How To Break Down Walls With Elephants?

**Chimp** · 10-31-2005, 22:06

How do I use elephants to break down wooden walls? I have armored and war elephants, and the game allows me to attack cities without having any siege equipment ready, so I should be able to do it. I've tried single clicks, doubles, alt attacks, attacking the center, the middle sections, the towers, clicking behind the walls - you name it. Unlike siege equipment, the cursor icon doesn't change when I run the mouse over the walls for some reason; I only get the "0 damage" popup. Damn manual is useless as usual: " Elephants can be ordered to attack gateways or wooden walls without siege equipment. They just batter a hole!". Riiiiiiiiight.

So, what am I doing wrong?

**RabidGibbon** · 10-31-2005, 22:12

As I recall Elephants can only break down the gateways, and not the walls. Just a normal attack order on the gates should do it.

**Chimp** · 10-31-2005, 22:25

*whimper* But I triiiiiieed! *sniff* *sniff*

Actually, I even have a video segment of elephants bringing down a center section of a wall.

**Red Harvest** · 10-31-2005, 23:15

Can't recall using them on wooden walls, but they definitely can break the gates. With War elephants it might be an alt-right click. Regular elephants would just be a right click on the gate. You might want to turn off fire at will too...

There is a long pause sometimes where the elephants just stand there before one saunters up to the wall. Very strange, very frustrating.

This should only work for wooden walled gates, IIRC.

EDIT: Just went back and tested, you can attack gates or walls as long as they are wooden. Of course, you can't target until you "start battle."

**Garvanko** · 11-01-2005, 01:10

Originally Posted by Red Harvest

There is a long pause sometimes where the elephants just stand there before one saunters up to the wall. Very strange, very frustrating.
."

Really? I enjoy it. A welcome change from the monotony of rams. As long as you support them with missile units, its fun.

**Norxis** · 11-01-2005, 10:28

I don't have BI, but at least with v1.2 elephants can attack wooden walls as well as gates. I have done this numerous times. Just like battering rams, there are key points in the middle of each section that you need to put the cursor over for it to work. hope this helps.

**Ciaran** · 11-01-2005, 11:13

And, indeed, it may take a short while for one of the elephants to stroll up to the wall and start pushing it. It´ll look like they do nothing at first, just be a bit patient.

**JeromeGrasdyke** · 11-01-2005, 12:49

Well, you know the old actor's aphorism, "never work with animals or children"... it's kinda hard to get those pachyderms to do what you want

**PseRamesses** · 11-01-2005, 13:08

Originally Posted by Chimp

How do I use elephants to break down wooden walls? I have armored and war elephants, and the game allows me to attack cities without having any siege equipment ready, so I should be able to do it. I've tried single clicks, doubles, alt attacks, attacking the center, the middle sections, the towers, clicking behind the walls - you name it. Unlike siege equipment, the cursor icon doesn't change when I run the mouse over the walls for some reason; I only get the "0 damage" popup. Damn manual is useless as usual: " Elephants can be ordered to attack gateways or wooden walls without siege equipment. They just batter a hole!". Riiiiiiiiight.
So, what am I doing wrong?

Weather you have RTW 1.2 or RTW/BI 1.3 it really shouldn´t make any difference. 1. You can smash in the gates or 2. crash down wooden walls. However I can´t remember if you can bring down thoose large wooden walls but defenitely the small ones. Just click on them! The fact that you can´t suggests that something is broken/ not working correctly so I suggest a re-install. Good luck!

**Mouzafphaerre** · 11-01-2005, 16:53

Originally Posted by JeromeGrasdyke

Well, you know the old actor's aphorism, "never work with animals or children"... it's kinda hard to get those pachyderms to do what you want

.

**Chimp** · 11-01-2005, 17:43

It works. The secret ingredience was... patience! I just attack the wall, then they rush up and park themselves, and a single elephant sashays up and starts headbanging the wall into kindling.

I guess I'd expected some gratuituous violence instead, but hey at least they're not putting up a circus act while one waits for that lone elephant to finish the job.

Thanks for chipping in, guys!

**Red Harvest** · 11-01-2005, 19:04

Originally Posted by Chimp

It works. The secret ingredience was... patience! I just attack the wall, then they rush up and park themselves, and a single elephant sashays up and starts headbanging the wall into kindling.

There have been times that the pause was soooooooo long, that I really thought something was not working. Pause of 30 seconds or more before one finally sauntered up to the wall. Most of the time it is shorter, but the occasional long one will really throw you off.

**Alexanderofmacedon** · 11-01-2005, 23:28

I've used them a couple times, when I was short on time to get real siege equipment. I used it on the gate. I'm sorry about it not working, but it may be bugged...

**Red Harvest** · 11-02-2005, 01:12

Originally Posted by Alexanderofmacedon

I've used them a couple times, when I was short on time to get real siege equipment. I used it on the gate. I'm sorry about it not working, but it may be bugged...

It works, he was just having the pause issue that has always been there but was unpredictable.

Elephants are great timesavers for anything with wooden walls. No need to wait at all.