Do you like to use elefants?

**satalexton** · 08-14-2008, 16:13

kinda off topic, but can a mod correct the spelling on the title..? It's really jarring to my eyes =/

**Tollheit** · 08-14-2008, 18:42

I use them as a prestige object/unit for my faction leader's and faction heir's stack. Like strategos Haxios I usually keep them safely in the backround, just close enough for the fear effect.

**DeathEmperor** · 08-14-2008, 20:27

Whenever I can afford them. I like to roleplay with how I use them by having them only in the 'royal armies' of the megas basileus and his heir when I play as Arche Seleukeia. Like Flavius and Tollheit I also think of them as prestige units that reflect the wealth and power of my empire.

Oddly enough I don't use them too often in my Baktrian campaigns despite being so close to India, and having so much income from mines. Regardless of the faction if you know how and when to use them they can make your armies invincible.

**Grriffon** · 08-14-2008, 20:42

I LOVE elephants.

I don't always use them, because of availability and/or cost, but they can singlehandedly turn the tide of any battle if employed right. The Seleukids Kataphraktoi Elephants are even more unreal, since they are quite as vulnerable to missile fire.

At the height of one of my Seleukid campaigns, I had an army of nothing but their Elite Spearmen, Cretan Archers, and 2 units of Kataphract Elephants. It completely anihilated ANYTHING I threw it against. I doubt I'll ever field a more powerful army as any faction.

Using them as a cavalry screen does work, and is effective sometimes, but I think they make a "hammer" better than anything else out there. The destruction a full charge of elephants does to a tightly packed group of infantry is amazing.

**Ludens** · 08-14-2008, 20:43

Only when I am facing an enemy that is spamming stacks of heavy infantry and cavalry. Because of their expense I want to be certain that they are going to be needed in multiple battles of a single campaign.

**Ibrahim** · 08-14-2008, 21:24

I use them as a psychological weapon, whenever those punks threaten to rout my lines..that's if i have money to make them.

**MerlinusCDXX** · 08-14-2008, 21:53

I do use them, but rarely.

I limit myself to 1 unit in the Basileus' army stack, mostly using them as a psychological weapon and an "attacker of opportunity" ie if the battle flows as to put the ele's into position for an "enfillade charge", I let them loose, otherwise I just put 'em close enough to the battle lines to scare the crap out of the enemy. My use of them is more of a "prestige" roleplaying aid than anything else.

I also do the same thing as Pontos with the Harmata Drepanophoroi (chariots), and as the Arkhe Seleukeia, the Basileus gets the ele's and the Heir gets a unit of chariotry. Also, the Hypaspistai and Elite Thorakitai ONLY get assigned to royal armies or Satrapal armies led by an Hetairos general, and only if that Satrapy is one of the major ones ie. Mikra Asia, Egypt, Makedonia, or one of the "heartland satrapies" (Babylonia, Syria...not sure which ones exist in game, have only ever gotten the Babylonian title in that region)

sorry for the ramble, but that's how I "role" (play).

**satalexton** · 08-14-2008, 22:55

I never use them, since i find elephants far far too easy to kill in my current campaign as blue death. A few pointy sticks here, a shower of javalin there, a bit of flaming arrow for luck, and they're all gone.

In fact, I took those Indian cities by making the elephants run amok and trample up most of their own men in their cities using flaming arrows...