How do I use elephants properly?

**LordKhaine** · 05-13-2005, 00:02

View them as large chariots that are far less likely to die. The trick is to hammer home the charge and then quickly utilise the shockwave using cavalry/infantry. I find in vanilla war elephants are very very hard to kill. But usually when you start to lose them, you'll quickly find the entire unit has paniced and will need to be killed. Oh and one final thing... keep them away from onagers. A single firepot can kill four and panic the entire unit!

**pezhetairoi** · 05-13-2005, 01:32

...I am all of a sudden confident that my Greek peltasts can rule Carthage.

**ZZR Puig** · 05-13-2005, 10:56

Just don't allow them to get stuck, continue charging one unit after the other. With just one unit of cavalry behind to charge on the already messed enemy unit in case it hasn't routed yet, it guarantees routing 100% of the time. I they are already routed you can use your cavalry to without tiring your elephants, who should be charging the next unit. With only one unit of elephants and one of cavalry you can slaughter an infantry army of almost any size, and probably without any casualties.

They are also very good against chariots. You can soften the chariots first with arrows and use some velite gladiators (if you have them) or skirmishers to aid the elephants when the chariots get bogged among them.

I only have had a unit of mercenary elephants, so I haven't used them very much, but are really worth it. The other day I completely slaughtered a gallic army, including the chariots of their general, for a total of about 1300 men with an army of 180 soldiers with the elephants on their lines. I had only about 15 casualties. In another battle they managed to get a kill board of 658.

**runes** · 05-13-2005, 19:10

the best thing about elephants and chariots is their ability to break up formations.

playing as the romans right now, formation is EVERYTHING to me. as long as i have a nice, tight formation, i am near unstoppable.

however, im going up against Briton and Pontus right now, and their heavy chariots to wonders to break up my well ordered lines. However, the AI (shitty as it is) lacks the ability to co-operate. My forces, broken up from the chariot charge, quickly reassemble and ususally rout the chariot after a while.

If the AI was smart, it would know to rush (axemen, chosen, other cavalry) into my broken up ranks, exploting the chaos and negating bonuses that well-formed units get.

but they dont. so i win.

same goes for elephants. Use them to split up an enemy force, mess up it's ranks, and then send in infantry to mop up

**Craterus** · 05-13-2005, 21:42

Or send elephants in, and send a cavalry immediately after to kill the guys that think it's funny to get back up after an elephant has trampled them.

**avesta** · 05-15-2005, 00:59

KEEP THEM MOVING. They are un-stoppable if you don't let them sit in one position and attack. Attack one unit, move on quickly, attack another unit. Keep them on the move and avoid fire arrows. Those are the two most important factors.