omg that´s taxing...

They're very cheap. You can't expect that much out of them unless you have them in great numbers. I'll watch the replay when I get home.

The problem is also that Emissaries can easily kill any number of Slings, while Slings are helpless against them. So if you enter the artillery stage with Slings they'll quickly become paperweights.

DDUUUUUUDDDEE!

Are you kidding me? So first thing is you're fighting on 2 fronts so I was like I get it if you don't do that well. That move VS mushroom's spiders? Take the redbacks with ronins and swing by with glaives to raid recluse? Oh yah that's what I'm talkin' about.

For the sling thing, at least in this game, I don't think the problem was sling vs shields. You were tearing the shields down so much they could never walk forward. But the shields were assisted by 7 phantoms and you were alone holding the south front. Remove the phantoms from that equasion and I think that in that game you're just taking center field by yourself. It was clearly the right counter as far as I can tell.

Not sure why you're thinking this game didn't go that well for you. It was pretty great from what I can tell. Yah your raiders didn't do much and died at the beginning, but you were busy fighting mushroom in the hills so that's fine. And about a third into the game you had a few low cost raids that dealt great damage.

Slings are perfect light artillery in a sense that they can reliably take out porc like lotuses and pickets without needing to invest 600+ metal into artillery and their DPS for cost is better than other artillery units. It is basically the best artillery unit against single static targets granted the range is enough and the slow speed of 49 won't get you killed.

However, they lack any form of AoE, have short range for artillery and slow projectile speed which means they lose against other artillery units and have trouble hitting any moving land units.

Sling is pretty similar to Impaler as static killer, but has more DPS per cost over range. Higher Alpha units also have easier time getting through shields, granted slings are faster at reducing the shield charge with their higher DPS per cost as long as they hit.

It is also good to note, that for single sling to make cost, you must 2 or more light porc units like lotus or picket. So if you are making 10+ slings, your opponent would need to invest at least that much in porc before slings can even reliably pay themselves back as they really don't perform well against anything else other than porc while general artillery units like Emissary aren't strictly limited to killing porc and other statistics.

Each time i see Emissary deployed in a a game it immediately proceeds to kill units.

Sling may be UP, but Emissary is insanely powerful compared to other non-strider artillery units.

If you are talking about what other artillery could kill a shieldball for the same cost, can you name even one? Merlin perhaps?

Sling: observed negative
Phantom: Maybe? It will take forever, of course
Racketeer: incapable of murder
Badger: doubtful
Impaler: will probably miss a Thug shield, and even if it drains the shield, it won't hit the units
Firewalker: splashes harmlessly against any shieldball with an Aspis. Splashes gently against shieldballs without.
Tremor: lives in the same fac as Emissary
Envoy: is a sea emissary
Merlin: probably can, but that's a bit of an investment
Shogun: Ditto

Am i forgetting anything? Cerberus and Bertha?

Lance is second best anti-unit artillery and could actually work.

Lobster doesn't do any damage on its own, so i don't think it's an option here.