Armored Elephant
Age: | Iron (RoR only) | |
Prerequisites: | Build Town Center, build Barracks, build Storage Pit, build Stable, research War Elephant, research Iron Shield, upgrade to Armored Elephant. | |
Upgrade Cost: | 1000 food, 1200 gold | |
Cost: | 170 food, 40 gold | |
Hit Points: | 600 | |
Attack: | 18 | |
Armor: | 2 | |
Piercing Armor: | 1 | |
Range: | – – – | |
Speed: | Slow | |
Upgrade of: | War Elephant | |
Special: | Trample damage to adjacent units; attack strength not upgradable. Increased attack vs. walls and towers; +1 armor vs. missile weapons, Ballista, Helepolis |
Description:
The Armored Elephant is an upgrade of the War Elephant. The Armored Elephant has Siegecraft, more attack strength, armor, and piercing armor.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor.
Comments
You must be in dream land if you plan to pull off any sort of AE attack in an RM game. Not only is the upgrade to get the AE so huge, but the cost of one itself is high. In RM they are reasonable backup units for siege but it’s in DM where the AE really comes into its own. The introduction of the AE to RoR has changed the face of DM. Now the elephant is a strong unit that can take down the cities easily. It is still weak to siege and towers but with more piercing armor and siegecraft, enough of them will win a game. Carthage AEs are the best due to their +150 HP, but Persian speed bonuses make their AEs pretty deadly too.
Attack early in DM. Stable produce almost 40% faster than siege workshops so AEs will always appear before siege. Attack with a lot of elephants before the siege comes out you will win. If you ever build them in RM, you should be almost near victory.
Centy
History
Armies using elephants in battle learned quickly that wounded animals could be as dangerous to friendly troops as they were to the enemy. One solution to this problem was to cover elephants partially with light armor that helped protect them from arrows and spears. Unwounded animals were much easier to control and direct against the enemy. Keeping elephants under control and bringing them into contact with the enemy was critical. Only veteran troops would stand and fight against a determined charge by elephants. All others would rout when the elephants got close.