Hittite HHA!?... No way!...
Soon they will be cornered somewhere where they have to stop or turn back and them... Aiiiie!...
The ONLY effctive weapon against Persian AE is, was and will ever be: MASSED AND SPACED APART HELEPOLIS.
No other unit can face elephants as this versatile super-machine gun DM'ing with Persia in Iron Start DM:
In any DM, your first concern is to get going with as many villagers as you can, say 40 or more. Place TCs and houses madly PLUS a pair of Storage pits.
Get Iron Shield immediatelly.
Don't forget a Government Center and a Market.
Imediatelly after getting say, 15 Villies, send them all to the front with a mission:
as near the enemy as you safelly travel plop up as many Stables as you can (30 is a good number). Make sure it's a flat area, of unrestricted movement!... As each Stable completes, press the Elephant train button (or letter "E") at least 3 times - you want a continuous flow of beasts to come up for action as soon as possible!
Now, as soon as you see it, press the AE upgrade button.
Later, after the Stables are up, get some (10?) Siege Workshops or so.
Get Cat upgrade from the first one and build Stone throwers from the others. Get ready to back up your Elephants with them, if need be.
They are yoiur only insurance against Helepolis... unless you have an Hittite partner, that is... But it never hurts to be self-suffcient At home, do not leave your villagers idle:
Go mine Gold (hog it up!) AND make LOTS of FARMS!... Elephants are food-expensive, remember.
If your attack is QUICK (rush-like) you will win.
Beware Choson players that are smart: Instead of making Legions (which they will do later) they will start your your unit's bane: Helepolis.
Kick in your cats, if that's the case...
DM is hard to play, requires fast fingers and a quick mind to switch. Persian Strat in DM is, unfortunatelly, not very flexible, so it must be maximized.
In RM, things are quite different and complex. If you got to the AE phase and are playing against me, chances are that:
(1) I had already lost the game against your partner(s), so your AE are only decorative and mop-up (2) They will be just erased at a frightning pace, because I certainly had time to prepare for them In RM, the best chance for Persia is to get fast hunting galore, tool and bronze very fast and win with a Cav rush.