a question on elephant survivability...

ok so 'im playing the Bactrian campaign and am bulding up an army for an attack against Taksashila where i'll have to face 2 units of Indian elephants...

My question is this... i've tested Indian guild infantry,indian archers and spearmen on custom battles so i know what to expect... elephants though are not avalaible in the custom battle roster...

the only time i've encountered elephants on EB so far was on the second turn of a Makedonia campaign when that Epeiros army stormed Pella... i noticed that a lot of people here keep mentioning how skirmishers can easily kill elephants but frankly that was not my personal experience... all my makedonian skirmishers got to do was throw a voley of javelins against the grey monstrosities then they were chased and stomped around the roads of Pella...

so my question is this: how many units of skirmishers do i have to recruit to make sure those Indian elephants will go down this time??? (i use eastern skirmishers btw due to lower recruitment/upkeep costs ...or do you think i should assign peltasts to this role of elephant hunting???)

You'll be fine ... Keep some Medium Phalanxes faced towards the elephants and have the skirmishers remain behind them... the Javelins will kill most of the elephants, and the phalanxes will finish the job. One note, you should turn off "fire at will" for the skirmishers and direct them manually to use their weapons exclusively on the elephants. Also, the tactic of Phalanx/skirmisher combo is most useful in a city where the phalanx cannot be flanked as it slowly advances up the streets, and it may not be effective in a field battle against elephants. Finally, if you have archers, have them fire flaming arrows at the elephants as that can be effective in causing them to panic and flee into their own forces, causing devastating damage - or the arrows will kill the beasts directly. Use at least four skirmisher units, and at least that many Medium phalanxes - I do not recommend using the levy phalanxes at all against elephants, as they can be destroyed completely by a coherent frontal charge.

Well my tipp would be to use skirmisher cavalry against Elephants (especially in India).

Besiege the settlememnt until the enemy sally forth (this will get there numbers down alot). Then try to isolate the monsters after there out of the range of the citys towers, send out two units of skirmisher cavalry (arachosian cavalry is a good choice) attack a unit of Elephants from the two sides - the mosnters will be helples since the aren't fast enough to catch the horse and they have too few archers to do any real damage. Simply see the javelins pierce the skin of the Elephants and watch them go down.... (tested in a Saka camapign and have since never seen a cheaper way to get rid of elephanst).

Good elephant hunting!

Once the elephants start to rout, whatever you do, don't chase them with elite cavalry. The results I experienced in a custom battle were even worse than I've ever seen. These 5-6 elephants might have killed close to 50 or 60 elite-catas (if not way more).

If you plan on fighting the elephants in the field (rather than a city) take some skirmisher cavalry. They can get close to the elephants and lob javelins before the elephants reach your main line.

Skirmishers in all my experience, will rout/make the elephants run amok in at least four volleys. I suggest you try Peltastai, or even the Thrakian variants, and see how much better then levies they do. Less javelins, but stronger.

I don't think he can get Thrakians in Baktra.......

Elephants should be in the roster for several of the Eastern factions. You do know how to change from Single Player to Multiplayer, right?


Open up Start Menu, the folder "Europa Barbarorum" and play multiplayer to get the proper faction roster.

thank you all, some very useful tips... i think i'll go for the mounted skirmishers ... they're quite expensive but i bet they'll make elephant-killing a seek and destroy operation... skirmishers behind pikes sound like a plan but if the AI decides to flank my pinned down phallanxes with his guild slayers i'm done for !!! only problem is my somatophylakes will have to kill of the taxillan agema first to secure my mounted skirmishers... sounds quite complicated already, no???

and btw i certainly intend to starve them out and make them come out of their walls... i have nothing that could stand a chance of routing or killing guild warriors on a wall fight!!! this is gonna be close

and btw i never realised i could access a faction's full roster in "multiplayer"!!! Thanx i'm gone off to some practice!!!

Indeed, you will be just fine don't worry. Use around 2 javelineers. A couple of volleys usually means the elephantes will start falling. Also, use HunGeneral's advice and deploy skirmisher cavalry against them. They are trully very effective.

Maion

do slingers do anything at all?

Sadly, I never kill an elephant with slings... Hippakontistai and other javelin cav is enough.... Daha skirmisher cavalry comes in handy against those pesky indian elephant generals...

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Originally Posted by Cute Wolf

Sadly, I never kill an elephant with slings... Hippakontistai and other javelin cav is enough.... Daha skirmisher cavalry comes in handy against those pesky indian elephant generals...

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hmm, i wouldnt call them pesky. Indian elephant generals are the reason I have only once tried to invade India. Those guys are tanks.

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Originally Posted by Celtic_Punk

do slingers do anything at all?

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Niet, not much. You need lots of patience for that to actually work.

Maion

The best option for dealing with them has already been posted. Skirmisher cav and Peltastai combo, with decent cav and fast spearmen to keep Taxilan Agema cav busy. The Dahae sk. cav. are a bit cheaper than the Arachosians, but the Ara. have a bit better survivability.

Flaming missiles makes them run amok after about 4 volleys, sligners are basicly useless against elephants.