Surprisingly Good and Bad Units 1.2 Edition

[Aemilius Paulus]

plus they are dedicated elephant-killers.

You mean their javelins, right? Because they would not last a second in melee. And mounted skirmishers always have very little ammunition, not to mention 50 men is smaller than the usual 120 for levy skirmisher units (on large unit size of course).

Bottom line, they are not effective against elephants. Cantabrians are a better choice. Or any skirmisher unit. Or any falcata-and-soliferra unit of the Lusotannan roster (they have tons of high-attack, AP javelins plus decent armour and good attack with their AP weapons; on top of that, they have quite a few men per unit and are cheap - possibly best infantry of EB).

[A Very Super Market]

Besides which, if you're playing as the Lusos, you won't see any elephants but the one unit Carthage gets at the beginning.

[athanaric]

You mean their javelins, right? Because they would not last a second in melee. And mounted skirmishers always have very little ammunition, not to mention 50 men is smaller than the usual 120 for levy skirmisher units (on large unit size of course).

Actually, the ammo of mounted skirmishers varies a lot. Arachosians for examples have no less than 14 javelins. The elite guys I was referring to have six or eight javelins, which usually is enough to rout one unit of elephants or at least damage them heavily. Plus mounted skirmishers have the advantage of being able to outrun charging elephants. Their higher mobility enables them to catch elephants long before the latter reach your line.