Elephants!

[hundurinn]

I played the battle of Trebia and I had routed most of Hannibals army EXCEPT one unit of elephants. So with the rest of my army I decided to attack them thinking victory was certain. After few minuites one elephant was dead and the rest of my army routed. Skirmishing didn't seem to scare off the elephants and 2 full units of Principeis (sorry for bad spelling) 1 unit of Triarii and 1 unit of Hasataii didn't seem to do any good. Anyone else suffered so humiliating defeat? But my question is. Are the elephants going to be that powerful in the full game? If 400 men can kill one elephant and still loose then I think that victory against elephants is impossible.

[Leet Eriksson]

I think some factions get better stats for some units. In battle of trebia unit preview screen if you highlight the carthage flag you'll notice the advantages they have "Flexible selection of troop types plus powerful elephants" or something similiar.

[Steppe Merc]

Besides, African Elephants are bigger and stronger than Indian.

[Leet Eriksson]

I thought the carthaginians used a smaller forest elephant thats now probably extinct... don't recall they used the bigger african ones. Any historical buff know anything about this?

[Lucius Lucullus]

I thought the carthaginians used a smaller forest elephant thats now probably extinct... don't recall they used the bigger african ones. Any historical buff know anything about this?

Correct IIRC they didnt have towers either

From what I recall from TC, there were a smaller type of elephants used by the Ptolomaic army at the Raphia episode

[afrit]

From the Wikipedia web site (excerpts): Wikipedia elephants
"The first military application of elephants dates from around 1100 BC and is mentioned in several Sanskrit hymns...The battle of Gaugamela (October 1, 331 BC), fought against Alexander the Great was probably among the first confrontations of Europeans with war elephants... The successors to Alexander's empire, the Diadochi, used hundereds of Indian elephants in their wars. The Carthaginians and the Egyptians began taming African elephants for the same purpose. Indian elephants were larger but did not guarantee victory for Antiochus III the Great at the battle of Raphia in 217 BC. The Numidians used the Forest elephant.

The smaller Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) used to be classified as a subspecies of the larger L. africana. But in 2001, DNA analysis used to trace poached ivory found too many differences between the 2 subspecies and they were therefore classified as distinct species. So now there are 3 species in the elephant genus (Indian, African and Forest).

I dunno if in RTW they will distinguish the 3 species. In TC battle of Raphia there was a big deal made of the different elephant sizes. And the unit list in the pack_0 data file includes forest elephant. So they probably distinguish them.

Afrit