Cannot put up with elephants!

[hoof]

My recommendation: If you plan to mod the units in the game, don't bother with the difficulty level. Hard and Very hard apparantly only add combat bonuses (no tactical changes), and if you're going to mod, why add an unnecessary variable? (the difficulty modifier). I recommend playing modded games on Medium difficulty.

However, if you're trying to change only one or two units, that's a different story. Then you can control just the unit in question, and tune that change to the difficulty level you play at. If you like Very Hard's combat bonuses, but don't want to change every unit to mod that same bonus in, then leave the game at Very Hard, and mod "down" the unit in question. Keep in mind that if you do choose to play at a lower difficulty level, your "tuning" will make the unit unusually weak at more sane difficulty levels.

[praetorians cavalry]

Oh,thanks very much for your help.I tried flaming arrows+cav charge last night.They worked.The elephants went amok,then my heavy cav could kill one or two of them . But that's not enough for me.In total of 120 elephants (count on animals,not riders) I only sent 5 of them into the underworld so far.I am still losing this war terribly.Some victories,but huge lost.They succeeded in reaching Memphis (my gold-making city) and laid siege .Now I am taking part in some kind of Stalingrad battle.I am Red army and they are Axis with Heavy Elephant Tanks.Perhaps Poof is right,I need some bazooka or grenades. .Or at least a elephant-killer like Legolas!



P.s:I dont want to bribe them.That's too easy for me (and for them).I want to cut them with my own sword.

[Red Harvest]

Oh,thanks very much for your help.I tried flaming arrows+cav charge last night.They worked.The elephants went amok,then my heavy cav could kill one or two of them . But that's not enough for me.In total of 120 elephants (count on animals,not riders) I only sent 5 of them into the underworld so far.I am still losing this war terribly.Some victories,but huge lost.They succeeded in reaching Memphis (my gold-making city) and laid siege .Now I am taking part in some kind of Stalingrad battle.I am Red army and they are Axis with Heavy Elephant Tanks.Perhaps Poof is right,I need some bazooka or grenades. .Or at least a elephant-killer like Legolas!



P.s:I dont want to bribe them.That's too easy for me (and for them).I want to cut them with my own sword.

You can bribe them for peanuts. Ok, I was dying to say that.

It's the multiple hit point thing that is the heart of the Elephant problem. You can't kill them until you have depleted nearly the whole unit's hitpoints. It would be like attacking an infantry unit, and them suffering no losses for a very long time, then suddenly routing and/or dying because they each had a dozen hit points to start with. They might not even die then, just run away. And then after you kill them, they come back to life unless you destroy the whole army. That is the healing effect.

The flaming arrows do seem to be able to send some amok on occasion, but not easily. I was testing two units of archer auxilia with flaming arrows on medium against Elephants and War Elephants (with my greatly reduced elephant armour and hitpoints.) If the AI dallied, the two archer units could make the base Elephants go nuts. However, in a separate test the War Elephants were not stopped and still plowed into my line.

[The_Emperor]

Essentially with Elephants you need to tie them up with a cheap unit and then force fire flaming arrows into them. it requires a bit of Micromanagement to do this and keep your archers out of the fight but it does work.

On Normal in my Greek Campaign I faced off against Carthage on turn 2 at Syracuse. My lone unit of Greek archers were forced to pepper the Elephants with fire arrows while the assault went on around them.

It did work and the normal Elephants ran amok without even getting within range of the arrow towers. But it does take a few volleys to really scare them.

[Hotspur]

My tactic against the elephants is to tire them out. The armoured elephants tire very quickly and then become brittle when they are very tired or exhausted.

Try luring them away from the main battle with cavalry or skirmishers then let them chase em around the map. In the meantime, close with the main army and finish it off. When the elephants return, with luck their conventional army will be defeated and the elephants knackered and easy prey.

There are a few formations that encourage the elephants go chasing light troops (skirmishers, cavalry on wings). In fact luring unpleasant units away from the main battle has led to some spectacular victories. Its fun watching cataphracts and companion cavalry belting after my no talent militia cavalry only to return into the teeth of a victorious phalanx.

[Zharakov]

In my opinion the best way to kill elephants is to remeber theese 5 things.

1. Elephants DON'T like pain. Just hurt them enuff and thell go beserk.

2. Elephants DON'T like croweds. Thats why you used light infantry on them.

3. Elephants DON'T like sudden noises. Thus pigs and dogs and warcrys do well VS them.

4. Elephants REALLY DON'T like slingers and javalins. Sticks and stones will break there bones.

5. Elephants REALLY DON'T like anything that can hit them and run away. Cavelry archers can really save the day.


I hope this helps


P.S. theese 5 things were tested as the Armenieans.