How to use elephants?

[Cras]

I used to play as the romans and often encounterd elephants, they were very hard to kill and when they rampage or panic seemed to run through my lines and kill many...

Now I am the sassanids and I am the one with the elephants! Guess what, they panic easily and still rampage through my lines!
Why dont they stamp on my opponents? Anyone have any suggestion about using them in a good way?

[The Spartan (Returns)]

sasanids elephants are weaker in BI. hope they make a patch for that!

[gardibolt]

Reconnaisance of the enemy before the battle is your best friend. If there are archers or javelin-chuckers, hold your eles back and let your other cavalry kill the missile units or at least chase them away. When they're safely out of the picture, send your elephants to one flank of the enemy. Click beyond the enemy and send the eles charging through; don't directly attack the enemy, or you'll get bogged down and they'll run amok and charge back into you. That makes hash of the enemy lines and your infantry can mop them up pretty quickly since the formation is broken. It takes a fair amount of micro to maximize, but when it works it works spectacularly.

In sieges of wooden-wall cities, no need to build siege equipment; the eles will do the job faster and more efficiently, making you a blitzkrieging terrror. In that usage, I've found it best to just use the elephants to open the door and not send them into the city; they're not terribly useful in city streets anyway, and you certainly don't want them going nutzoid in a crowded intersection. Usually after they've opened the gate I just send them off to the edge of the map, far from arrow fire to wait out the battle.

[symball]

another use is to utilise their morale penalties for hte enemy. put a unit behind your infantry line and the enemy soldiers will route much quicker- especially usefull at higher dificulty levels.

[Cras]

hey.... I didnt know they could break down a wooden gate... cool!!

:-)

If that works, is it also possible to burn down the gate with flaming arrows??

[Monarch]

hey.... I didnt know they could break down a wooden gate... cool!!

:-)

If that works, is it also possible to burn down the gate with flaming arrows??

No sorry I dont think that works :)

[vastator]

I was experimenting with a strengthened Carthage recently and found the initial elephant unit very useful. I captured Messana and Syracuse and wiped out a combined Scipii/Julii army for the loss of only one beastie.

Just keep them away from enemy missile troops and aim for a unit behind the one you want to attack. That way the front unit will often reel back into the rear one and they'll both rout - great fun and much trampling!

[Garvanko]

Do you really need elephants, though? :)

[x-dANGEr]

I think as Sass yes, you need something to rout those heavies, again espiecially on VH/VH.

[Garvanko]

Cataphracts, Clibinarii, Immortals, Armoured Camels... What more do you need to rout heavy infantry?

[x-dANGEr]

So, you want me to gather my army of catas and just charge into the enemy's huge block of infantry ?

[Garvanko]

Yes.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

So, you want me to gather my army of catas and just charge into the enemy's huge block of infantry ?

No, we want you to use Kat, Cibs etc on one flank while disrupting the other flank with horse archers.

[Garvanko]

That too, Wigferth Ironwall

[teja]

Eles are fast, they can move along with any cavalry based army and strike terror into all enemies. This are their main use. If encountering archers, try your best to push them back so they cannot harm you with flame arrows. When striking the enemy with your cavalry, keep your eles in 2nd rank to strike terror and are safe until the time is right to engage. In some kind it is similar to wardogs, which I seldom use until the enemy is routing. I take them with me just to strike fear in the enemies hearts. Unlike the dogs an elephant can do very much damage to almost any unit. Try to keep their fatigue low, because they go bersek more easy when exhausted.

As for the Macedonians I lack this kind of 'fear striking units' very much! In BI the Sassanids have such an awesome cavalry that the need for elephants is much lower but in vanilla RTW.

[Upxl]

Laughed myself silly the other day when I countered charging eles with 2 units of war dogs.
Man, those dogs flew around!

It isn’t a very nice thing to do (for the doggies) but I sure recommend it to you all.

[Avicenna]

A nice thing for the sassanids against an infantry army is your general(s) set to fire at will. Don't rely on the clibinarii, I've found that their weapon isn't that great at slugging or in the initial charge. Cataphracts should do better, with sughdian warriors backing up and elephants rushing or shooting if you don't want the risk of your precious creatures dying before gaining some exp.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Hefalumps always seem to be tougher to use then they are to encounter -- despite the fact that trample romans well. I have always found it hard to do anything with a Hefalump that didn't also cause havoc among my troops etc. Until....

I put my Hefa's out on one flank at slight distance, refused. Enemy archers, javelins, and slingers then pulled off to hunt my elephants -- the AI seems to feel the compulsive need to do this even more than to hunt slingers -- but right across the front of 2 heavy cavalry squadrons tucked in tight along my line.....




So my answer is ...use 'em as bait and then mow down the now over-extended missile and skirmish troops with your cav.


If you want to use them old school, don't bother with tactics -- they manuever too slowly despite good straight on speed -- and just take them through a couple of units at about a 30-degree angle (aiming for an offset unit in the third line and hitting charge should do the trick). Do follow up with some cavalry or barb infantry to murder the folks that have been knocked down.