War Elephant (Age of Empires)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires. For the unit in other games of the series, see War Elephant.

War Elephant
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires
Type	Cavalry
Civilization	See table
Age	Iron Age
Training
Trained at	Stable
Food	170
Gold	40
Training time	50 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	600
Melee attack	15
Attack bonus	+25 vs. Buildings and Fire Galley +25 vs. Towers 0 vs. Walls
Blast radius	0.75
Reload time	1.5
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor class	Mounted units
Speed	0.75
Line of Sight	5
Upgrades to
Upgrades to	Armored Elephant
Upgrade cost	1,000 food, 1,200 gold
Upgrade time	150 seconds
Upgrade requires	N/A

“	A cavalry unit with many hit points and special attack strength. Causes trample damage to adjacent enemy units.	”
—Age of Empires description

The War Elephant is a heavy cavalry unit in Age of Empires that can be trained at the Stable once the Iron Age is reached. War Elephants are very slow and rather expensive but pack a massive attack (including splash damage) and high hit points. War Elephants are only available to some civilizations.

Civilizations

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

Gameplay

War Elephants deal 5 bonus damage against buildings (to a total of 8 damage, since buildings in Age of Empires have 80% resistance to all attacks). Combined with their trample damage and high HP, this makes them a useful alternative to stone throwing siege weapons for civilizations lacking a well developed Siege Workshop.

Like stone throwing siege weapons, War 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.

War Elephants have the most hit points of any land unit and an attack that damages all enemies around them. Their downside is that they are slow and therefore a great target for enemy siege units. Their slow speed also makes them very prone to conversion by enemy Priests. Civilizations that have bonuses for War Elephants include the Phoenicians, Persians, and the Carthaginians. Persian War Elephants are 25% faster while the Phoenicians can train them at a cheaper cost. Carthaginian War Elephants have 25% more hit points.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Long Swordsmen, cavalry, buildings
Weak vs.	Priests, siege weapons, Phalangites, mounted archers
Upgrades
Armor	Leather Armor Cavalry (+2/+0) Scale Armor Cavalry (+2/+0) Chain Mail Cavalry (+2/+0)
Upgrades	Armored Elephant

Civilization bonuses

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

Team bonuses

• Palmyrans: War Elephant upgrade to Armored Elephant and technologies that benefit War Elephants are researched 30% faster.
• Persians: War Elephants are created 20% faster.

Changelog

Age of Empires

• War Elephants have 2.0 blast radius and no bonus damage.
• War Elephants can be upgraded to Armored Elephants only if Iron Shield is researched.

Definitive Edition

• War Elephants have 1.5 blast radius and +25 damage vs buildings and defensive structures.

Return of Rome

• War Elephants have 0.75 blast radius (affected area unchanged as tile sizes in Return of Rome are larger as well).
• War Elephants attack bonus vs Defensive structures changed to an equal attack bonus vs Towers.
• Team bonuses added, Palmyrans: Technologies benefiting War Elephants researched 30% faster. Persians: War Elephants are trained 20% faster.
• Researching Iron Shield is no longer required to upgrade War Elephants to Armored Elephants.

History

“	Elephants were tamed in antiquity but never domesticated. They were most useful as beasts of burden, but were employed in battle by several cultures, including the Phoenicians, Persians, and Indians. Elephants were much more intimidating than horses and much tougher as well. In addition, horses avoided elephants, making elephants, in theory, a great weapon against enemy cavalry. In practice, unfortunately, elephants rarely proved useful. They were difficult to acquire,train, and maintain. Hannibal attempted to take elephants across the Alps to attack Rome, but only one survived. No account of Alexander the Great's battles makes any mention of Persian elephants being effective. Elephants were difficult to control in battle and were likely to charge in any direction but the one desired, especially after being wounded. They were apparently more dangerous to friend than foe, being already nearer to friends and most likely to charge away from perceived danger through the friendly army arrayed around them.	”
—Age of Empires manual

Trivia

• A Carthaginian War Elephant, alongside the Carthaginian Armored Elephant and Elephant Archer, has the highest hit points of any unit in the game, all with 750.
• 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.

Gallery

A group of War Elephants

A War Elephant in the Definitive Edition

War Elephant idle sprite in Return of Rome

A captive juvenile African elephant and a full-grown bull carrying a Meroitic warrior, dated between 250 BCE - 300 BC

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

Unused icon, possibly for an unlocking technology for the Elephant Archer and War Elephant

Technology tree

		Requires Barracks
	➞		➞		➞
				Requires Wheel	➞
					➞		➞
							➞