Age Of Empires 2 War Elephants
[warning:this guide might be really biased, as the elite war elite is my favorite unit]
For Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings on the PC, Civilization Bonuses by BlueEye. Apr 30, 2017 Age of Empires II: HD Edition. Suddenly The Persian Players mass Long Swordsman,Supported with Halberdiers,and your Converted War Elephant will have a bad time,Monks can't convert all of those Heretics,and Using Pikes for Elephant will not work for Long Swordsman.
When everyone first plays AOE2, the war elephant is their favorite unit. And don't leave a comment saying 'actually, my favorite unit was the Teutonic knight cuz capes'. Your favorite unit was the dam war elephant, end of discussion. I mean come on, its a fucking elephant. But then one day, most people realize that pikes counter elephants, and that maybe elephants are to slow, and they move on.
BUT NOT THE TRUE FANS. The elite war elephant is the coolest, most powerful unit in the game. I mean look at the stats. Look how big those numbers are! BIG NUMBERS! most people who play Persians in the late game make paladins, so that is what I will statistically compare them to.
Elite Motha Fucking War Elephant---------------douchey persian paladin
620 hp----------------------------------------------------180hp
24 ap------------------------------------------------------18 ap
4/7 armor-------------------------------------------------5/7 armor Gta san andreas san fierro.
200 food, 75 gold---------------------------------------60 food, 75 gold
marches at a brisk pace-------------------------------runs at a dumb pace
In case you don't want to pull out your calculators, thats 3.44X more hp and 1.3X times more ap for 2.66X more food. What a deal! This also means massing Elephants are easy on gold compared to paladins, as you usually won't make as many elephants as you could paladins.
BUT WAIT
THERES EVEN MORE
the elite war elephant does trample damage, just like cataphracts with logistica. Its a fucking elephant, of course it tramples everything. And while the Elite Cataphract does 5 damage, the Elite War Elephant does a weird number that seems to relate to the melee armor, but not follow it exactly. Versus Elite Teutonic Knights with 13 melee armor it did 6 trample damage, but vs paladins with 5 melee armor it did 10. Versus armorless dark age pikes it did 12 damage. basically the math is weird, but you can expect around 10 damage or more for almost all units, and without an expensive UT tech.
here's some armies (all fully upgraded) that 10 Elite War elephants beat in the scenario editor:
45 Elite Byzantine Cataphracts
45 Frankish Paladins
40 Goth halbediers
80 Elite Mayan Plumed Archers
LOOK AT THAT POWER. the Elite War Elephant cost effectively, and number effectively defeats basically all the units in the game.
Counters
Gothic halbs do a whooping 51 damage per hit to Elephants. They won't win 1v1, but they will destroy for their price. also don't try Elite Samurai or Elite Teutonic knights. This isn't CBA, just make halbs. they are cheaper and will be just as if not more effective.
Monks. Elephants are like knights, but slower and more valuable, so that makes monks perfect for elephants.
Cavalry archers and asshole micro. elite war elephants with their UT are slightly slower then champions, so fast archers can just shoot and run. However if there isn't enough archers, Elephants can just ignore arrow fire. Also backing into a corner isn't as effective, because of that 7 pierce armor and trrrrrrAMPLE DAMAAAAAGE.
Mamelukes. the ultimate counter to elephants. they do bonus damage vs cavalry, they are fast, they are ranged, and they are assholes.
massed siege, especially scorpions. scorpions get a small bonus vs elephants, but massed siege counters every unit really, so this kind of whatever.
Now most people will see these counters and think 'durrr, elephants suck cuz they can be countered and are too sloooww'. But here's the thing. when you start making Elite War elephants, your opponent MUST make one of these units. Most people panic and make halbs. When this happens, they are playing your game. You control what units they make, because anything else they make will get trampled. No other unit forces people to change their gameplan like elephants.
