Elephants

[PBI]

Pikes might be good against elephants, if the Timurids were interested in using elephants to charge your main line. In my experience the elephants always stand off and bombard my lines with their guns while the rest of their army attacks. The combined morale penalty from being shot at with gunpowder and being near elephants is what makes them so dangerous on the field, not their indestructibility in melee; that just stops you being able to easily neatralise them like you would with artillery.

If you want to kill elephants, use javelin cavalry. Javelin cavalry are the elephant antidote, nothing else kills them so quickly, easily and cheaply. In BC I once saw an entire unit of eles wiped out in a single volley from three units of cav (although obviously in vanilla this would take a bit longer).

For a laugh, spawn a unit of elephant rocket launchers in one of your armies on the campaign map using the cheat code "vindaloo".