Flail Elephant

Flail Elephant
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Type	Cavalry Heavy cavalry Siege unit Melee cavalry
Civilization	Indians
Age	Commerce Age
Training
Trained at	Castle Agra Fort (once upgraded to Red Fort)
Food	125
Coin	125
Training time	43 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	325
Resists	50% vs. Ranged
Speed	4.0
Line of Sight	15
Population	3
XP train bounty	25
XP bounty	25
Melee attack
Damage	10
Multipliers	x0.5 vs. Villager x1.5 vs. Infantry x0.67 vs. Heavy infantry x4.0 vs. Artillery
Area of Effect	2
Rate of Fire	1.5
Siege attack
Damage	80
Rate of Fire	1.5

“	Powerful Elephant from India that swings a mace for area damage. Good against buildings.	”
—In-game description

The Flail Elephant is a melee heavy siege cavalry in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Indians and can be trained at the Castle once the Commerce Age is reached, and the Agra Fort wonder once it is upgraded to Red Fort. It excels at taking down buildings.

Overview

The Flail Elephant has a rapid siege attack, and a massive ranged resistance and can demolish buildings in seconds, but is fairly poor in combat, largely due to its low speed and vulnerability to heavy infantry and ranged cavalry.

Flail Elephants are very effective at taking out buildings such as Forts and Town Centers incredibly quickly, sometimes before the enemy is able to react. They are capable of dealing with artillery extremely effectively, if they are able to reach it; they are the only Indian heavy cavalry that has a multiplier against cannon and all of them share the trait of having low base damage. Thus, Flail Elephants can somewhat fill this weakness.

After "Professional Handlers" has been shipped, Flail Elephants become very population-effective damage sponges. As Mahout Lancers are quite easy to focus down (as well as expensive), and Sowars are quite fragile, Flail Elephants can offer a middle ground option to soak up ranged infantry fire to protect a player's ranged units. This is especially important for the Indians because they lack a massable artillery piece. Flail Elephants don't do a large amount of damage to units (although the splash damage somewhat compensates this), but can supplement armies as a tank unit and anti-artillery without taking too much population space.

Upgrades

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Disciplined Flail Elephant	200 wood, 100 coin	Upgrades Flail Elephants to Disciplined (+20% hit points and attack)
	Honored Flail Elephant	600 wood, 600 coin	Upgrades Flail Elephants to Honored (+30% hit points and attack); requires Disciplined Flail Elephant
	Exalted Flail Elephant	1,500 wood, 1,500 coin	Upgrades Flail Elephants to Exalted (+50% hit points and attack); requires Honored Flail Elephant

Mansabdar Flail Elephant

Mansabdar Flail Elephant
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Type	Cavalry Heavy cavalry Siege unit Melee cavalry
Civilization	Indians
Age	Commerce Age
Special ability	Imperial Service
Training
Trained at	Charminar Gate
Food	250
Coin	250
Training time	43 seconds
Training limit	1
Statistics
Hit points	650
Resists	50% vs. Ranged
Speed	4.0
Line of Sight	15
Population	3
XP train bounty	50
XP bounty	50
Melee attack
Damage	10
Multipliers	x0.5 vs. Villager x1.5 vs. Infantry x0.67 vs. Heavy infantry x4.0 vs. Artillery
Area of Effect	2
Rate of Fire	1.5
Siege attack
Damage	80
Rate of Fire	1.5

“	Inspires all nearby Flail Elephants. Powerful Elephant from India that swings a mace. Good against buildings.	”
—In-game description

The Mansabdar Flail Elephant is a stronger version of the Flail Elephant that can be trained from the Charminar Gate wonder. As a Mansabdar unit, the Mansabdar Flail Elephant has twice the hit points of a Flail Elephant and Imperial Service that increases the hit points and attack of nearby Flail Elephants, but are two times more expensive.

Special ability

Imperial Service (passive): The Mansabdar Flail Elephant increases the hit points and attack of Flail Elephants in a radius of 24 around them by 10%.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Buildings, artillery, ranged infantry
Weak vs.	Heavy infantry, cavalry
Improvements
Hit points	Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%)
Attack	Yoga (+5%)
Speed	Comanche Mustangs (+10%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Creation speed	Terror Charge (-20%) Cheyenne Horse Trading (-25%) Quechuan Diet (-25%)
Train cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the (Mansabdar) Flail Elephant

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team All Card Description Age HC level Cavalry Combat Cavalry get +15% hit points and attack 10 The Cavalry Combat card is available to Dutch, Ottomans, Russians and Lakota (at a level 25 Home City). French Card Description Age HC level TEAM Hand Cavalry Attack Heavy cavalry and Coyote Runners gets +15% attack 10 Germans Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Attack Heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and Shock Infantry get +15% attack 10 Spanish Riding School Cavalry get +10% speed +4 Uhlans 25 Indians Card Description Age HC level Dravidian Martial Arts All units get +15% melee attack +1 Villager 40 TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 5 Flail Elephants Ships 5 Flail Elephants +1 Villager 1 3 Flail Elephants Ships 3 Flail Elephants +1 Villager 1 TEAM 2 Flail Elephants Ships 2 Flail Elephants; costs 300 food 10 Grazing Sowars and Zamburaks generate 0.05 food every second; Brahmins, Mahout Lancers, Howdahs, Flail Elephants, and Siege Elephants generate 0.1 wood every second +1 Villager 40 Tame Elephants Mahout Lancers, Howdahs, Flail Elephants, and Siege Elephants cost -10% and train time -10% +1 Villager 10 Professional Handlers Mahout Lancers, Howdahs, Flail Elephants, and Siege Elephants use -1 population +1 Villager 10 Elephant Combat Mahout Lancers, Howdahs, Flail Elephants, and Siege Elephants get +15% hit points and attack +1 Villager 25 Japanese Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades Unit upgrades cost -20% 1 Russians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Scouts Cavalry and Shock Infantry get +10% hit points and +4 LOS 1 Lakota Card Description Age HC level Cavalry Damage Cavalry get +15% attack 10 Cavalry Hitpoints Cavalry get +15% hit points 10 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10

Changelog

The Asian Dynasties

• Flail Elephants cost 4 population, have 5 attack, and give 30 XP when killed.
• Mansabdar Flail Elephants cost 8 population, have 5 attack, and give 60 XP when trained or killed.

Definitive Edition

• Flail Elephants cost 3 population, have 10 attack, and give 25 XP when killed.
• Mansabdar Flail Elephants cost 6 population, have 10 attack, and give 50 XP when trained or killed. With Update 20322, Mansabdar Flail Elephants cost 3 population.

Trivia

• The Flail Elephant is the only hand siege unit, together with the Ram, and they are also the only two units with a siege RoF of 1.5.
• Besides the aura underneath it, the Mansabdar and Honor/Exalted Flail Elephant can be difficult to distinguish due to having the same identical features.
• The Dravidian Martial Arts card boosts their siege damage by 15%, not just their melee attack.

History

“

Although there are few accounts to substantiate its existence, the flail elephant was said to have been a cavalry and siege unit fielded with the early armies of Sri Lanka. It would enter battle whirling a heavy iron chain that had been affixed to its trunk, becoming both a terrifying and entirely unapproachable force.

”

Gallery

An in-game Flail Elephant

An in-game Disciplined Flail Elephant

An in-game Honored/Exalted Flail Elephant

An in-game Mansabdar Flail Elephant

The Flail Elephant's history portrait

Flail Elephants using their mighty trunks to bring down buildings

Flail Elephant in the original and Definitive Edition