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"Infantry. Only good against other infantry."
In-game description

The War Elephant is an elephantine Egyptian cavalry unit in Age of Mythology that is trained at the Migdol Stronghold from the Heroic Age.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strong vs.
Hippeus • Prodromos • Spearman • Jarl • War Elephant • Berserk • Camel Rider • Huskarl • Hersir • Raiding Cavalry

Weak vs.
Toxotes • Hypaspist • Cheiroballista • Chariot Archer • Throwing Axeman • Axeman

Technologies

General Technologies

Offense
Image	Name	Description
	Copper Weapons	+10% damage
	Bronze Weapons	+10% damage
	Iron Weapons	+10% damage

Defense
Image	Name	Description
	Copper Armor	-15% Hack Vulnerability
	Bronze Armor	-15% Hack Vulnerability
	Iron Armor	-15% Hack Vulnerability
	Copper Shields	-15% Pierce Vulnerability
	Bronze Shields	-15% Pierce Vulnerability
	Iron Shields	-15% Pierce Vulnerability

Utility
Image	Name	Description
	Levy Infantry	-20% training time
	Conscript Infantry	-20% training time

Myth Technologies

Name	God	Description
Phobos' Spear of Panic	Ares	+1 divine damage
Sarissa	Athena	+10% hack damage, +1 attack range
Aegis Shield	Athena	-15% pierce vulnerability
Oracle	Apollo	+4 Line of Sight
Dionysia	Dionysus	+5% hit points

Upgrades

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
Classical Age	Medium Infantry	150, 150, 20 seconds	Upgrades Hoplites to Medium: +10% hit points, +10% damage, +1 Line of Sight
Heroic Age	Heavy Infantry	300, 300, 30 seconds	Upgrades Hoplites to Medium: +15% hit points, +20% damage, +1 Line of Sight); requires Medium Infantry
Mythic Age	Champion Infantry	500, 400, 40 seconds	Upgrades Hoplites to Medium: +20% hit points, +30% damage, +1 Line of Sight); requires Heavy Infantry

Relic Bonuses

Image	Name	Description
	Armor of Achilles	-5% hack vulnerability
	Canopic Jar of Imsety	+25% training speed
	Gaia's Book of Knowledge	+3.0 attack multiplier vs. Titans
	Pelt of Argus	+6 Line of Sight
	Thundercloud Shawl	-5% pierce vulnerability
	Gungnir, Odin's Spear	+5% attack

Gameplay

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.

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. Failing that, myth units with instant-kill special abilities, such as the Cyclops, Mummy, or Medusa, or other powerful myth units like Azure Dragons and Fire Giants can dispatch them quickly.

History

"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 compendium

Gallery

Trivia

There is an undocumented "Medium Elephants" upgrade (automatically granted after advancing to 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".