Elefante de Batalla Élite

Elite Battle Elephants are tough, durable and costly, similar to Persian Elite War Elephants, but on a lesser scale. They are characterized by high hit points, moderately slow speed, and very high food costs. They are brute force units which deal trample damage, making them more effective as the size of army grows. As bulky melee units with high attack and trample damage, they are great against other melee units, even if the latter have moderate attack bonuses. Heavy Camel Riders do not perform well against Battle Elephants, unlike regular cavalry. Despite being slow and unable to catch even foot archers, they have enough hit points to survive archer fire for a long time. Even the worst Elite Battle Elephants survive 50 Arbalester shots, same as an Elite Boyar. As such, they are also good as a meatshield for allied ranged units. They take almost double bonus damage from spear units and Kamayuks. As high-value and slow units, they are a prime target for enemy Monks. By design, most elephant civilizations lack Heresy. Elite Mamelukes are particularly effective against them with hit-and-run tactics, high base melee attack, and anti- attack bonus. Further, Flaming Camels deal bonus damage for a total of 200 damage (before armor and blast distance are taken into account) against elephant units, and are thus extremely lethal against packed groups of Elite Battle Elephants. All counters of Elite Battle Elephants can be dealt with by foot archers, which happen to be cheap and have almost the same movement speed after Husbandry. Cavaliers may be preferred to Elite Battle Elephants for the Burmese and Khmer as Imperial Age cavalry when need be, because Elite Battle Elephants are slower and more expensive. The Bengalis can use their unique unit, the Ratha, to transform their military. They shine in pitched battles, not raiding. Another factor contributing to the use of the Elite Battle Elephant is the lack of Paladin for elephant civilizations. One last advantage Elite Battle Elephants have over other units is population efficiency, which is particularly important in the late Imperial Age when players reach their population limit and the only way to keep improving the army is by training units with better stats. Also, each civilization that has access to Elite Battle Elephants has specialties that benefit them, which makes their use different: === === Bengali Elite Battle Elephants take -25% bonus damage, are more resistant to conversion, and attack 20% faster with Paiks. As such, Halberdiers and Monks are less effective. They are also more effective in melee combat and taking down buildings due to Paiks. Since the Bengalis have very confined tactics due to lacking military tree, Elephants and Rathas are the only two effective military choices for Bengalis. It is possible for the Bengalis to launch a triple elephant attack with the Siege Elephant, Elite Battle Elephant, and Elite Elephant Archer, though this is mostly seen in the very late game due to the high cost. === === Burmese Elite Battle Elephants have +1/+1 armor. Both Burmese unique technologies benefit their Battle Elephants, also: Howdah gives them +1/+1 armor (for a total of +2/+2 armor in combination with their civilization bonus) and Manipur Cavalry gives +4 attack bonus against . Burmese Elite Battle Elephants are a strong option against archers, while being respectable against melee units as well. With Howdah researched, an Arbalester only deals 1 damage per hit to a Burmese Elite Battle Elephant if both players have all Imperial Age Blacksmith technologies researched. Since the Burmese have no concrete answer to ranged units due to their abysmal Elite Skirmishers and lacking any other anti-archer unit, their Elite Battle Elephants may serve a delay and protect their commonly-used unit, the Arambai. === === Khmer Elite Battle Elephants move 10% faster and get +3 attack with Tusk Swords. This probably makes the Khmer Elephants the most well-rounded, being good against melee units and buildings due to the latter, and foot archers due to the former. Khmer Elite Battle Elephants can reach 21 attack, a value that makes them very dangerous offensive tools. It is possible for the Khmer to perform a "Battle Elephant rush". Thanks to the Khmer good food economy, civilization bonus, and unique technology, they have the strongest Elite Battle Elephants throughout the game. The Khmer can also use their excellent Scorpions to aid their Elite Battle Elephants against most units. === === Malay Elite Battle Elephants are very cheap, costing -35% (). They are much less dangerous individually, lacking even Chain Barding Armor. The lack of Bloodlines is also inconvenient, but much less significant. They are still ready to be used against melee units, especially considering that the Malay are the only civilization with Battle Elephants who have access to Heresy. However, the Malay Elite Battle Elephants have the same resistance against ranged attack as Elite Boyars, while costing almost the same as an Elite Steppe Lancer. The Malay Elite Battle Elephant can be seen as the "Leitis" of elephants, crushing everything in melee combat (thanks to cheaper cost), but dying to archers unlike others. === === Vietnamese Elite Battle Elephants are the most durable, as they get an additional 100 hit points out of the Chatras technology. They get all relevant upgrades except Blast Furnace, which neither hurts elephants in general, nor is a problem for Vietnamese Elite Battle Elephants, which are mainly used as a meatshield for their excellent archers. The Vietnamese are the only elephant civilization whose elephants play a supportive role, and also have the best foot archers. The combination of Elite Battle Elephants and Elite Rattan Archers is very hard to deal with. === Comparison among civilizations === { Civilization Cost Malay civilization bonus: -35% Hit points Attack 14+4 14+4 14+4 Rate of Fire Armor 1+3/3+4 1+3/3+4 1+3/3+4 Movement speed 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 Extras Resistant to conversion-25% bonus damage attack vs }