The Staff Sling

I have long been fascinated by this odd weapon. The Fustibola, or Staff Sling, saw use from at least as early as the 4th Century A.D. up to the Renaissance and beyond. It is cheap to manufacture and, apparently, easy to learn. It could hurls stones, lead missiles, even clay pots filled with incendiaries or quicklime. If you are having trouble imagining what I mean by a staff sling, we are talking about a length of cord with a pouch for the missile, attached to a pole which is swung two-handed. One of the ends of the cord looses from the end of the pole and allows the missile to be flung at speed a considerable distance. Essentially, the staff slinger is a miniature, one-manpower trebuchet.

In a lot of games, slings get short shrift; staff slings, perhaps moreso. In all the gaming I have ever done [30+ years] the only people I ever knew to take up sling were D&D classes that were forced into it by restricted missile weapon choices [Druids, etc]. And, lets face it, in D&D, slings sucked compared to archery. Add to that the sexiness of the longbow, or the nomad horsebow, and you have a double whammy.

So this morning, I came across an article on Encased in Steel [Subtitled 'The Weekly Blog for Historic Arts'] detailing their experimentation with the, in my humble opinion, awesome staff sling. Rather than recap their info, I will let you read the article. They have some hands-on experience, both in practice and in instruction.

http://historical-academy.co.uk/blog/2013/05/24/the-mighty-staff-sling/

Cool, right?

If you poked around their site at all, you may have noticed that they also have instructions for making one:

http://historical-academy.co.uk/blog/2013/07/19/how-to-make-a-fustibola-staff-sling/

This appears to be a light staff sling, for throwing tennis balls, etc. Military versions would have used stronger wood, cord and pouch materials for durability, yet the whole could not have been terribly expensive to produce. Nor would it be now. The length of the handle may have varied significantly according to time and geography. Pictorial representations show staffs as short as 3 feet and other about as long as the man wielding it, some straight, other curved, as well as a couple of different attachment and release mechanisms, all of which are covered pretty well in the first article on Encased in Steel.

The articles have inspired me to make one, since I have a handy hickory axe-handle sitting around right now waiting for an axehead. I will need to dig up some cord and make a pouch; and find a place to play with it. but I am interested to see how it does, and how quickly I can pick up on the skill of its use.

Now the obligatory warning: If you are also moved to make, and use, a fustibola, do so with care. Don't throw stones at anybody, leave the local dogs alone. These things are not toys. They were, and are, weapons of war. Even if you throw tennis balls with one, respect the rest of the world. I am going to try making one at the first opportunity and see what I find out. I will let you know what I find, and how it can inform gaming.

On that note: As I was looking around the net, I cam across this page, for GURPS, that talks about the physics of the Sling. It posits some ways to represent this for that game system,but also includes some pics of slings and staff slings in use. It is worth a look.

http://gamingballistic.blogspot.ca/2013/07/slings-and-arrows.html

Later.