What if this animal had lived past the pleistocene? And what if it turned out to be domesticable, ala the Old World elephants of which it was a member of the same family (Elephantidae)?
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/rkmasto.jpg

I remember once reading that the mastodon died out in South America as early as 400 AD. Can't verify that, but wouldn't it be kinda cool if the Iroqouis or Inca in your epic game could make use of that ivory resource in their territory? The American mastodon was about 8 feet tall, much smaller than the mammoth, the african loxidont, and even the asiatic elephant.

Then of course there's the mammoths. The famous woolly...
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/rkwoolmam.jpg

and the oh so imposing columbian mammoth, standing nigh 14 feet.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/rkcolumam.jpg

What if, what if? It'd be a pretty cool unit.

Cool and very interesting idea. There is definitely more need for mounts on fantasy settings.

I'm not really sure on how tameable they'd be, though.

The problems with the Americans, just as with the Maori, is that they came to this new continent with lots of big animals, and said to each other: "Let's eat BIG steak tonight."

Though I'd like to see a Moa-rider. :mischief:

It would be a neat unit for a pre-historic scenario, and could be added to the already existing Dino units...

Ah, the beautiful drawings of Zdenek Burian.
If you had to make an ancient elephant, I would rather choice a Deinotherium.

http://members.aon.at/hani1/dinotherium2.gif

An Arsinoitherium or an Elasmotherium would be nice too.

Whoa, digression here. Oh, well, I'll play along.

Supa: I prefer the work of Charles Knight myself. As for the latter two, one is an earlier ungulate (embrithopod?) and the other is rhinoceridae (btw, did ya know that the sumatran is a living member of the woolly rhino subfamily?). They're not elephants.

Anyway, I wasn't suggesting prehistoric units, and certainly not some lost world thing where humans, dinos, and tertiary mammals are thrown in together (that's WAY to sloppy a dinner for my conceptual appetite).

I was suggesting an ancient empire-style heavy mount for the New World, as was seen in India, Carthage, and Persia.

In order to flesh out possibilities for more New World units, I posit: what if ancient Amerindian empires had access to domesticable megafauna (horses and elephants) - which, in the epic game, they can? Well the horses wouldn't look too different, but the elephantidae would. It's not meant to be "pure" fantasy, just "slightly extrapolated but remotely plausible" fantasy... so pleistocene, not oligicene mammals, and New World, not Old World. Things that died out around 10-13,000 years ago, for the most part, but within the horizon of early man's first concretization of civilization in the Old World. On a random epic map, when things are shuffled, the Iroquois might get the horses and elephants...

Also, Mrtn, I think the fact that much of the megafauna died off in the New World isn't strictly attestable to human predation. In the case of the Maori and the moa the case is much more clearly cut, as with the roc of Madigascar.

> They're not elephants.
I know, I was digressing about extinct mammals. :)

Supa, I should've said "They're not elephants... as I'll bet you know." Sorry if I came off patronizing. :p

There is no problem. It's just my ego that made me typing this :p ;)

Originally posted by mrtn
The problems with the Americans, just as with the Maori, is that they came to this new continent with lots of big animals, and said to each other: "Let's eat BIG steak tonight."

Though I'd like to see a Moa-rider. :mischief:

:lol: :lol: (often happens when you are around :goodjob: )