| # of figures |
 8 | |
| Moves |
 1 | |
| Melee Attack per figure |
 1 | |
| Ranged Attack per figure |
 2 | |
| Defense per figure |
 2 | |
| Resistance |
 6 | |
| Hit Points per figure |
 1 | |
| ||
 Lucky | ||
Slingers are a type of Normal Unit that can be recruited in Halfling Towns containing at least an Armory. This unit is unique to Halflings, and is the signature unit of this Race. Slingers have deceptively low statistics, belying their potential to be one of the best Ranged Attack units in the game. While not very powerful initially, their very high 
figure count and 
Lucky ability scale up every improvement they receive to their Attack Strength – be that from 
Experience, enhanced quality equipment, or Unit Enchantments.
Slingers have a Construction Cost of 100, and require an Upkeep Cost of 2 and 1 to maintain. Failure to pay these costs will result in the unit being disbanded automatically.
Unit Properties[]
Physical Description[]
Slingers are a group of short humanoids, no more than a few feet in height. They are dressed in pink and red tunics, and have no need to wear shoes thanks to their rugged, furry feet. Slingers carry leather straps which they wrap around small pebbles. These are then spun around the Slingers' heads, and released at just the right moment to hurl the pebbles at armor-piercing speeds towards the enemy. Slingers also carry short swords for situations where hand-to-hand combat is unavoidable.
Slingers are a Multi-Figure unit, containing up to 8 soldiers.
Attack Properties[]
Slingers are primarily a Ranged Missile Attack unit. Unfortunately however, likely because they hurl small stones with their slings, the game developers decided to rather confusingly represent the Slingers' Ranged Attack Strength with rock instead of 
bow icons, even though these are otherwise only used for Ranged Boulder Attacks. Yet, Slingers do not use Ranged Boulder mechanics. For all intents and purposes, their Ranged Attacks are considered to be Ranged Missile Attacks.
In close combat, Slingers are equivalent to Halfling Spearmen. They have a Melee Attack Strength of 1 which, even with the Lucky ability, has an average "raw" 
damage output of just 0.4 – or rather, there is only a 40% chance for each Slinger to inflict any damage on the opponent, which may then possibly be negated by a Defense Roll. As a result, they are rather unlikely to get through any armor at all. Slingers do get better with Experience though, both in strength and accuracy. At the 
Elite level, the maximum normally attainable, their hand-to-hand attacks will do nearly 4 times this much – 1.5 points of "raw" damage, on average, per Slinger.
As noted above though, Slingers are primarily a Ranged Attack unit. They can use a Ranged Missile Attack six times per battle, and start out with a Ranged Attack Strength of 2. Because of the Lucky trait, this yields an average "raw" damage output of 0.8 per Slinger. This is not very impressive, especially after taking into consideration that they suffer a penalty of 
-10% for every 3 tiles that their projectiles have to travel to reach the enemy. As a result, Slingers will initially find it difficult to get through any armor at all, and are only really threatening to low tier units from close range.
However, Slingers are the highest figure count Ranged Attack unit in the game. Combined with their Lucky ability, this means that they get the highest possible benefits from attribute enhancements, including spells, equipment, and even Experience. At the Elite level, each Slinger's average "raw" damage output is 4 × 50% = 2 instead if the target is 3 tiles away or less – over twice the initial value even without any other modifiers.
Defensive Properties[]
Slingers wear light armor, and possess a Defense score of 2. They can deflect about 0.8 points from Conventional Damage attacks on average, which is barely enough to avoid even the weakest attacks. As with most common foot soldiers, each Slinger also has only 1 Hit Point. In other words, every point of Damage inflicted on this unit will kill off one of its figures. Their Resistance score is relatively high though. Their racial bonus, coupled with the Lucky trait, yield a total of 7 in combat, giving Slingers a decent chance to avoid Unit Curses and other ill effects. All three of these statistics also improve with Experience.
Other Properties[]
Slingers move at a slow 1, and can only traverse land tiles. The unit has no special movement properties.
Basic Strategy[]
Slingers are the Halflings' signature unit, and their only racial one. They can be considered a step up from Halfling Bowmen, with higher Attack Strength, better Armor, and more figures per unit – although they also take longer to train and cost an extra Gold in Upkeep Cost. While Slingers are not very strong initially, their combination of having 8 figures along with the Lucky ability gives them the potential to become one of the best Ranged Attack units. This is because they get more benefit from enhancement effects that increase Ranged Attack Strength or chance To Hit than any other unit in the game, and Ranged Missile Attacks are coincidentally also the easiest Ranged Attack Type to improve.
