Armored Elephant (Age of Empires)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires. For the unit in Age of Empires II, see Armored Elephant (Age of Empires II).

Armored Elephant
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
Type	War Elephant
Civilization	See table
Age	Iron Age
Requires	N/A
Training
Trained at	Stable
Food	170
Gold	40
Training time	50 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	600
Melee attack	18
Attack bonus	+35 vs. Buildings and Fire Galley +35 vs. Towers 0 vs Walls
Blast radius	0.75
Reload time	1.5
Melee armor	2
Pierce armor	1
Armor class	Mounted units
Speed	0.75
Line of Sight	5
Unit evolution
Upgraded from	War Elephant

“	Upgrade of the War Elephant. Has increased armor against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons, and causes trample damage to adjacent enemy units.	”
—Age of Empires description

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 (before Return of Rome, it also needed Iron Shield to be researched).

Civilizations

Available	Unavailable
Carthaginians-+ Hittites Lac Viet+ Macedonians-+ Palmyrans Persians+ Phoenicians-+	Assyrians Babylonians Choson Egyptians Greeks Minoans Romans Shang Sumerians Yamato

^- means that the civilization does not get Chain Mail Cavalry or Conscription, and hence cannot fully upgrade their Armored Elephants.

⁺ means that the civilization has at least one civilization or team 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 hit points, makes it a useful alternative to stone throwing siege weapons for civilizations lacking a well developed Siege Workshop tech tree. Additionally, as its name suggests, it has +2 melee armor and +1 pierce armor, making its durability even higher.

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.

Comparison among civilizations

Civilization	Fully upgraded	Carthaginians	Lac Viet	Macedonians	Persians	Phoenicians
Cost	170 food 40 gold	170 food 40 gold	170 food 40 gold	170 food 40 gold	170 food 40 gold	128 food 30 gold
Hit Points	600	750	600	600	600	600
Training Time	40	40	32	50	33.3	40
Armor	2+6/1	2+4/1	2+6/1	2+6/1	2+6/1	2+4/1
Extras				+2 Line of Sight Four times more resistant to conversion	+25% movement speed

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Legionaries, cavalry, buildings
Weak vs.	Priests, siege weapons, Centurions, mounted archers
Upgrades
Armor	Leather Armor Cavalry (+2/+0) Scale Armor Cavalry (+2/+0) Chain Mail Cavalry (+2/+0)
Creation speed	Conscription (+25%)

Civilization bonuses

• Carthaginians: Armored Elephants have +25% hit points.
• Lac Viet: Armored Elephants are trained 25% faster.
• 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%.

Team bonuses

• Palmyrans: Upgrades that benefit Armored Elephants are researched 30% faster.
• Persians: Armored Elephants are created 20% faster.

Changelog

The Rise of Rome

• Armored Elephants have 2 blast radius and +40 damage vs buildings and additional +40 vs walls.
• War Elephants can be upgraded to Armored Elephants only if Iron Shield is researched.

Definitive Edition

• Armored Elephants have 1.5 blast radius and +35 damage vs all buildings.

Return of Rome

• Researching Iron Shield is no longer required to upgrade War Elephants to Armored Elephants.
• Armored Elephants have 0.75 blast radius (affected area unchanged as tile sizes in Return of Rome are larger as well).
• Armored Elephants attack bonus vs Defensive structures changed to an equal attack bonus vs Towers.
• Team bonuses added, Palmyrans: Technologies benefiting Armored Elephants researched 30% faster. Persians: Armored Elephants are trained 20% faster.
• Before the Definitive Edition, the Elephant units (i.e. the War Elephant line and the Elephant Archer) used an African Savannah Elephant, which is inaccurate, as they have never been successfully used in warfare in any significant capacity. Since the Definitive Edition, the elephants were made smaller to depict the North African forest elephant (also informally called Carthaginian Elephants), which is an extinct subspecies of elephants that was present in North Africa and often utilised for warfare by various South European and North African cultures, most notably by the Carthaginians during the Punic Wars. The Indian empires used the larger Indian Elephants, which were also acquired by their neighbours, such as the Persians.

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.	”
—Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome manual

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.

Gallery

Armored Elephant in Return of Rome

A render of the Armored Elephant model

A group of Armored Elephants

Armored Elephants destroying a Roman Wonder in the Battle of Tunis

An Armored Elephant in the Definitive Edition

Ptolemaic soldiers atop a now-extinct North African forest Elephant (left) fighting Seleucids atop an Indian one (right) in the Battle of Raphia

Video

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

Tech tree

		Requires Barracks
	➞		➞		➞
				Requires Wheel	➞
					➞		➞
							➞