I HATE ELEPHANTS!!!!!!1111!!!11!

[Alexandros Maximus]

I just sent an almost-full stack army from the recently-conquered city of Messana to stop Captain Adonibal from siegeing it.

He had ELEPHANTS!!!!!

I threw volley after volley of spears (from my leves and mercenary peltastai) at them, and they just stood there.

I kicked his infantry's ass, routing 3/4 of them, and he ran @ my troops w/the elephants. I broke them off to get away, and it worked. Then i told them to throw pila @ the elephants, hoping it would cause them to run amok, but it didnt work.

Then they charged my principes and hastati and smushed most of them and they routed. like 3 or 4 units of infantry.

luckily i had some triarii, which i charged into the elephants' flank, and for some wierd reason the elephants didnt smush any of them.

Then i used some of the troops that stopped fleeing to throw their remaining pila at them, and they started running from the spears. Finally the next volley ater that one caused a rout, and they STILL didnt run amok.

I won the battle, and killed the capt. with the pila, but i started the battle with around 2300 troops and i suffered about 1200 casualties.

Adonibal only had 830 men!!!

How do you defeat elephants while sustaining less casualties???

[Ibrahim]

you sure they weren't Oliphaunts? you were doing all the right things (using missles); did you aim at their flanks perhaps? if you didn't=disaster.

but to be doubly effective, use Accensi, they're really good at what they do to elephants (compared with peltastai)

[Alexandros Maximus]

i couldnt get to the flanx...thats probly why. ever time i tried to flank them with the leves, the Aanatim Lubim would just rip them with volleys of spears and then they'd rout, until they got back to my infantry line.

i didnt want to charge the enemy infantry line right away cuz i was afraid of the elephants just phlanking my whole army.

p.s.

Phlanking: verb. When a unit of elephants flanks your infantry and then proceeds to steamroll over your entire line, pwning you.

[Ibrahim]

thought about it some more: indeed accensi are better-always have them with you

[antisocialmunky]

Or go north and get some celtic slingers. Keep them safe at all costs and get gold chevrons and they will kill pretty much anything.

[mcantu]

you didnt mention what difficuty you had battles on...

[Alexandros Maximus]

medium

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Ha. The mighty Sophet just managed to save some 9000 mnai per turn. His elephants got killed! I was invading Noricum and got attacked by their über-stack. My nellies smashed a good deal of them, but then they suddenly got owned by some 150 triple-silver-chevroned Gaeroas, which have already been on the flight, but reformed again. These piss-poor hillbilly-celts had never seen an elephant in their lives. How dare they reform and kill them???

Edit: I won a heroic victory though, but it was more a pyrrhic one with 33% casualties.

[NEver]

Prfft I just pwnt some carthaginian elephants in sicily, they got trapped in my infantry, and their own for that matter. Triarii cut them down from behind.

[Matinius Brutus]

I once had to defent Syracuse from these same elephants (I think the Carthies start with them in Lilibeo). The Carthie general launched an assault on the walls with them, but they never got close. They were ripped by the tower fire, ran amok and smashed their own infantry. Unfortunately they still got close enough to the walls to be fired at and couldn't finish their brethren off before my towers killed them. Still the Carthies got about 50 % casualties without me losing even one man. I finished their army afterwards with a sally.
By the way these were two units of elephants I am talking about.

[zooeyglass]

Phlanking: verb. When a unit of elephants flanks your infantry and then proceeds to steamroll over your entire line, pwning you.

i knew there was a word for the carnage the ellies can inflict. thank you for elucidating.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Let some guys with big pointy things poke 'em; you know like merc pezhetairoi!

[Ibrahim]

they die too easily though...

[Parallel Pain]

In my Saka all the Indian rebel elephants got shot to pieces by my archers before they even got half way to my lines.

Elephant falls too easily

I downloaded the 1st cohort/elephant/hoplite thing, dunno if it is better now.

[Ibrahim]

does it by anymeans also make javelins deadlier, and fixis the EDU? if so, than no.

[Decimus Attius Arbiter]

I have the mod. It's wonderful. I love elephants!!! They are my clean-up pitchers.They almost make cavalry obsolete. They are especially good on defensive battles. I blitzkrieged an enemy cavalry unit with elephants and horses then wheeled around and flanked their center. The casualties racked up extremely quickly. I checked the enemy army's morale and they were all shaken. I pretty much walked through the infantry tossing them all aside with my eles and horses. The enemy general tried to pull and Alexander then turned and ran with the rest of his troops. I got a heroic victory on Medium difficulty and large unit size in a custom battle against a mid-end gallic army. I was outnumbered by 500.

I'm not sure how good they'd do in Saka territory. Even with the buffs, those rednecks with their big bows might scare my elephants.

[Alexandros Maximus]

when i sieged lilibeo, (after the elle battle) they had two more units of elles.

i had my leves throw pila @ their flank once i busted thru tha walls, and they ran up the street toward the square, smushing all the carthie Heavy Cav, and also killing most of Hamilcar's bodyguard.

I took the city. That was mad fun.

[fenix3279]

I have the mod. It's wonderful. I love elephants!!! They are my clean-up pitchers.They almost make cavalry obsolete. They are especially good on defensive battles. I blitzkrieged an enemy cavalry unit with elephants and horses then wheeled around and flanked their center. The casualties racked up extremely quickly. I checked the enemy army's morale and they were all shaken. I pretty much walked through the infantry tossing them all aside with my eles and horses. The enemy general tried to pull and Alexander then turned and ran with the rest of his troops. I got a heroic victory on Medium difficulty and large unit size in a custom battle against a mid-end gallic army. I was outnumbered by 500.

I'm not sure how good they'd do in Saka territory. Even with the buffs, those rednecks with their big bows might scare my elephants.

There are rednecks in Saka? Funny, I though they were all in my backyard.

[Ymarsakar]

Command stars do make a difference in missile/melee attack power. You'll find killing elephants a lot easier if your general has more command stars than the enemy army.

4 volleys from 3-4 archer units of 80 men each using fire arrows will rampage elephants. They have to be at the same time, of course, since the elephants seem to recover if you fire at them piecemeal.

The forest elephants I killed with level 3 Indian longbowmen. An attack of 8 missile. They will fall eventually, but if you throw all your missiles at them and they are still around, then you are going to have to charge them with cavalry from the rear where they won't throw you about. Worst case scenario is that you have no other options but to use loose formation and count on your infantry to kill the elephants. Major casualties for you, but those elephants can be taken down eventually without too many loses.

My kataphract elephants can't stay around phalanx enemies or numerous infantry without suffering an elephant death or two after some time. And this is when I modded the armored elephant to have 5 hit points.

[mcantu]

sorry, but command stars do not affect missile or melee attacks. they only add to the defense score of units under the general...

[fallen851]

I HATE ELEPHANTS TOO!!!111!!!one!!!1

But you won the battle? Don't complain, celebrate!

You could always mod the elephants if you think they are unbalanced.

[Olimpian]

Put skirmishers behind some levies for protection from ele charges.Move skirmishers and levies close to eles.Keep general nearby so nobody routs too soon.While eles thrash levies skirmishers put forward 2-3 volleys.No more eles!(this is tested for unarmoured elephants in more than half-a-dozen situations in which overall casualties from eles were under 400,not counting arrow fire from the archers up in the towers)