Because of this, Slingers perform best when supported by 
Life or 
Chaos magic, as these two Realms offer the most enhancements for their attacks. In particular, Lionheart and Flame Blade can provide a massive increase to the Slingers' damage output, while Eldritch Weapon allows their bullets to punch through heavier armor. Their attacks also scale very well with Experience. Therefore Heroism, Altar of Battle, Crusade, the Warlord Retort, and 
Armsmaster Heroes can all be immensely helpful for Slingers. For the same reason though, Chaos Channels is typically not worth casting on freshly recruited Slingers despite the fact that both of its available effects are quite useful for them, as doing so prevents the unit from gaining any more Experience in battle.
While not particularly expensive, the Armory required to equip Slingers has no economical benefit, which normally gives it a low building priority in Cities that are not intended to be recruitment centers. It does enable the construction of a Fighters' Guild, but again, that Town Building is not useful either unless units are being produced. As a result, even though Slingers can be thought of as the "ultimate" unit of this Race, it is often better to centralize their training instead of enabling them in every Town – at least in the earlier stages of the game, when the additional drain on resources can make a big difference.
This is even more true when considering the impact of weapon quality on this unit. 
Mithril or 
Adamantium equipment is very desirable for Slingers, and is typically the main reason to settle new recruitment Towns, as Mithril- and Adamantium Ores are quite scarce, and are rather unlikely to be present near the player's starting City – the latter doesn't even normally appear on Arcanus at all. However, to utilize these Terrain Specials, an Alchemists' Guild must also be built – along with the Library and Sages' Guild required to do so –, meaning that there is an even bigger overhead before the first Slingers can be produced in the Town. Granted, these structures do also contribute other resources, but may otherwise still not be worth building early in a unit production City for only 
Magical Weapons.
Ability Overview[]
Ranged Attack x6[]
- This unit may use a Ranged Missile Attack instead of a Melee Attack up to 6 times in each battle. Once the unit's ammo is expended, it must resort to Melee Attacks.
Lucky[]
- During combat, this unit receives a +10% To Hit bonus, improving the chance for each die of its Attack Rolls to cause a point of "raw" damage.
- During combat, this unit receives a +10% To Block bonus, improving the chance for each die of its Defense Rolls to block a point of Conventional Damage.
- During combat, the Resistance of this unit is improved by +1, making it easier to avoid the effects of Unit Curses and Special Damage attacks.
- Furthermore, any Melee- or Counter Attacks against this unit suffer a penalty of -10% To Hit, although this effect is seemingly unintended, and is removed in the unofficial patches.
Experience Table[]
The following table illustrates how Slingers improve with Experience. Any properties that are not listed here are not affected by Experience in any way.
| Level Icon | Level Name | EP | Melee | Ranged | To Hit | Defense | Resist | Hits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Recruit | 0 - 19
|
1
|
2
|
40%
|
2
|
6
|
1
|
|
Regular | 20 - 59
|
2
|
3
|
40%
|
2
|
7
|
1
|
|
Veteran | 60 - 119
|
2
|
3
|
40%
|
3
|
8
|
1
|
|
Elite | 120
|
3
|
4
|
50%
|
3
|
9
|
2
|
|
Ultra-Elite | 120 *
|
3
|
4
|
60%
|
4
|
10
|
2
|
|
Champion | 120 **
|
4
|
5
|
70%
|
4
|
11
|
3
|
* To achieve this level, either the Warlord Retort or the Crusade spell must be in play.
** To achieve this level, both Warlord and Crusade must be in play simultaneously.
Average Damage Output[]
The table below details the average amount of "raw" damage that each Figure in a Slingers unit will deliver with each type of attack, based on 
Experience Level. It can be used in comparison to the target's Defense rating to approximate the chance of hurting that target.
| Select weapons: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
* This column assumes a Ranged Missile Attack at a distance of 1-2 tiles from the target. Beyond this distance, To Hit penalties apply that can severely reduce Damage output.
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">Acquisition[]
Slingers may be recruited in any Halfling Town that has an Armory already built. The Construction Cost of this unit is 100. Slingers may also appear as Mercenaries, provided that the player has a presence on Arcanus. In this case, they cost between 200 to 300 to hire per unit, based on their Experience – or half that much for Charismatic Wizards.