And the 'uber' unit crown goes to...

[Pritzl]

Elephants!

OMG! Just ran into the main Epirote army as I rushed to aid my Macedonian allies. And wow! Outnumbered them 2:1 and still had my army mowed down by their three elephant units. I expected heavy casualties, but nothing like what transpired - my entire Polybian stack wiped out inspite of higher ground advantage, hundreds of pila thrown and secure flanks (rocky outcrop). The worst part is how quickly my troops routed whenever they came in contact with the danged beasts; and on medium difficulty no less! Meanwhile, their morale seemed unshakeable; not even a hint of running amok. Seriously, how do you stop these things? esp. since they have 4 hitpoints!

[Rosacrux redux]

Hmm... I am playing as Epirus and in a battle against the Maks they reduced my single elephant unit to 1/2 power with just a single unit of akondistes - they discharged their javelins and... down the ellies go! I was not paying much attention at that point (had a rather intimate engagement on my left, with three Mak generals against Pyrrhos) and when I checked my elephants, they were 18men strong... suffice to say, I send them charging into the akondistes and then on two more units and they instarouted them...

[QwertyMIDX]

Throw javelins are them Pritzl, don't every try to engage them in melee.

[LorDBulA]

Elephants are terryfying unit. When i played as Epirothes they where my key unit, saving my ass on many ocasions.
But missiles take them out easily.

[Yamoto]

I dont like these beasts.
They are to strong they are 'Uber-Elephants '.

[QwertyMIDX]

They're not strong at all, they're super fragile. 2 volleys of javelins can usally make them flee. I've had a ton of complaints about how easy they are to deal with.

[Blizzard]

elephants are not strong at all
very vulnerable to javelins
you think 4 hitpoints is much?
elephants in RTR have between 10 and 14hp if I remember well and even those are not unbeatable (in fact I think elephants from EB should have the same stats as the ones in RTR - that would relflect the huge costs of the unit more properly)

[GeneticFlea]

i agree with blizzard...nothing gave me more of a fright than thos damn armoured indian elephants...and i loved that because, well i bet if i was actually fighting a battle as a soldier they would have scared the **** out of me, and should reflect their expensive price with amazing ability to turn the tide of a battle like they did time and time again in Pyrrus' campaigns in italy.

[Fondor_Yards]

One volley from my Peltastai killed a whole unit of Indian elephants but one. Need more then 4 hitpoints, that for sure. Also their meele attack seems really weak, I mean 5? Even Pantodapoi has an attack of 8.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I'll fess up here too: I had one unit of **akontistai** on a hill on the side of a battle. The elephants came charging towards my front line of phalangites and about 60 feet in front of them my unit of akontistai let their first volley go (i had auto-fire off until then). They were on a hill now, and 240 men strong, but in one volley they felled every single last elephant. They didnt' have any upgrades either mind you.

[Artannis Wolfrunner]

I'll have to agree with everyone who's saying elephants are weak - no way would I ever give them the 'uber unit crown'. I've fought them tons of times now since Egypt seems to be able to recruit them in huge numbers. All it takes is 1 volley of javelins from my Pheraspidai or Thorakitai to make them run amok, and 2 or 3 volleys after that to take them all out.

I learned not to try and chase them off the field with cavalry though - sent a unit of light cavalry to take them down and lost half the unit from my guys being crushed when the elephants died and fell on top of them. Ouch.

edit: sidenote: how exactly do I take screenshots? It's been so long since I last played that I forget how.

[Marcus Scaurus]

Hetaroi bodyguards. In my Greek campaign, these Makedonian hetaroi bastards refuse to die, even if my archers shoot at them, my best phalanx fights them and my general's cavalry flanks them.

[Cha0sMarin3]

All generals boddy guards are hard to kill. At my campaing as Bactria, i just declared myself indipendant, i besieged Pura. At pura was the son of the king with 104 bodyguards. I tought 2 units of phalanx and 1 unit of archers should be enough. So i lured them out of the settlement and my two bactria phalanx holding the line with archers flanken with their equipped spears got slaughterd. They are just so powerfull, the unit had a +2 experience upgrade and a +1 weapon upgrade, but thats all really! It would be best to lower the stats of it in the next patch. (im speaking of BE ofcourse )

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Hayasdan general's body guards are pushovers. Attack them (for now ) as much as you can.

[Zenith Darksea]

I know what you mean about those Hetairoi - they just refuse to go down. It's ridiculous! I had them pinned for ages among taxeis hoplitai, with my general charging them (I even threw in my akontistai), and they just didn't die. Or if they did die, they died at about at rate of 1 every 5 minutes. No kidding there.

[SomeJedi]

I can kill an entire unit of elephants with 2 volleys of javelins. Some people here already mentioned this too, but I thought I'd chip in my 2 cents.

I don't even build elehpants any more. They cost upwards of 10,000 and 3,000 upkeep. Considering I can kill them with little thought or effort, I avoid creating them.

[Pritzl]

Maybe it's the type of javelins? My Hastati/Principes Javelins didn't make a dent, but I've just recruited some Peltastai who have a 'bonus fighting elephants' and we'll see how they do. Also note I'm talking about Indian Elephants with what appears to be armour. I'll post their numbers when I get a chance.

[LorDBulA]

Elephants are incredibly strong.
Yes they die easy from missile fire but if you are smart enough to protect them from this danger they will rip enemy army into peaces in no time.
Seriously as long as you dont let them be kiled by enemy missile units they will go through enemy army like hot knofe through butter and Victory is yours.
They are more then worth the price you have to pay for them.
But dont expect them to be usefull when you are fighting light skirmisher army.
They are good for big full scale engagments and not for skirmish fights.

[Blizzard]

Elephants are incredibly strong.
Yes they die easy from missile fire but if you are smart enough to protect them from this danger they will rip enemy army into peaces in no time.
Seriously as long as you dont let them be kiled by enemy missile units they will go through enemy army like hot knofe through butter and Victory is yours.
They are more then worth the price you have to pay for them.
But dont expect them to be usefull when you are fighting light skirmisher army.
They are good for big full scale engagments and not for skirmish fights.

you have to take in count that increased units size have different effects when ekephants enter the scene
a peltastai troop increases dramaticaly at larg and huge unit size while an elephant unit just gains 1-3 elephants and ain that case a salve of javelins incoming from over 200 peltastai or even troops capable of throwing javelins before mele would seal the deal in an instant.

p.s. that's why inventivity came to scene (flaming pigs and other half-comedy units) to counter the dreaded beast problem since even from distance they weren't easy to kill.
take in count an ellie has already a thick skin and if you add pieces of armor to one you'll get a tank
no wonder natives in Africa (or India?) used to cover themselves in elephant excrements then hide in grass and deliver a fatal slash in the point the elephant was most vulnerable: abdomen

[Fiachdubh]

Whenever facing elephants I have found them to be completly ineffectual and easily killed. First time I faced them was playing as the Scipii just two units of town watch and a unit of velites slaughtered three elephants charging them, one of the elephants made it to a line of town watch but even then was eventually hacked down after a while, during which time it only managed to inflict two casualties and considering this was pre patch they were more likely to have been killed by the velites. Since then they have remained just as useless and pointless, rarely even bother using them myself unless inherit a unit somehow. They are more likely to disrupt their own lines then the enemies.