War Elephants

[Theben]

Actually I am a warrior->builder->warrior.

I try to axerush 1 target early, then build for awhile, then once I get Infantry &/or tanks go to war again.

The axerushed target is generally determined by distance, capitol on hill or not, and (most important) if they have Slavery.

[Unimatrix11]

Originally posted by rah
.... I had a city the other day that had 5 eles in reach. You'd never see 5 coppers in the same city BFC.

...or pop 8 techs in a row... you lucky s** of a b**** ! ;P

[Cyrus The Mike]

Well, are we forgetting what the Elephant was in the classical period? It's the equivalent of the tank.

Now Is it too powerfull. In my opinion no I really find no use for them they don't have defence so it only takes two too good swords or two spears to dispatch one, and you only get about one attack out of them if there alone because by the time they've killed something there too weak to defend themselvs. There about as good as any other unit, I don't even build them to be honest.

[Ming]

They are best used in stacks... Horseman can't take out your cats, and they can be used to clean up injured units. You should try building more of them and including them in your SOD's. They really aren't meant to travel solo... just like most units aren't

[Theben]

Every good SOD needs a healthy mix of units.

[Theben]

That could be the winner for the "no **** captain obvious" award of the year. In my defense I've had a few drinks.

[rah]

It may be obvious, but some MP players don't do it, and the AI doesn't always do it. I saw an SOD the other day that was all horse archers and cats. Since the stack had cats it only moved 1 square at a time and never made it to any of my cities. Silly. A handful of ele's took out the horse archers and my horse archers finished off the cats.

[Unimatrix11]

... which you could have done with WEs alone. I love ´em, too. Actually the only time i ever go for HBR is when i have ivory around (SP-Prince or 2P-´semi-friendly´).

[rah]

YEah, but I like to balance my stacks a bit.
When I promote my ele's the second promo is usually shock to handle spearmen. When the AI promotes eles the second promo is usually 20% so their eles will have the advantage straight up over my eles.

But yes I do love them also. I used to be the same and only go for HBR when I had ivory, but since they added the flanking thing, I find myself building a few more HAs or knights for my mobile defense stack.

[Felch]

Originally posted by Ming
And another difference is that they are viewable from the very beginning, with no science requirement to uncover them.

To be fair, it's not like you need a microscope to see an elephant.

[Ming]

True enough...
But you don't need a microscope to see horses either... yet Cows are viewable... Hmmmmm

And what about metals. On one hand, we can see silver and gold, but can't see iron and copper

[Unimatrix11]

It´s because of the shining.

[Felch]

Horses should be visible. Gold should be visible. But others should need a tech. Without knowing how to smelt, the ores won't look very useful. But a big animal, or a shiny gold nugget is always going to get your attention.

[Tattila the Hun]

I wonder, if, before you research the required tech, you could just see "a big animal" in the square, where the horses are. A nondescript graphic; your people don't know what it is. It could turn out to be cows, or horses, or nothing, zebras or such. Same for "shiny bits of rock", which turn out to be gold or silver or fools gold.

[rah]

Originally posted by Unimatrix11


...or pop 8 techs in a row... you lucky s** of a b**** ! ;P

I was playing a game last night as the persians with the aim of doing an immortal rush so AH was my first research and lo and behold horses appear in my caps BFC , so I research wheel and then BW, as I'm building my 2nd immortal I get the shield event for free cover for my axemen and then I get the sharp axe one for free shock. Talk about bad luck, I was so confused I didn't know which one to build, axes or immortals.