The elephants!!!...and the method to defeat them!

[Lucpol]

Anyone wishing to discuss their tactics when facing elephants (various types)?

[Jackster]

Ribault, Balista, Basilisk, culverin, flaming arrows, javelins, gunpowders....

[parvus]

fire arrows. lots of them

[Lucpol]

How about spears?

WOuld they work?Or is it dependant upon the spear unit type?

[Commander_Vimes]

i tend to just use fire arrows as soon as possible once on rome they had phalanxes,horse archers and elephants and i was roman so i set all my archers on there 2 elephant units then put fire and they went beserk quite quickly which meant they mucked up the slow moving phalanxes and i could charge straight in with my legionares and my cavarly could chase off there horse archers

[Zhou]

How about spears?

WOuld they work?Or is it dependant upon the spear unit type?

In short...no. You don't want to kill the elephants necessarily, you just want to scare them so they go crazy and kill their own troops.

[Sher Khan]

Distract them in melee combat on one side (the trick is getting close to them if they're cannon elephants) and set up Naffatun on all other sides.

Launch burning clay pots of doom. Eat boiled elephant meat for the victory celebration as you 'eat from the most rare and glorious fruit.'

[Snipafist]

Ribault, Balista, Basilisk, culverin, flaming arrows, javelins, gunpowders....

Quoting for truth. These are the ways to do it. Accurate artillery, muskets, flaming arrows, and javelins are the way (javelins get +6 vs elephants and up-close skirmishers will often frustrate elephants by constantly outmaneuvering them). Don't get into melee combat if you can help it.

[Lucpol]

In short...no. You don't want to kill the elephants necessarily, you just want to scare them so they go crazy and kill their own troops.

Thats a good strategem General. WHy waste your own men if you can turn the enemy's own against them?!

Thanks-I'll be sure to apply it in my portugese campaign.

[Eric]

I like using pike units mixed in with musket units in a sort of pike square sort of thing, if the gunpowder units don't scare the elephants off, than the pikes certainly willkill them.

[Serious Spamurai]

Naffatun suicide armies, just rush the elephants, put some cavalry to protect them as they advance, It's a 2-3 shot kill (depends on how many men there are in the Howdah) on an elephant with Naptha pots, you'll lose the battle but next time you face them there won't be any elephants to worry about. If you can try and burn the enemy general too. Another tactic is to use rocket launchers, you get them from around Baghdad. I guess longbowmen's stakes kill elephants too. Monster bombards are nice one shot kill, but that's all you'll get before the enemy kills the crew.

[Wrath]

Is there anyway for Western factions to get elephants? Like can I go and recruit them in Africa if I wanted to?

[Jackster]

i think there are mercenary somewhere around the eastern part of the map, not in Africa though.

[Sacc]

never seen them as a mersenary unit.

Rescent question I had was, if you have to engage in melee with them, what is your favorite unit? The most effective I found were the templar knights. idk

[Zhou]

never seen them as a mersenary unit.

Rescent question I had was, if you have to engage in melee with them, what is your favorite unit? The most effective I found were the templar knights. idk

They are recruitable as mercenaries around Baghdad sometime after gunpowder has been discovered.

[Jackster]

As a last resort, you can also cheat to get them.
Just type "madras" in the cheat log.
"rogan" will get you cannon elephants.
"vindaloo" my favorite, rocket elephants
while is bad to cheat, it can be fun sometimes.

[tommo_312]

jinetes pwn elepahnts especially when i have taken four cities in the holy land and they have 3 gold chevrons

[sporkyness]

naffatuns kill elephants in 1 hit so pin them down and lob as many as u can

the added ability of causing panic will ensure the elephants run like hell after the first 2 volleys... thats if any of them are alive

[Saiah]

Everything hit by a naphta bomb is instantly dead, so it should do to those elephants.

[Jackster]

the problem is to get them there...
they fire really slow too.
and it will be useless against a good human player.