Slinger (Age of Empires II)

“Inca unique unit. Ranged unit with attack bonus vs. infantry.”

—Age of Empires II description

The Slinger is the second unique unit of the Incas in Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten, the first being the Kamayuk. It can be trained at the Archery Range once the Castle Age is reached. It is an anti-infantry ranged unit.

Unlike most unique units, Slingers do not have an Elite version.

Tactics Edit

Slingers have an attack bonus of +10 against infantry. That makes them powerful early anti-infantry units, as they can defeat most infantry that comes close enough. They are also one of the best archers to deal even against Huskarls. However, Huskarls can be a devastating threat for Slingers in the close range due to their attack bonus against archers. Another potential risk is the Samurai, provided they can close in, as they have a huge attack bonus against unique units combined with an already quick and massive attack.

In some ways they behave similarly to the Hand Cannoneer, but they are cheaper, available from the Castle Age, and fire more accurately as they are affected by Ballistics and Thumb Ring. When fully upgraded with Bracer, they have more range than their gunpowder counterpart, but still significantly less attack (although they do benefit from Chemistry). Like Skirmishers, they have a minimum range, but that does not present a real problem since it can be removed by researching Andean Sling.

Slingers are one of the three core units of any well-organized Inca army, along with Kamayuks and Eagle Warriors. Every one of the three units fulfills an important role: the Kamayuk counters cavalry, the Eagle Warrior takes on enemy archers, Monks, and siege weapons, and the Slinger counters the eagle-threatening infantry. Together, they have an answer to virtually any threat, the only real exception being Hand Cannoneers and Cataphracts, which are still somewhat weak to the Slingers.

Further statistics Edit

As Slingers are unique to the Incas, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, Villagers
Weak vs.	Skirmishers, Scorpions, Mangonels, Huskarls, cavalry, Genitours, Rattan Archers
Upgrades
Attack	Fletching (+1)  Bodkin Arrow (+1)  Bracer (+1)  Chemistry (+1)
Range	Fletching (+1)  Bodkin Arrow (+1)  Bracer (+1)  Andean Sling (eliminates the minimum range)
Accuracy	Thumb Ring (increases accuracy to 100%)  Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Armor	Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1)  Leather Archer Armor (+1/+1)  Ring Archer Armor (+1/+2)  Couriers (+1/+2, since The African Kingdoms)
Speed	Couriers (+10%, only in The Forgotten)
Conversion defense	Faith  Heresy
Creation speed	Conscription (+33%)