mercenary shopping.

**Deus ret.** · 08-06-2005, 14:05

If you're up to a little travelling, also visit the levante (Antioch etc) to add some camels and arab cav to the roster. Admittedly they serve you best int the desert but at least the camels are always useful....You might even find mercenary war elephants in the area if you're lucky.

**gigi** · 08-06-2005, 16:01

Originally Posted by Deus ret.

If you're up to a little travelling, also visit the levante (Antioch etc) to add some camels and arab cav to the roster. Admittedly they serve you best int the desert but at least the camels are always useful....You might even find mercenary war elephants in the area if you're lucky.

has anybody found some mercenary elephants?
and if so where is the biggest change on finding them?

thanks in advance.

**Duke of Gelre** · 08-06-2005, 16:27

i've often found some mercenary Elephants in carthage.

**Mr Frost** · 08-06-2005, 16:50

Send a Family member on a decent fleet {sufficient to fight its' way home if need be} to Crimea and by a Steppe horse army over the years . You should get 3 or 4 Sythian Horse archers per Samartian Lancer {whom are quite good themselves} and you will have an army able to dominate most any army it meets {only large numbers of Elephants would give it trouble} . If you send enough ships for two fleets {I use 4 minimum per fleet as a rule of thumb} then you could get enough extra units to replace losses for years .
Being strategically fast , it makes a great army for guarding regions deep within your empire with lots of coastline . They can keep the anoying "brigands" that can cost you cashflow by not only devistating regions , but also by simply standing on roads with heavy merchant traffic , yet still take on full house invasion armies without notable disadvantage . They are also relativly cheap to upkeep .

See a dealer about some today

, you wont be disapointed

**Deus ret.** · 08-07-2005, 12:40

Originally Posted by gigi

has anybody found some mercenary elephants?
and if so where is the biggest change on finding them?

AFAIK the chance of getting elephants is not "big". I didn't look it up in the respective text file, but when I was Armenia it took until 220BC until one unit finally showed up around Antioch

whereas when I played Greeks I sent an invasion army there around 253BC and immediately got some mercenary war elephants....