Insane elephant kills and epic battle

Ill set the scene for you: Its about 5 years as the Carthaginians that the lusotainians were destroyed. Most of my veteran infantry are dead, but my calvary and archer/slingers are badass, all of them silver chevrons without retraining. Especially the unit of elephants which is reduced to 19 (3 silver chevrons). I have a mostly green infantry line. After I consolidate the last former luso settlements I move to take the rest of spain.

Somehow theres a army of rebels off by the mountains covering the last 3 rebel settlements (the top 3). This army is nasty, have no idea how it got there or where it came from. Its a perfectly balanced spanish army. Something you would see a player have. Silver chevrons everywhere. Heavy infantry, light calvary, heavy calvary, light infantry, javeeliners. A perfect army except no leader. Its 2100 vs 3100

I fight them in a clearing of the forest near the edge of the map. Flat terrain. They group up (seriosly, the best formation and pace the AI ever set) and march. As soon as my archer/slingers start pounding them, they break into a sprint, still keeping formation. They stop for a few seconds, and pound my front line infantry with javelins (The puno-libyan spearmen the carthaginians have). I have a solid line 5 ranks deep with 3 units in reserve. They mass attack it barbarian style and have calvary at the flanks. Pretty soon they start winning. They are only "warmed up".

I launch my calvary out and they charge home, the AI shrugs them off and doesnt even change from impetuos to eager morale. Except for the sacred band calvary (I can see why Hannibal had 2/3 of them left, they are tough) they do relatively nothing. The infantry line is failing. So I send my elephants. The elephants split up and rampage through the enemy battle line. They are like tanks, and send people flying into the air. I regroup them and send them into the largest concentration of heavy infantry and the enemy finally breaks.1 elephant falls. Not a slow break either like most of the time, the center line falls back but the flanks stay for a few more minutes. The elephants dont do much killing routing troops.

The final tally for the kills of the elephant unit:490 . No other unit passes 150. I had about 1000 casulaties, the enemy 1800.

I couldnt ask for a better AI army or a better AI strategy, they did the best iv ever seen with the best army iv ever seen. Was pretty damn epic.

Sounds like a very epic experience you had there, Mooks. Might be tempted to face this scripted army at one point, when I start conquering the West, that is:yes:

Nice narrative too, it'd surely make a hell of short-story AAR:thumbsup:

Maion

Elephants are AMAZING! Even in the historic battles, it just takes two or three to route an army!

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Originally Posted by Novellus

Elephants are AMAZING! Even in the historic battles, it just takes two or three to route an army!

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Emphasis on 'AN.'
:yes:

Here's my example of a good usage of Elephantes, from my epirote campaign.

Near Capua, a massive roman army comprised from roman, socii and gallic mercenaries tried to stop Helenos Aiakides from recreating his father's campaign. I positioned my phalanx in a block 10 lines deep, with the royal squadron on the right and greek allies on the left. The enemy came in their quincux formation, at walking speed, threw their javelins (with little effect against my phalanx block) and charged home. The phalanx was holding nicely, and the flanks sustained every cavalry charge of equites romanii, campainans, gauls and thessalian mercenaries they threw. After pinning flanking light troops with my illyrians on each flank, I sent the elephant unit through the enemy's right flanking force, and positioned them perpendicular to the enemy line. And I charged them home against the middle of the enemy's line, in an "enfilade fire" fashion. This is the result.

https://img443.imageshack.us/img443/...1717232km6.jpg

All of those troops (and hundreds more) were killed by elephants on that dreadful charge. They were pinned against my phalanxes, trying to break through, while I sent the elephants charging from one flank to the another, wreacking havock through the entire roman line. The mass rout began instantly.

See the casualty list for the unit of elephants in this pic:

https://img443.imageshack.us/img443/...1721378yg0.jpg

The enemy army was like 3200, of which 850 alone were killed by the eles. A full 1/4. So, if you see elephants among the enemy forces, try to neutralize them ASAP with your missile troops. If you haven't got missile troops in your army... be afraid. Be very afraid.

For that reason with the elephants is why whenever I play as epeiros I never get rid of the my elephants no matter the cost. I found out quikly that those lumbering beasts can be the battle winner.

...plus they're just way too cool and characterful to ditch. :yes: (Side note: if the theory posited here is correct, that unit the Epirotes start with would also be one seriously long-serving bunch...)

There also one of the hardest units to kill, for its too dangerous for skirmishers to get up close to them.

Thanks for the interesting link, Watchman. True veterans by any measure, indeed.

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Originally Posted by Methuselah

Thanks for the interesting link, Watchman. True veterans by any measure, indeed.

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Epic. :laugh4:

The AI on EB likes to fire at them. sacrificing whole skirmish units just to take them down. Before this battle the elephants iv tried to manage get destroyed every time by arrow/javelins. Then there was that one time the enemy recaptured the gate when my elephants were passing threw....I hope my soldiers were hungry after that battle.

K-raso. The difference between our stories is that in my story, my forces were on the brink of defeat, with little to no calvary left. The elephants completely won that battle for me.

I know right. I played as epeiros and was attacking a small makedonian army and they had three jav units. I used my elephant to charge there main line and suddenly all their skirmishers run in fornt of my elephants and start firing. I lost three elephants, but destroyed all three units.