 |
This article is about the unit in Age of Mythology. For the similar unit in other games of the series, see War Elephant. |
The War Elephant is an elephantine Egyptian cavalry unit in Age of Mythology that is trained at the Migdol Stronghold from the Heroic Age.
Special ability[]
Deathly Donative (Passive, requires Funeral Rites): Yields 8 gold on death.
Further statistics[]
Strengths and weaknesses[]
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. |  Buildings,  Ranged soldiers,  Siege weapons
|
| Weak vs. |  Myth units,  Infantry,  Prodromos,  Camel Rider,  Jarl,  Tiger Cavalry
|
Upgrades[]
| Age | Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Medium Elephants | Automatically | Upgrades War Elephants to Medium (+10% hit points, +10% damage) |
|
|
 Heavy Elephants
|
300 food, 200 gold 15 seconds |
Upgrades War Elephants to Heavy (+15% hit points, +15% damage, +1 Line of Sight); requires Medium War Elephants |
|
 Champion Elephants
|
500 food, 400 gold 40 seconds |
Upgrades War Elephants to Champion (+20% hit points, +20% damage, +1 Line of Sight); requires Heavy War Elephants |
God bonuses[]
- Ra: +15% hit points.
General technologies[]
- Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons, Iron Weapons: +10% damage.
- Copper Armor, Bronze Armor, Iron Armor: -10% hack vulnerability.
- Copper Shields, Bronze Shields, Iron Shields: -10% pierce vulnerability.
- Levy Migdol Soldiers and Conscript Migdol Soldiers: -20% training time
Myth technologies[]
- Funeral Rites (Nephthys): Refunds 8 gold on death.
- Tusks of Apedemak (Thoth): +10% damage, -10% cost, -1 population.
- Valley of the Kings (Thoth): Another spawns for free when one is trained at an empowered Migdol Stronghold.
Relics[]
- Feather of Bifang: +0.2 attack multiplier vs. buildings.
- Dwarven Horseshoes: +5% movement speed.
- Nine Cauldrons: -5% hack and pierce vulnerabilities.
- Pelt of Argus: +6 Line of Sight.
- Thundercloud Shawl: -5% pierce vulnerability.
- Tusk of the Iron Boar: +10% hit points.
Tactics[]
War Elephants are incredibly strong and can destroy almost everything in their path. Due to their large bonus attack against buildings and high pierce armor, they can act as a third Egyptian siege unit, along with Siege Towers and the Catapult. Their main drawbacks are that they are expensive (each costing 250 resources), very slow, and take up 5 population slots. Isis and Set players who pick Thoth for the Mythic Age will have an easier time massing War Elephants, as he provides two technologies: Valley of the Kings, which allows Pharaoh-empowered Migdol Strongholds to spawn an additional free War Elephant for each War Elephant trained; and Tusks of Apedemak, which makes them cheaper both in terms of resource cost and population cost. Furthermore, Set allows his Monuments to slightly reduce the cost of units trained from nearby Barracks and Migdol Strongholds.
As well as being slow, War Elephants are large. This makes them easy to hit with arrows, though they can shrug them off to some extent due to their decent pierce armor. Like all cavalry, War Elephants are weaker against infantry, but due to their fair hack armor and massive hit point total, only a large group of infantrymen will prevail against them. The best way to defeat these mighty units is to use anti-cavalry units such as the Katapeltes, Camel Rider, Ge Halberdier, or Hirdman. Failing that, myth units and heroes with powerful special abilities, such as the Cyclops, Medusa, Perseus, or Polyphemus, are also effective; notably, the Petrification special ability used by the Medusa and Perseus inflicts 400 or 300 divine damage, respectively, which already eliminates a massive portion of the War Elephant's health. As of the release of Immortal Pillars, the Taotie myth unit can also devour a War Elephant, killing it instantly.
Changelog[]
Age of Mythology[]
- Originally, War Elephants had 12 attack and 20 hack armor. With patch 1.05, they have 14 attack and 25 hack armor.
- War Elephants train in 15 seconds.
- With update 17.43876, Heavy War Elephants costs 400 food, 300 gold.
Retold[]
- War Elephants have 20 attack and train in 16.5 seconds.
- With update 17.43876, Heavy War Elephants costs 300 food, 200 gold.
Immortal Pillars[]
- With update 18.9036, War Elephants have a 1.5× multiplier vs. archers.
History[]
| “ | The Egyptian War Elephant is expensive and slow, but is mighty in combat, particularly against buildings. War Elephants can be defeated by myth units or large groups of counter-cavalry units. The generals of ancient times, such as Pyrrhus and Hannibal, were intrigued by the use of elephants in battle. The size and strength of the beasts were enough to frighten any troops, but especially those who had never seen the animal before. In practice, elephants may have been more for show than effectiveness. When wounded, they were difficult to control and just as likely to disrupt friends as foes. Elephants were used as platforms for commanders and archers, and were ideal for breaking into dense enemy formations if they could be goaded to do so. While war elephants were first used in ancient India, the Ptolemies of Egypt were the first to use African elephants in warfare. Classical texts are very clear that generals knew to counter war elephants with pigs. |
” |
| —In-game help section | ||
| “ | The Egyptian War Elephant is expensive and slow, but is mighty in combat, particularly against buildings. They can be defeated by large groups of infantry or by Camels and Prodromos. The generals of ancient times, tracing back at least to Hannibal, were intrigued by the use of elephants in battle. The size and strength of the beasts were enough to shake any troops, but especially those who had never seen the animal before. In practice, elephants may have been more for show than effectiveness. Wounded elephants were difficult to control and likely to disrupt friends as much as foes. They were used as platforms for commanders and archers, and were ideal for breaking into dense enemy formations if they could be coaxed to do so. While the Indians first introduced elephants to the Mediterranean, the Ptolemies of Egypt were the first to use the larger African elephants in warfare. Classical texts are very clear that generals knew to counter war elephants with pigs. |
” |
| —In-game help section | ||
Trivia[]
- There is an undocumented "Medium Elephants" upgrade (automatically granted upon advancing to the Heroic Age): increases attack and hit points by 10%.[1] In standard games, this change is not observable, as War Elephants are not available to train before the Heroic Age and are trained with the technology already in effect.
- When a player saves a game after researching the Champion Elephants upgrade, upon loading that saved game, the unit name reads as "Heavy Elephant", despite the fact that the unit retains the Champion upgrade.
- When this occurs, and the War Elephant happens to be the player's favorite or most trained human unit in a standard game, the Favorite Soldier Count under the Mythology tab of the player when viewing the Achievements Aftermath is displayed as "Heavy Elephants".
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ In the game files, the technology is called "Medium Migdol Shadow" (dbid
651) (MediumWarElephantsin Retold) and is present intechtree.xml.
