Armored Elephant (Age of Empires)

Armored Elephant
Unit information
Introduced in	The Rise of Rome
Type	Cavalry
Civilization	See table
Age	Iron Age
Training
Trained at	Stable
Food	170
Gold	40
Training time	50 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	600
Attack	18 melee
Attack bonuses	+35 vs. Buildings +35 vs. Towers
Blast radius	1.5
Rate of Fire	1.5
Melee armor	2
Pierce armor	1
Speed	0.9
Line of Sight	5
Unit evolution
Upgraded from	War Elephant
Required research	Iron Shield

The Armored Elephant is a heavy cavalry unit in Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome that can be trained at the Stable in the Iron Age once Iron Shield is researched.

Civilizations

Unit availability

Available	Unavailable
Carthaginians^ Hittites* Macedonians*^ Palmyrans* Persians*^ Phoenicians^	Assyrians Babylonians Choson Egyptians Greeks Minoans Romans Shang Sumerians Yamato

The * indicates that the civilization can fully upgrade their Armored Elephants, i.e. gets Chain Mail Cavalry.
The ^ indicates that the civilization has at least one civilization bonus that benefits the combat strength of their Armored Elephants.

Gameplay

Compared to its predecessor, the War Elephant, it does 3 additional attack against units and 2 additional bonus damage (to a total of 7 bonus damage) against buildings, which, combined with its trample damage and high HP, makes it a useful alternative to stone throwing siege weapons for civilizations lacking a well developed Siege Workshop tech tree.

Like stone throwing siege weapons, Armored Elephants do trample damage to adjacent enemy targets, although at a larger area. They are effective against infantry and cavalry but are vulnerable to conversion and quicker units that can attack at long range. Its attack cannot be upgraded and it does not benefit from Nobility; only the armor can be improved.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, cavalry, buildings
Weak vs.	Priests, siege weapons, large groups of Centurions and Camel Riders
Upgrades
Armor	Leather Armor Cavalry (+2/+0)  Scale Armor Cavalry (+2/+0)  Chain Mail Cavalry (+2/+0)

Civilization bonuses

• Carthaginians: Armored Elephants have +25% hit points.
• Macedonians: Armored Elephants have +2 Line of Sight and are four times more resistant to conversion.
• Persians: Armored Elephants have +25% speed.
• Phoenicians: Armored Elephants cost -25%.

Trivia

• A Carthaginian Armored Elephant, alongside the Carthaginian War Elephant and Elephant Archer, has the highest hit points of any unit in the game, all with 750. Notice that this value is even higher than the hit points of a fully upgraded Persian Elite War Elephant of Age of Empires II.

History

“	Armies using elephants in battle learned quickly that wounded animals could be as dangerous to friendly troops as they were to the enemy. One solution to this problem was to cover elephants partially with light armor that helped protect them from arrows and spears. Unwounded animals were much easier to control and direct against the enemy. Keeping the elephants under control and bringing them into contact with the enemy was critical. Only veteran troops would stand and fight against a determined charge by elephants. All others would rout when the elephants got close.	”
—The Rise of Rome manual

Gallery

A render of the Armored Elephant model

A group of Armored Elephants

Armored Elephants destroying a Roman Wonder in the The Battle of Tunis

An Armored Elephant in the Definitive Edition

Video

ARMORED ELEPHANT vs EVERY UNIT - Age of Empires- Definitive Edition