what happened to those giant monsters

[mike^_^]

theres 2 african elephants, the big ones are too mean to ride and train, so they use the small ones

the indian ones are more docile and better to train, so they are best

you notice in films they are always indian elephants

[Kralizec]

There are 2 types of African elephants: the savannah elephant and the smaller forest elephant. Only the forest elephant and the Indian (or Asian) elephant were used for warfare. Savannah elephants, though bigger then the other two, were deemed unsuitable for warfare because they were much harder to control.

Realisticly, the Carthaginians and Ptolemies would have acces to forest elephant units- basicly the lowest elephant unit in RTW, possibly with some variations i.e. archers on top.
The Seleucids and the eastern kingdoms would have acces to Indian types.

[QwertyMIDX]

The savannah was actually used from time to time, it was just rare because they were such a pain to train and were even more unpredicitable than the other types in battles.

[KingOfTheIsles]

Will there be any representation of the (now extinct) Syrian elephant population?

[Spendios]

Will there be any representation of the (now extinct) Syrian elephant population?

I think that the Syrian elephants were just imported Indian elephants who were bred for the military of the Seleucids, I don't think they were a distinct subspecie, the Seleucids found more easy to have a large supply of elephants in the center of their kingdom rather than having to make them come from India in time of war.

[khelvan]

We do have plans to show the importation of elephants. For now that is implemented in a very basic manner, but it may be fleshed out later, post-OB.

[KingOfTheIsles]

I think that the Syrian elephants were just imported Indian elephants who were bred for the military of the Seleucids, I don't think they were a distinct subspecie, the Seleucids found more easy to have a large supply of elephants in the center of their kingdom rather than having to make them come from India in time of war.

Ah right, thanks for the clarification. I had only heard scant references to them, eg Hannibal's elephant.

[QwertyMIDX]

Will there be any representation of the (now extinct) Syrian elephant population?

The Syrian elephant was the same as the Indian elephant, it actually used to live all across Asia. Their range had been vastly reduced by the time of the Seleukids though (and long before that too).

[GeWee]

The savannah was actually used from time to time, it was just rare because they were such a pain to train and were even more unpredicitable than the other types in battles.

If that's true it would be cool to have an extremely expensive (to account for the long and difficult training) savannah elephant unit trainable in some regions in the heart of Africa. Maybe make it cost twice as much as the most expensive Seleucid elephant to make it more of a bonus unit so that Carthagenians and Ptolemies won't use it all the time.

[QwertyMIDX]

It wasn't so much that they were a lot harder to train, they just weren't as reliable because it was impossible to train them as well. Likely you'd bring them to battle and they'd just go nuts and flatten your own army.

[GeWee]

Then let the training time be ten years to account for the nursing of the baby elephant all the way up to trunk-flailing war machine.

[QwertyMIDX]

Haha, we'll do something to make them hard to get, they're already hilariously expensive and rather rare.