Battle Elephant

"Persian unique unit. Slow, powerful, strong, and well-armored cavalry."

- Age of Empires II description

The Battle Elephant is a new type of ccommon cavalry unit introduced in Rise of the Rajas expansion, only available for Khmer, Vietnamese, Burmese and Malay civilizations. It is a slow yet very powerful and resilient cavalry unit in some way similar to the Persian War Elephant but weaker and cheaper.

Battle Elephants can be upgraded to Elite Battle Elephants in the Imperial Age. All civilizations that have access to this unit have some particular buffs for the Battle elephant.

Tactics
Similarly to Persian War Elephants but in a lesser scale, the Battle elephants are tough and durable, they move slowly and are vulnerable to units that deal damage at long range. As cavalry units they are vulnerable to enemy Pikemen and Camels. Their slow speed also makes them vulnerable to Cavalry Archers, though it will take a while for the archers to kill them. Mamelukes, with their high speed and anti-cavalry bonus, are an effective method of fighting them. Because they are big, move slowly and only have melee attack, scorpions can be effective against them. Scorpions particularly do +6 (+8 for Heavy) bonus damage to Elephants but unlike the War Elephants, Mangonels aren't very effective against battle elephants, because they are a bit more faster than the War elephants and can dodge better a mangonel or onager attack. They can be easily converted by enemy Monks, so they should be deployed with supporting units.

Each civilization that have access to them have particular buffs that allows to use the Battle Elephant in very distinctive ways. The Malays have 20% cheaper Battle Elephants and this bonus, plus other bonuses Malays have ( particularly their fast aging bonus) makes a Battle elephant rush a viable tactic in Castle age, and they may be paired with Light cavalry or Cavalry Archers, basically to harass villagers and distract the opponent until the battle elephants arrive to the battlefield. unlike the other civilizations, Malays don't have access to Bloodlines, Chain Barding armor and Plate Barding armor so in the late game their battle elephants are the weakest among all of them in the game but also the cheaper ones, but unlike the other southeast asian civilizations Malay have access to Heresy and Faith making their elephants the best equipped against monks in all the game ( this including the Persian War Elephant, the Elephant Archer, and the Ballista Elephant).

The Khmer Battle Elephant is one of the best, specially in the late game, like the Malays, the Khmer can also are able to perform an Elephant Rush as their "no prerequisite building" bonus enables for them to perform a fast castle tactic, then create a stable without the needing of a barracks and then spam their Battle elephants that in their case are 15% faster, also at Castle Age they can research their unique technology Tusk Swords that adds +3 attack to Battle Elephants, also considering they have full upgrades for the unit, except for Heresy and Faith.

The Burmese for their part, have 2 unique technologies that furthers the capabilities of the Battle elphant, Howdah technology improves Battle Elephant armor by +1 melee/+2 pierce, making them more resilient particularly to ranged attacks, and Manipur Cavalry gives +6 attack bonus against buildings to all melee cavalry including the Battle Elephant, making this unit a viable alternative to siege engines, also they have full regular improvements except Heresy for this unit.

The Vietnamese Battle elephants are without a doubt, the more resilient of all as they have the Chatras unique technology that adds +30 hp to battle elephants while at the same time having all armor upgrades and Bloodlines, but lacks Husbandry and Blast Furnace, making them ideal as meat shields that can be used to support the archer army of the Vietnamese.

Civilization Bonuses

 * Khmer: Battle Elephants are 15% faster.
 * Malay: Battle Elephants are 20% cheaper.
 * Vietnamese: Conscription is free.

Team Bonuses

 * A team containing Huns: Stable works 20% faster.
 * A team containing Teutons: Battle Elephants are more resistant to conversion.