Elefante de Asedio

The Siege Elephant has +40 hit points, +30 anti-building attack, +10 anti-siege attack, +10 pierce armor, +3 , and +3 over its predecessor. It also gains a blast radius of 1.5, which the Armored Elephant lacks. The Siege Elephant functions very similarly to the Capped Ram, but lags a bit behind the Siege Ram. They are great at taking down massed buildings and at absorbing enemy pierce attacks. In-game, the Armored and Siege Elephants are considered cavalry with attack bonus not siege weapons. This has many implications, which changes the way the unit is used. Firstly, rams cost wood, while Siege Elephants cost food. This matters, since food is harder to mass. Next, Capped Rams can garrison archer and infantry units for their protection. Garrisoned infantry units increase the speed of rams by 0.05 tiles/s/unit, taking them from 0.6 tiles/s to 0.9 tiles/s, capping their speed to that of a Militia without Squires. Siege Elephants, on the other hand, are capped at 0.66 tiles/s. The infantry units also provide +10 attack vs. buildings to rams, which means the upper limit of the attack bonus of Capped Rams vs buildings is . Rams are repaired by Villagers, but Siege Elephants are healed by Monks. Besides being free, healing by Monks can be done from a safety of 4 tiles away. It also has a convenience factor of not having to bring a Villager to front line and risk losing it. This mechanic is specially useful on Arena, where Monk-siege pushes are very common. Capped Rams have -2 melee armor, making them take extra damage from melee units, and are especially weak to low-melee attack units like Chu Ko Nu, Scorpions, Kipchaks, Fire Galleys and Villagers. Siege Elephants have -2 melee armor, though this is increased by 2 or 3 by cavalry armor technologies at the Blacksmith, thus improving their melee durability, especially against low-melee-attack units. However, they will take considerably more damage from Halberdiers and other anti-elephant units. The Siege Elephant has the exact same blast radius as that of a Capped Ram (which is 25% less than that of a Siege Ram). Rams, when attacking, only affect buildings and siege weapons in their blast radius. Siege Elephants, on the other hand, attack every unit and building with 33% force. Against buildings, Siege Elephants deal approximately slightly more damage per second than Capped Rams without factoring armor, though their lower attack means they are more affected by armor than the Capped Ram. The Siege Elephant is worse against mass buildings than rams, due to its lower blast radius damage. Monks do not need Redemption to convert Siege Elephants. They do, however, need to be in the proximity of the Siege Elephant. This is dangerous, since Siege Elephants have blast damage, and Monks have no armor to resist the low melee attack of the Elephant. The difference in pierce armor only matters against Trebuchets. Siege Elephants take bonus damage from anti-cavalry and anti-elephant units, some of which is reduced. Siege Elephants attack every 3 seconds, while rams attack every 5 seconds. This means that Siege Elephants have almost 66% better damage output than shown (before taking armor into consideration). Siege Elephants can also be garrisoned inside Castles and in ally Kreposts, unlike rams or any other Siege Workshop unit. Siege Elephants also target non-siege weapons on their own, while rams do not. If Siege Elephants are not micro-managed, they may chase other, faster units, or fight units they are not effective against. Rams, on the other hand, don't have this problem, and thus require less attention when given an attack command. ==== Similarities ==== Both units cost almost the same amount of total resources (215 for Siege Elephant vs. 235 for Capped Ram), benefit from Siege Engineers, and are trained in the exact same time. Despite having slightly different counters, they share weaknesses in Mangudai, Huszars, Eagle Warriors, Onagers, heavy cavalry, and heavy infantry. Despite being usable against regular units, Siege Elephants prioritize attacking buildings, just like rams. Siege Elephants have 1.5 blast radius, just like Capped Rams. Both units also cannot be converted from a distance by enemy Monks, requiring them to get right next to the Siege Elephant/Capped Ram to start the conversion process. ==== Comparison table ==== { Units Generic (Hindustani) Cost Hit points Melee attack 4+4 Rate of Fire Armor -2/190 -2+4/150+4 Attack vs buildings + + Attack vs. siege +50 +35 Speed 0.6 0.66 Blast radius 1.5 tiles with 100% effect against buildings and siege weaponsnone against units 1.5 tiles with 33% effect against all units and buildings Armor classes (+1) (+10) (+20) }