How powerful was Elephant in real battle..?

[Papewaio]

Considering the size of Oliphants you would have to dip dwarves in grease and set them alight to get the same size ratio and rage going...

[lars573]

Considering the size of Oliphants you would have to dip dwarves in grease and set them alight to get the same size ratio and rage going...

Nah horses would do the job up proper. But if PJ had put the flaming pig anti- oliphaunt trick in LOTR rings PETA would have had his ass in a sling right some quick.

[Shoraro]

Nice to hear the small African ele's are still going

Rome may not have used elephants for war, but they apparently didn't like other people using them. They were normally banned in peace treaties by the Republic and any kept despite this might be hamstrung by Roman weapon inspectors.

[Sociopsychoactive]

The elephant was a shock unit, almost exactly the same way heavy cavalry is. If you know what they will do and can prepare, they are near useless, if they catch you unawares and especially the first time you see them, they are devestating.

In battle itself, an elephant can be relied upon to do only one thing. Panic. Elephants can be trained to some extrent, and trained to charge, but never trained not to stamp on people in THAT unifiorm, while being allowed to stamp on people in THIS uniform.

Therefore, what an elephant will do in battle is run around alot stamping on things. Elephants can;t see very well, especially in broad daylight, so they will just pick out green and head for it, whether that be the forest or the generals command tent....

When nations got used to using elephants in abttle, especially smaller ones with the trainer actually directing it in combat, the trainer was provided with a chisel. He would drive this into the basde of the elephants skull if it ran amok or threatened freindly troops, killing it instantly.

As to LOTR, well, firs tof all they were Oiliphants, as said, and much larger and more agressive than anything real since the donosaurs. They did not show all the anti-elephant tactics however, and I'm not talking pigs.

Elephants have very soft, tender soles to their feet. It is like supple leather and not nearly as tough as the rest of their hide. Therefore one of the main anti-elephant tactics was to lay down Caltrops (small wooden devices with 4 or more spikes, so it always lands with a spike facing up). While elephants are exreamly strong they were therefore almost uselss in sieges, as the beasiged would just lay caltrops around vulnerable area's.

Romans found the best tactics to combat elephants were to take them down from a distance with ranged weapons, or kill the crew (or trainer) and then get the hell out of the way. Also, they do scare horses to some extent, but have vulnerable legs and cutting these with swords would force the elephant to the ground, without killing it.

Elephants are therefore not tanks, they are far to unreliable. once wounded an elephant will either panic or lie down, niether of which are usefull in battle. As to pigs, well, it wasn;t the fact that they were burning that scared the elephants, it was the noise. The squeel of a pig will send an elephant running in fear, like the smell of a camel is to horses. They set light to the pigs in order to ensure they would squeel loud and clearly, plus you get some crispy fried bacon out of it.

[Lonewarrior]

I found that the Elephants in the game only did a good inicial damage after their charge, later on, the troops that went down, basically got up again.

[Red Harvest]

I just had a vision of flaming camels being used vs. a cavalry charge...or would it be the infantry lighting up and smoking some Camels?

[katank]

the infantry being charged setting themselves on fire? yeah, the sheer stupidity will scare the cav away

anyhow, the Romans used elephants in the battle of Cynoscephalae against the Macedonians and this was right after the Second Punic war so probably adopted a bit of Cathargian stuff, eh?