I Hate Elephants

[bigwinw]

So I am playing my first time with Greece. Have 5 Companion Cavalry and all is going well. Taking down Arabia, Songhai, Germany and Siam (in that order). Well the order of this was my biggest mistake. Not realizing the UA, UU and UB of each civ you are fighting can have devastating consequences.

In hind sight I should have taken out Siam first or maybe even second. But certainly before he got elephants. His elephants came in and destroyed all my cavalry quickly, leaving my cities defenseless. He has taken one city and is on the move to the next.

The lesson of the story is twofold.

Know what your Enemies uniqueness's are and more importantly WHEN they get them.

Elephants can stomp your horse rush quickly.

 

[qyll]

hooooobaby. Siamese elephants are brutal because they get +50% vs mounted and mounted get -50% vs them. I had about 10 knights whittled down to 5 (all of them had many promotions) during my war against them. It's possible to kill them with knights + superior tactics, but it's just a lot easier if you bring some longswordsmen + cannons along.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Best thread title ever.

 

[bigwinw]

Ya. I need other non-mounted units. My economy is trashed right now so I have no money. But my Science is good. I have the ability to build fighters at this point (the war has been very long). Working on that and these elephants will be no more. Some better planning and this continent would have been mine 100 turns ago.

 

[sukritact]

Lol, every time I play as Siam (Almost all the time) I always lag behind in terms of my military until I get Naresuan's Elephants. All I have to do is make three of them and everyone on the map fears me.

 

[wurstburst]

Siam is a powerhouse when played by the AI. They get huge fast and tech to those dang elephants in a snap. Whenever Siam is near me I go for them first. Before ANY other civ. Don't let the Siam juggernaut get a rolling. I find that they become the runaway civ more than any other civ if unchecked.

Especially if you are horse dependent for your military!

 

[KingMackem]

Aye, I've been on the receiving end of a Siamese elephant spanking as well. It was my second game on Civ 5. Thought I was doing alright until a horde of Oliphantes appeared on my border... oy.

 

[sarah_aus]

I have found the best way to deal with them is let ur town hit them first, then an archer or a crossbow, then attack them with mounted units. It's the only way I've been able to
Kill them in the past.

 

[Azedenkae]

Elephants should require a source of Ivory nearby. XD

 

[alpaca]

Elephants should require a source of Ivory nearby. XD

In my opinion it's good they removed this requirement. It's quite annoying if you can't use your unique unit due to resource constraints and getting ivory is just a crapshot while you can usually manage to pick up some source for the normal strategic resources.

As for the psycophants: I think they are one of the best unique units in the game, maybe a bit behind the CC because they only have 2 moves, but they just dominate anything up to rifles except for the French Musketeers.

 

[sukritact]

It's quite annoying if you can't use your unique unit due to resource constraints

So the other unique units that replace horsemen or knights don't require horses?

Back on topic: I've only got one thing to say about Siamese elephants: I LOVE 'EM! Unless I'm the one being attacked by them.

 

[boehj]

I love the Siamese civ. I played them a lot when I first got the game, and I'm surprised that the Steam Achievements seem to indicate that few people use this civ. They are very strong.

However, I never built their UU for some reason. I just wrote it off as a gimmick and never experimented with it... And then I finally came up against Ramkhamhaeng and his elephants in a war. My god! Those things are almost impossible to kill!

Needless to say, in my next Siamese game I'll be building some.

 

[gaiko]

So it ain't so easy after all!

 

[Grinnenstadt]

What about Pikemen? Try using those!

 

[alpaca]

So the other unique units that replace horsemen or knights don't require horses?

Back on topic: I've only got one thing to say about Siamese elephants: I LOVE 'EM! Unless I'm the one being attacked by them.

You can get horses in 99% of the games quite easily. You can get Ivory in maybe 20%, less if you don't play Pangaea

What about Pikemen? Try using those!

Get pwned by the 'phants. An elephant is 22 vs a pike at 20 but if you add bonuses, the elephants are usually a lot stronger. The dangerous thing are pikemen-gone-rifles which keep their +100% against mounted units (which is totally "meh!" I might add)

 

[goodolarchie]

Siam as a neighbor is always my first target, then his twin.

 

[Varanid]

His elephants are insane. They chewed through pikes for me when I fought them. I wound up luring them to the coast line and bombing them wiht my navy.

 

[boehj]

I played this months's Gauntlet game as Siam. Oh yes indeed they are good. The elephants are the badness.

 

[Nefelia]

You can get horses in 99% of the games quite easily. You can get Ivory in maybe 20%, less if you don't play Pangaea



Get pwned by the 'phants. An elephant is 22 vs a pike at 20 but if you add bonuses, the elephants are usually a lot stronger. The dangerous thing are pikemen-gone-rifles which keep their +100% against mounted units (which is totally "meh!" I might add)

Fortified pikemen on a hill/forest: 27.5. Or pikemen with flanking bonuses: 21.5-23. Not enough to easily dominate, but pikemen are easier to build/buy.

 

[UknowsI]

What about using more than one unit type? I have never had problems with elephants using combined arms. Elephants are quite strong for their age, but both longswordmen/catapults/crossbowmen and riflemen stand up to them pretty nicely.