Elephants...mothers of all retards!

[Dimeola]

Big smelly retards who dont know their ass from a ....er I mean dont know their friends from their enemies. They`ll just stamp on whoever has ticked them off. More often than not they run over their own troops. Our ancestors say just face the elephant head on and duck and cover. But lemme tell ya they have big brass ones and you DONT want to get hit in the head by those bad boys. I recommend just running away screaming.
:)
D

[Murmandamus]

Hehe, had a funny moment attacking the Cartheginians who had 2 units of elephants in the town. Put a unit of archers just outside the wall and shot at the elephants. The elephants went on a rampage, killed about 50 men for me and caused 2 infantry units to rout before I'd even got the gates open. Then they ran away out of the side gate so I wouldn't have to deal with them at all. It also put all the other units into dissaray making my entry nice and easy.

[Praylak]

ROFL. Wow your tripping pretty heavy there guy...

No, I hear what your saying. I can't imagine when I finally run up against one of them Armoured elephants with all the upgrades.

I've had some battles, they've just made me laugh. My whole army chasing 12 elephants, and them 12 elephants chasing a unit of slingers. Them slingers are marathon runners. What a race. Then the packers became exhausted finally and then they routed. Chasing went on for ten minutes or better. I had 2 Chariot archers and 3 skirmishers nailing them the whole time. I managed to kill one and when it dropped, I cheered like a crazy man.

Whats a General to do without flaming pigs?

[lars573]

^not eat bacon after the battle that's what

[Murmandamus]

You get to start a lucrative trade in elephant foot umbrella stands instead, since if you used flaming pigs, they would be all burnt.

[Nerouin]

Ever seen LOTR: ROTK??

Well, don't hit them head on! Aside from that, surround them and shoot/slash them until they die. Elephants aren't nearly the size of the maumakil in the movie.. should be easy meat :)

I managed to kill two units of them with 8 units of hastati.

[Dimeola]

Best i`ve seen so far was Pontus using flaming catapults. One direct hit and 2 elephants dead and the rest going beserk.
D

[Underhand]

Ever seen LOTR: ROTK??

Well, don't hit them head on! Aside from that, surround them and shoot/slash them until they die. Elephants aren't nearly the size of the maumakil in the movie.. should be easy meat :)

I managed to kill two units of them with 8 units of hastati.

Yes, and the lesson learned is twofold: fight them with cavalry running between their legs, and jump aboard and cause mayhem.

I liked the film, but that bit was just silly

[The_Emperor]

Anyone tried light infantry in loose formation?

We know Elephants are good against heavy troops in a compact formation who couldn't move out of the way, historically lighter forces were used to down elephants because they could move out of the way.

I suppose a loose formation could help limit the number of men lost when the elephants charged you.

[Underhand]

Whatever is the loosest formation should really be helpful, since it would allow the skirmishers to weave in and out, and do such horrible things as cutting hamstrings and girth-straps, and poking the poor heffalumps in unspeakable places...

I have played a historical battles game with miniatures that handled this rather well: when attacking skirmishers an elephant is about one quarter as likely to hit them as with formed troops. Of course, the damn things are so strong that if they do hit, it's bye-bye skirmisher.

[Sir Robin]

I learned early on to give elephants plenty of room. Whether they are on your side or not.

Properly covered they are just plain devastating. Given enough room though and when they do go beserk you can keep your guys out of the way.

[DisruptorX]

I use elephant archers. Deadly accurate and powerful bows, and they are pretty much impossible to kill. Great for killing chariot and horse archers that normally would be a pain in the ass. I never send them into hand to hand except as a last resort. I haven't had them go nuts yet, though.

[Nelson]

In my current Scipii campaign I have just arrived in Africa and have hired some Numidian skirmishers. They get a bonus against elephants. I haven't had a chance to use them yet and am curious to see how well they will do.

[Daevyll]

Velite Gladiators in loose formation work well.

They take comparatively few casualties, have a good attack and have a bonus vs elephants.

[Bob the Insane]

Velite Gladiators in loose formation work well.

They take comparatively few casualties, have a good attack and have a bonus vs elephants.

Wonder if they ever showed that in the Coliseum.... Man vs Elephant...

[Underhand]

Wonder if they ever showed that in the Coliseum.... Man vs Elephant...

I think they were more interested in lion versus elephant, or similar big animal match ups. After all, one man is very unlikely to beat an elephant, and a group will learn fast and either way it would be boring.

[Tamur]

Here's a partial list from the Colloseum's heyday: lions, tigers, elephants, leopards, lynxes, rhinoceroses, stag-wolves, cephoses (Pliny the Elder).

The cephos was apparently a four-legged creature with the hands and feet of a man that appeared once in the Colloseum and was never seen again. Hmmm... one guesses that the gladiators were put up to a one-time humiliation.

[Underhand]

Here's a partial list from the Colloseum's heyday: lions, tigers, elephants, leopards, lynxes, rhinoceroses, stag-wolves, cephoses (Pliny the Elder).

The cephos was apparently a four-legged creature with the hands and feet of a man that appeared once in the Colloseum and was never seen again. Hmmm... one guesses that the gladiators were put up to a one-time humiliation.

Some people think that the cephos was a baboon.