ā | Khmer unique elephant equipped with a Scorpion. Can destroy trees. | ā |
—Age of Empires II description |
The Ballista Elephant is the unique unit of the Khmer in Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas. It is a cavalry siege unit that fires bolts like a Scorpion. Ballista Elephants are one of only three siege types that can cut down trees, along with the Trebuchet and the (Siege) Onager.
Ballista Elephants can be upgraded to Elite Ballista Elephants in the Imperial Age.
Tactics[]
The Ballista Elephant's main advantage over the standard Scorpion is their higher degree of self-sufficiency. This is due to a combination of their much higher hit points and no minimum range. Their lower minimum range also makes them better at micro than Scorpions. Mixing Hussars with the Ballista Elephant is the best way to aid them, as the Hussars give Ballista Elephants the speed and anti-siege support they need.
The main competition for the Ballista Elephant is a composition of Elite Battle Elephants and Heavy Scorpions. The Ballista Elephants' main advantage is their lower cost, both in terms of investment and per unit, making them better in 1v1 games. On the other hand, they lack the damage output of Heavy Scorpions, so Elite Battle Elephants and Heavy Scorpions are better in team games.
As the Ballista Elephant is internally classified as a cavalry unit, there are many differences they have from normal siege units. Monks can heal them and convert them without needing Redemption. They can also garrison in Castles and are affected by Stable technologies and the cavalry armor upgrades.
The main counter to the Ballista Elephant is Onagers, as they deal substantial bonus damage against them. Additionally, they take bonus damage from anti-elephant units like Halberdiers and Heavy Camel Riders. However, their lack of minimum range and ranged attack means they can fend off these units to a decent degree if protected. They are also very expensive and are usually not used until the Imperial Age.
Unlike the Scorpion, the Ballista Elephant can cut down trees. This can be incredibly useful on maps with dense forests such as Black Forest or Arena, especially considering that they are the only unit available in the Castle Age that can do so. However, this is time-consuming, as only a single tree is cut with each shot.
Further statistics[]
As Ballista Elephants are unique to the Khmer, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
---|---|
Strong vs. | Archers, massed units, especially infantry, buildings |
Weak vs. | Eagle Warriors, siege weapons, Monks, Kamayuks, Huskarls, Mamelukes, Magyar Huszars, Mangudai, Flaming Camels |
Upgrades | |
Hit points | Bloodlines (+20) |
Attack | Siege Engineers (+20% attack against buildings, practically only Elite) Chemistry (+1) Double Crossbow (gives a second projectile with 6 pierce attack and 3 attack against Elephants) |
Range | Siege Engineers (+1) |
Armor | Scale Barding Armor (+1/+1) Chain Barding Armor (+1/+1) Plate Barding Armor (+1/+2) |
Speed | Husbandry (+10%) |
Creation speed | Conscription (+33%) Kasbah (+25%, with a Berber ally only) |
Conversion defense | Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) |
Upgrades | Elite Ballista Elephant |
Team bonuses[]
- Bulgarians: Researching armor upgrades at the Blacksmith is 80% faster.
- Gurjaras: Ballista Elephants are trained 25% faster.
- Huns: Researching Bloodlines and Husbandry is 20% faster.
- Lithuanians: Researching Devotion and Faith is 20% faster.
- Malians: Researching Siege Engineers and Chemistry is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Ballista Elephants are researched 25% faster.
- Teutons: Ballista Elephants are more resistant to conversion.
Changelog[]
Rise of the Rajas[]
- Ballista Elephants have 8 attack (9 for Elite).
- Ballista Elephants' secondary bolts (with Double Crossbow) are not affected by Chemistry.
- Ballista Elephants have -2 cavalry armor, -2 elephant armor, and -2 siege armor.
Definitive Edition[]
- Chemistry now properly affects Ballista Elephants' secondary bolts.
- Fixed the issue with Ballista Elephant attack being inconsistent.
- Upon release, Ballista Elephant armor upgrades were bugged: the non-Elite version only got pierce armor from cavalry Blacksmith upgrades, while the Elite version received only melee armor. If the game was started in Post-Imperial (e. g. Death Match), Ballista Elephants would only have their melee armor upgraded. This bug got fixed later but was not addressed by patch notes.
Dynasties of India[]
- With update 61321, Ballista Elephants have 10 attack (11 for Elite).
- Armor-ignoring attacks could be used against Ballista Elephants, unlike other siege units which were made immune in update 61321.
- With update 73855, Ballista Elephants are now resistant to armor-ignoring attacks, similarly to ships, other siege units, and buildings.
- With update 81058, Ballista Elephants have 0 cavalry armor, 0 elephant armor, and 0 siege armor. They also gain the Heavy siege armor class, with +20 armor.
Trivia[]
- Unlike most other non-suicide siege weapons, the Ballista Elephant is in the "Cavalry" unit class (instead of the "Ballista" or "Siege Weapon" classes). As consequences of this:
- The Ballista Elephant can be healed by a Monk (instead of having to be repaired by a Villager) or garrisoned in a Castle or an ally's Krepost. It can also be converted without Redemption.
- The Ballista Elephant benefits from Stable technologies and cavalry armor upgrades. It does not benefit from melee attack upgrades because, unlike other cavalry units, it has no melee attack.
- Even though rams have a high attack bonus against Ballista Elephants, they do not attack them automatically, having to be manually commanded to do so.
- The Ballista Elephant is the only military unit in the Castle Age capable of cutting down trees.
- If a Ballista Elephant attacks its target at melee range, the missiles will not fly straight and cause pass-through damage as usual. Instead, the missiles will just drop onto the first target (similar to arrows from a tower with Murder Holes researched). This is because the projectile spawning area of the unit spawns directly above it, which makes the direction vector vertically downwards.
- Non-Elite Ballista Elephants do not get additional attack against buildings with Siege Engineers (technology bonus is rounded down:
ROUND(2 {unit's attack vs
armor class 11} Ć 1.2 {Siege Engineers bonus}) = 2)
). - Because Ballista Elephant projectiles have an existing dead unit projectile animation (which probably spawns inside the object Ballista Elephant is attacking after the collision occurs), they deal additional +1 damage against buildings (does not affect units). No such "dead unit" animations for projectiles exists for other ballista-style units (Scorpions or Caravels).
- After update 37650 of the Definitive Edition, elephant heads will appear peeking out of Transport Ships loaded with 10 Ballista Elephants or other elephant units.
History[]
The elephant is one of the most important military animals in the Khmer era. The Chinese writer Ma Duanlin claimed that Suryavarman II (1113-1150) had a force of no fewer than 200,000 elephants. Several surviving reliefs from 12th and early 13th centuries also show that the Khmer mounted ballistae or crossbows on elephants, at least experimentally.[1]
Gallery[]
Video[]
References[]
- ā Schliesinger, Joachim. 2011. "Ethnic Groups of Cambodia Vol 1: Introduction and Overview" (p. 168-169). White Lotus, Bangkok.