a general wondering...

[MiniMe]

A word in defense of elys
Have a three campaign experience of "late overdeveloped successor wars". Like it. Huge stacks clashes, ten units of premium phalanx against fourteen units of medium phalanx... three hetairoi vs four kataphraktoi... and these uberstacks keep coming... And YOU are in the middle of desert without any reinforcements for the next eight turns at least.
That's when you'll find that elephants are worth it, not before that.
Having one unit of armoured eles in your stack reduces your casualties greatly.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Yeah they do that scaring the horsies away thingy pretty good.