Basically, this means you bring hand cannons. more hand cannons then elephants. And since elephants mostly cost food, you should be able to afford these wood/gold hogs. If they make siege or monks? Persians have great Hussars to take these out. bombard cannons also work. If they are massing tons of asshole cav archers or mangudai or plumes? elephants make a great meatshield for skirmishers or hand cannons. Elephants aren't an all in one unit. you can't send just elephants into battle like mangudai or cataphracts (unless you are on a team that has an army to back up your 100% elephant army). But if you can take out their counters, they are the strongest and most magnificent unit in the game.
Unfortunately , sometimes, knights/paladins are the better option, even though they have the same counters as elephants. You should make knights if:
you are playing an open map like Arabia so you can rush the enemy base in the castle age and early imperial age
you are playing the pocket position in an open map team game so you can send fast help instead of being a dick and sending units that will arrive 5 hours later.
you suck at age of empires and can't build your castles.
you are allergic to elephants
You should make elephants if:
it is the post imperial age and your game is in a stalemate.
you are playing black forest, michi, or any closed booming type map.
you are making paladins/knights/whatever and but you have a castle and you want to throw your opponent a suprise dumbo.
you have buttload of extra food
you enjoy fun.
THE END
Hey all! /u/ChuKoNoob has recently been doing weekly Unique Unit discussions, and today I'm going to take over for this week for the discussion about the Persian Unique Unit, the war elephant!
It is a very interesting unit, because it is a huge, lumbering behemoth of death, that is rarely seen in competitive play because of some very vulnerable weaknesses (we'll get to that later). It is classified as a cavalry unit, but it is also classified as an 'elephant', meaning some units (notably halbs and heavy scorpions) will get some extra bonus damage against them. Here are its base stats (before blacksmith upgrades), as of the latest patch:
COST: 200 Food, 75 Gold
450(!) HP
15(!) ATK (+7 vs Building, +7 vs Stone Defense)
1/2 Armor.
Some hidden Stats:
2.03 Rate of Fire
LOS: 4
Blast Radius: 0.5 (Only elite in AoC)
Movement Speed: 0.6 (Affected by husbandry)
Training Time: 31 Seconds
Its upgrade cost is a whopping 1600 Food, and 1200 Gold , and for that several key attributes are improved:
600(!) HP (60 before 4.8)
20(!) ATK (+10 vs Building, +10 vs Stone Defense)
1/3 Armor
2.03 Rate of Fire
Frame Delay: 8
Age Of Empires 2 Torrent
LOS: 5
Movement Speed: 06 (0.85ish after Mahouts + Husbandry)
Training Time: 31 Seconds (less after conscription)
Among the significant improvements that the elite upgrde offers are 150 more HP, 1 more pierce armor, and in AoC the blast damage (in the expansions they get the blast damage for non-elite, also). Also, the Persian Imperial Age Unique Tech is Mahouts, (for 300 Food 300 Gold) which speeds them up by 30%.
These stats are awesome! It's like a ram that murders melee units! Right? Well, not exactly, because there are two very major caveats: (1) They get hard countered by the halberdiers, because they get extra bonus damage vs the elephants. In post imp, the halbs deal a whopping 60 bonus damage to the elephants, taking them down in a mere 10 hits. (2) They are incredibly slow, and the Persians lack heresy. This means that
Here are some topics to discuss:
How Important are the blacksmith, husbandry, and mahouts upgrades for this unit? It already has incredible stats, but it sure is slow
How, if at all, has the inclusion of the splash damage for the non-elite version in the HD expansions changed the usage of this unit in competitive play?
When it is used in the Persian Army, what roles does it fulfil? Is it a tanky meat shield, or a building crusher? Or both?! What units in the persian army compliment the war elephant well?
Is this unit viable in competitive play? Is it too much of a hassle to get a castle out to start production? Does it's slow speed mean that many other units will simply out maneuver them? Or does it's incredible power mean that it is nearly impossible to stop.
How does this unit compare to the battle elephant?
If you'd like to learn more about this unit, here are some resources you can go to:
Wiki Page. Probably good for learning about its stats http://ageofempires.wikia.com/wiki/War_Elephant_(Age_of_Empires_II)
And of course, the most important of all: how to kill ten war elephants :)
Thanks for participating in this week's Unique Unit Discussion! See you next week!
If you'd like to see the previous discussion on the Kamayuk, click here