Some things are really worth applause with 1.0.. well alot of things actually :)
EB have taken a somewhat new approach to unit balance. Some people are highly upset over the shift in balance to particular units they have grown accustomed to. I've grown off of a few units myself, but no tears shed. I've noticed that alot of the heavy infantry do not have bonuses to stamina, whereas light and medium infantry do. Cool, I can dig that as it brings a new perspective to the lighter infantry classes, and I feel im more inclined to take a look at fitting a couple into my stacks. Now onto the topic of hand..
I shyed away from elephant recruitment many EB versions ago. I was not impressed with them when 1 single akontistai, between his volleys, and skirmishing wiped out my elephant unit. You can imagine the look on my face when 1 single front facing VOLLEY of camillian reserve javelins wiped out ALL of my 1.0 african tower elephants. To my suprise I then noticed that all elephants, including the kataphracts have 2 HP (the same as naked men).
Lets look at the numbers;
1 unit of armored indian elephants
23000 to recruit, 5750 unit upkeep
will LOSE to:
1 unit of akontistai
751 to recruit, 188 unit upkeep
1 unit upkeep of armored elephants will pay upkeep on 30 akontistai.
1 unit upkeep of armored elephants will pay upkeep on 16 liby-phoenician infantry.
Historically elephants were a proactive force on the battlefield. In most cases, the opposing force had to base their strategies or formations around ideas to counter those elephants or be swept off the battlefield. Elephants in many occasions formed the front, and juggernaught of force that punched through lines so infantry can move in and take advantage of units in disarray.
Unfortunately this seems to have failed in translation going into the EB system. Instead of being a unit that sets the conditions of the battlefield, it seems that too many conditions need to be met before elephants can be of any use.
Idealy I am not suggesting that based on the logic of since elephants have uber costs, they should be uber kill units. What should be looked at is the role the elephants play, which right now seems to be that of a cavalry role(coincidentaly although they have a bonus vs cavalry, they seem to be losing to all cavalry now).
What I suggest is a line crasher style role;
bring down the defense and armor to 0-5 range with exception to armor for kataphracts. push HP to 10-15 range. bring down lethality, attack, and charge values.
the end product should be a unit that can punch through lines 2-3 non phalanx units deep without causing alot of casualties or taking too many in the process. Ideally the real damage should come from moving friendly infantry into the wake of out of formation units the elephants caused. If the elephants get bogged down, or intentionally skirmish, they shouldnt cause too many casualties due to toned down attack, lethality and perhaps attack speed values. They should have high survivability due to high HP to give the commander enough time to decide if he wants to keep the elephants in the skirmish for a short time so as to move other units around, or pull them out. Prolonged melee should result in their eventual demise due to the fact that all unit types being able to put dmg on their low defense / armor, save the armored elephants which should give a better account of survivability.
Food for thought.
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