War Elephants are a type of heavy cavalry unit available to the Persians in Rome: Total War: Alexander.
Description[]
War elephants are fierce and terrible beasts, able to trample men and horses into the dirt. Over three meters tall at the shoulder, these are large and bad-tempered animals, and they have been known to run wild with fear and anger in battle. When this happens no one - friend or foe- is safe. For this reason the driver always carries a small mallet and a spike so that he can kill the animal if necessary by driving the spike into the base of the skull.
The crew are armed with bows to shoot down into tightly packed enemy formations, but the elephant itself is also a weapon: it can trample and gore men easily, hurling them around like rag dolls.
Tactics[]
War Elephants are the worst of the war elephants in the expansion, though considering the low number of them present, that's not saying much. As you'd expect, they're most comparable to the Indian Elephants and Indian General, the two other elephant units in the expansion. There's little to compare elephants to, as they're such odd cavalry units, though compared to something like the Indian Cavalry General, Macedonian Companion Cavalry or even Barbarian General's Bodyguard, these elephants may not come off as favourably.
Stats wise, elephants are quite all over the place. They have comparatively low attack stats compared to normal cavalry units, tying with the Indian General for the lowest melee and missile attack stat, while having slightly worse missile attack stats than Scythian Mounted Archers or Barbarian Horse Archers. They're covered in armour, rivalling that of the heavy armour used by Macedonian cavalry or other general units, though they have no defence besides that and are extremely vulnerable to missiles and spearmen. Their charge is good, though, capable of easily routing lighter infantry without loss to the elephants.
Elephants are an odd unit to use, as they do well as both shock cavalry as well as missile cavalry. They are, however, expensive to field, meaning they will be rare to see in both multiplayer or in the campaign, with an army having at most one unit of elephants. Elephants are best used on the flanks, supported by actual cavalry units, where they can use their long range bowmen to fire down on enemy infantry while also keeping an eye out for opportunities to charge into a melee, causing fear and charge damage to the enemy. Keeping them away from friendly infantry is important, however, as should they be scared by spearmen or, particularly, fire arrows, they can easily charge into your own lines, causing irreparable damage. They're not too bad fighting actual cavalry, either, as they get a bonus fighting cavalry, so if the enemy thinks they can charge a cavalry unit into the elephants for a quick kill, they can be quickly proven wrong. Should the elephants get caught by multiple heavy cavalry units, however, like Macedonian Thessalian Cavalry or Companion Cavalry, the elephants can be swiftly killed off. It's also important to keep them away from spear infantry, which is especially problematic when fighting Macedon, as their Hoplites and, particularly, Phalangists are very good hard counters to elephants, able to kill or enrage them without losing a man. Fire arrows are also good for scaring elephants, as if bowmen can focus the elephants before they get in range of friendly units, getting them to run amok in the enemy lines is very useful. This is especially easy for the Indians, as the range of the Indian Longbowmen mean they can easily target elephants before they reach Indian lines.
Gallery[]
