Indian Unique Unit: War Elephant

[Tventano]

4/3/2

The War Elephant is the Indian version of the knight. Though it shares the same attack, defense, and move ratings of the knight, it requires no natural resources to build, whereas knights require both horses and iron. This distinction allows the Indians to easily produce these powerful juggernauts in any city, irrespective of trade networks.

Difficult to judge what influence these resource requirement really has. But it is interesting at least.

[Martinus]

If a bit unrealistic. I mean, what do you think is harder to get worldwide? A horse or an elephant?

[Inverse Icarus]

true that.

but this is a huge advantage to the indians.

see, if you found a new city, and it's not on the trade network (no road/harbor/airport link) it cant build a swordman, because it has no iron.

so if you found a city on a new continent early on, be prepared to defend with warriors for a while.

[The diplomat]

it is a huge advantage because it means that any city regardless of trade will be able to produce these war elephants units. Other civs will need to have both iron and horses in order to build knights. So while they are trying to get iron and horses and are worried about protecting there trade network, the indians can produce war elephants as much as possible!

[tniem]

Yeah world wide easier to get horse than elephant but not in India.

It sounds like they have thought about the unique units and hopefully have tested them to death. No resources could help a lot if resources are hard to come by. We will see.

And using an elephant looks cooler than a horse would.

[TechWins]

The War Elephant could prove to be a very potent UU.

Too bad a normal elephant unit wasn't included.

[jsw363]

This has serious implications for any game with the Indians.

I also think that it's kind of unrealistic. As counterintuitive as it is to allow the Indians to use elephants, which seem to be scarcer than horses, was this the only way they could balance the units? I wonder how widespread elephants were before the modern era. Were they really that commonplace?

[Martinus]

Originally posted by tniem
Yeah world wide easier to get horse than elephant but not in India.

I didn't mean India.
Now Indians land in Australia and wheee... we have war elephants. While I really rarely whine, this time they could have thought better

[PGM]

I don't think it's that unrealistic. Let's look at some angles:

* How can a horse be as tough as an elephant (4-3-2)? But the question isn't horse vs. Elephant, it's Knight vs. Elephant. And the human part of the knight unit is much more important than the one in the Elephant unit. It's not the horse fighting, it's the knight, but the Elephant does its own fighting, with much less human interference. That's why they're both 4-3-2, which rings true to me. It seems to me that a knight wearing an armour and using a sword could do as much damage as a War Elephant, while it could be as hard to kill.
* Horses - if a civ wants to train a mounted military unit, trading for horses is a must, if you don't have horses near you. Obviously, if you do have horses, you don't have to trade for it. But in India's case, since they didn't have horses but did have elephants, it would be ridiculous to get horses abroad when they could train their own special units, just as powerful, easier and much cheaper.
* Iron - swords and armour require lots of it, while an Elephant wouldn't.

It's just my opinion, but even if it weren't realistic, I have a feeling this could very well be... fun.

[Gramphos]

It may be very powerful as they may get the unit long before anyone else, but it may also be a useless bonus as they already have both iron and horses.
Conclusion: Then Indian Unique Unit is a wildcard.

[saracen31]

Agreed Gramphos, it's a wildcard. Depends on the game. Which is a good thing, none of these UU's should be too powerful.

A knight needed iron for the armor, elephants did most of the fighting themselves. So I think while it may be a wee bit unrealistic resource-wise, I don't have a problem with it.

The Indians will be a civ to watch out for early in the game. Luckily they're generally peaceful.

[Fiil]

Originally posted by Gramphos
It may be very powerful as they may get the unit long before anyone else, but it may also be a useless bonus as they already have both iron and horses.
Conclusion: Then Indian Unique Unit is a wildcard.

Won't elephants come with the same invention as the knights?

[korn469]

posted by korn469 on 21-8-2001
while there might be a picture of an elephant in the game, the unit in question if it is in the game will be based on either a horseman or a knight

harlan, was i close or what?

[red_jon]

Fine, the Indian AI is usually peaceful, but what about MP games? Doesn't this give a hugely unfair advantage?

[Fiil]

I think it's rather funny that the elephants on the map (ivory) won't have anything to do with producing war elephants!

But as I predicted earlier on they game probably couldn't handle a resource that was both luxurious and strategic!