Arquero Elefante

thumb|left Slow and durable, the Elephant Archer is the toughest archer unit in the game. This durability comes at a cost, however: it is the most expensive archer unit in the game considering civilization bonuses. It does not come with an increased offensive capability in exchange for this cost, with the same attack and basic rate of fire as the Cavalry Archer. An army of Elephant Archers will have dramatically more hit points, but a fraction of the offensive power of an equal-cost army of standard archer units. However, the strength of this unit relies on its population-efficiency rather than on cost effectiveness. Like the other elephant units, Elephant Archers are highly vulnerable to Pikemen and Monks. Being also a mounted archer, they are highly vulnerable against Elite Skirmishers. Furthermore, Flaming Camels deal bonus damage, for a total of 200 damage against elephant units, and are thus simply lethal for packed groups of Elephant Archers. While vulnerable to said counter units, they survive against other units much better than other archer units. While most foot and mounted archers die to the Mangonel in one and two shots, respectively, Elephant Archers can take six and still barely survive. Their huge size also means that Mangonels are hitting only a few units at once. While the example of the Mangonel is an extreme case, their resilience to attacks is nonetheless far greater than most archers. In addition to their hit points, they have 2 pierce armor naturally, which makes them stronger against archers. Compared to melee elephants, whose biggest counters are Monks, the Elephant Archer at least has a fighting chance, unlike melee elephants which get converted before reaching the Monks. The Elephant Archer's high hit points dictate that it should be used as a damage sponge, like the War Elephant. However, being ranged means that they will be at the back of formations most times. This can be circumvented by using units with even more range. While Crossbowmen fulfill that criteria, it is impractical to use two units fulfilling the same role. Good examples include Monks and ranged siege weapons. This was a design issue for the Indians, as they had three units fulfilling the ranged support role, i.e. Elephant Archers, Cavalry Archers, and Hand Cannoneers, any combination of which could not achieve much more than they would on their own. Each civilization that has access to the Elephant Archer has bonuses and unique technologies that may make their use a bit different. However, since none of these civilizations have Parthian Tactics, it will be ignored. === === Bengali Elephant Archers specialize in defense, receiving -25% bonus damage and conversion resistance, as well as all relevant Blacksmith and Stable technologies. This makes them a highly efficient option, as it enables them to resist Pikemen and Monks (in some cases even defeating them, if those counter-units are deployed in similar numbers). Their unique technology Paiks increases their fire rate by 20%, more than offsetting the fire rate boost of Thumb Ring, which they lack. They are still limited to 70% accuracy, which is an issue in lower numbers. While they can still serve a defensive role and can be reasonably effective when massed in the late game, they are still vulnerable to Elite Skirmishers due to the huge bonus damage they take, which can limit all-in use. === === Dravidian Elephant Archers are the most offensively powerful of the three. They do not get access to Bloodlines, rendering them comparatively vulnerable when facing melee damage. However, in the Imperial Age, they fare better against ranged attacks than the Gurjaras, which do not have Ring Archer Armor. With all attack technologies, plus their civilization bonus that makes Elephant Archers fire 25% faster, they are the fastest-firing archers in the game, slightly outclassing even Mongol mounted archers. This makes them the most reasonable choice as the bulk of an army, rather than as a damage sponge, even being more cost-efficient than Crossbowmen against some high-armor units. Even better, they regenerate 30 hit points per minute after Medical Corps is researched, which roughly compensates for the lack of Bloodlines, and can make them an extremely efficient option in the long term, if protected. === === Gurjara Elephant Archers are the easiest to deploy of all three, as they start with +25% faster creation speed due to their team bonus, and can cost with their Kshatriyas technology. However, their improvement options in the Imperial Age make them significantly different to the other two civilizations' Elephant Archers. Firstly, they lack Ring Archer Armor, but have the Frontier Guards technology, which increases their Elephant Archers' (and Camel Riders') melee armor by +4 for a total of +3 over other Elephant Archers and is much more expensive. Hence, they are relatively weaker against archers but more resilient against melee units, especially Light Cavalry. Next, they have access to Heresy but not Faith. While Gurjara Elephant Archers have several potent bonuses, their broadly poor late game, high technology investment, and the presence of the Shrivamsha Rider unit (which broadly fills the same anti-archer role) makes this a particularly niche unit to justify. === Comparison among civilizations === { Civilization Cost Time Hit points Firing rate 1.7 Accuracy 100% 100% Extras Receive -25% bonus damageResistant to conversion (die upon getting converted) } Similarities: * Pierce attack - 6+2 * Armor - 0+2/0+2 * Range - 4+2 * Attack bonus - none * Speed - 0.99