It's certainly not cheating to mod them. I did it so they would be vulnerable. I like to use them for specific tasks, but I've felt guilty using such an overpowered unit (I only need a single base elephant to cause all sorts of trouble.) And they reincarnate too!

It really gets me that cavalry do reasonably well vs. elephants compared to other troops (that should do better.) That was one of the things that had to be adjusted.

I've been modding up some of the anti-cav stats for spear units, and increasing the small phalanx unit sizes as well. This should make infantry counters to cav more effective to match historical perspective. This should make the game harder for me, since cav heavy armies will have a harder time.
I've also reduced the inflated shield stats for equites and some other cav units using small shields. Probably will also reduce the charge stats for selected cav, like the light lancers.