Research: Elephants, Healing, and Multiple Hit Points

[Kraxis]

Keep in mind that these were probably rather "raw" trained elephants too. Hannibal had a scratch force at Zama.

Channeling was a good method, similar to what was done vs. scythed chariots.

It is interesting to think what might have happened if Hannibal had had experienced elephants... Maybe they would have been enough to change the balance in favour of Hannibal (the battle was already rather even).

[Saracen_Warrior]

They channeled scythed chariots? I believe you, I'm just wondering what made chariots so uncontrollable. I remember seeing this in the movie alexander. His phalanxes created lanes for the persian scythed chariots. Oh and by the way, I hated that movie. It gave the impression he took the world in 1 very exciting week, and his boyfriend looked like a drag queen. Just because he was homosexual, didnt mean he had to be a wuss. I mean he was a soldier too.

[Somebody Else]

Weren't elephants rather vulnerable to being slashed? I seem to remember something about Scipio's men being instructed to slash at the elephants' hides (which apparently isn't all that thick - just a lot of meat under it) - not to kill, but to hurt rather nastily - and panic them. Also to chuck javelins at the riders...

[Oaty]

Somebody else. Scipio's first goal against the elephants was to make them riderless along with creating lanes to prevent them from disrupting. Once an elelphant has no rider to guide it, it will basically run amok. So the wealth was shared with elephants running amok amongst both armies. I do believe Hannibals got the worst of the elephants though. I remember in the demo you could kill the rider/elephant seperately. Wonder why they took this feature out since it had already been implemented. My only guess would be because when they run amok they have to as a group.

[Ludens]

I remember in the demo you could kill the rider/elephant seperately. Wonder why they took this feature out since it had already been implemented. My only guess would be because when they run amok they have to as a group.

Not quite. It is still possible to shoot charioteers without destroying their chariot, so I assume it is possible with elephants as well. This applies only to the archers/fighters, not the mahouts/drivers, BTW. I recall that in the demo, the archers would get thrown off one by one when the elephants ran amok as well.

[Ludens]

There is some evidence that whether or not a unit heals depends on how early in the battle it dies.

[Vincent Butler]

I have not used elephants much, but my brother found Armoured Elephants work well against enemies like Dacia, they can break in the wooden gates, and demolish the light infantry. Be wary of their archers, though, if you try that, though he did not have too much problems with that; probably they tried to avoid friendly fire. I have had the enemy archers open up on my elephants with flaming arrows. The only other times I have seen the enemy use flaming arrows have been against siege equipment and onagers. Elephants are awesome against chariots, found that out from curiosity. Only problem is, Egypt has the archers to counter the elephants. Against legionary types of infantry, had a friend in custom battle put his Armoured Elephants against Urban Cohort. He lost. The pila demolished his elephants and Urban Cohort are good enough to finish off the rest. If you watch, when elephants are trying to ram the gate of a stone wall (of any size), the boiling oil kills the people in the basket before it kills the elephant, so it takes several bouts of oil to kill the beasts themselves. They will usually run amok before they get to the last elephant.