AOE-II DE - The 9 Elephant Civs compared: is Bengalis better than Khmer and Persians? Will Vietnamese get Elephant Archers? (2024)

Persians

• War Elephant (UU)
• Mahouts (UT): War Elephants move +30% faster
• Missing: Bracer and Siege Engineers

Hindustanis (Previously Indians)

• Armoured Elephant (replaces ram line)
• Elephant Archer: removed

Burmese

• Battle Elephant
• Howdah (UT): (Battle Elephants +1/+2 armor)
• Manipur Cavalry (UT): cavalry +5 attack against archers
• Missing: Archer Armour (2 and 3) and Thumb Ring

Khmer

• Battle Elephant
• Ballista Elephant (UU)
• Battle Elephants move +10% faster.
• Tusk Swords (UT): Battle Elephants +3 attack
• Double Crossbow (UT): Ballista Elephants and Scorpions shoot two projectiles
• Missing Thumb Ring

Malay

• Battle Elephant
• Battle Elephants are 30% cheaper in the Castle Age, 40% cheaper in the Imperial Age.
• Missing: Parthian Tactics, Bloodlines, and Cavalry Armour (2 and 3)

Vietnamese

• Battle Elephant
• Chatras (UT): Battle Elephants +100 hit points
• Missing: Parthian Tactics and Melee Attack (3)

Bengalis

• Elephant Archer
• Battle Elephant
• Armoured Elephant
• Elephant units receive 25% less bonus damage and are more resistant to conversion.
• Paiks (UT): Rathas and elephant units attack 20% faster
• Missing: Thumb Ring

Dravidians

• Elephant Archer
• Battle Elephant
• Armoured Elephant
• Skirmishers and Elephant Archers attack 25% faster.
• Medical Corps (UT): Elephant units regenerate 20 HP per minute
• Wootz Steel (UT): Infantry and cavalry attacks ignore armor
• Missing: Parthian Tactics, Bloodlines, Husbandry, Elite Battle Elephant, Cavalry Armour (3), and Siege Engineers

Gurjaras

• Elephant Archer
• Armoured Elephant
• Mounted units deal +50% bonus damage
• Kshatriyas (UT): Military units cost -25% food
• Frontier Guards (UT): Camel Riders and Elephant Archers +4 melee armor
• Team Bonus: Camel and elephant units created 25% faster
• Missing: Parthian Tactics, Archer Armour (3), and Siege Engineers [also missing Melee Attack (3), but this is only relevant to elephants if the Armoured Elephant is affected by it]

Armoured Elephant​

I see no reason why the Rise of Rajas civs and the Persians shouldn't get it. Persian UT might apply. Burmese UTs might apply. Khmer civ bonus and CA UT might apply. Malay civ bonus shouldn't apply. Vietnamese UT might apply.
Gurjaras and Bengalis have good Armoured Elephants. Dravidians are missing Stable techs and Blacksmith techs (which probably apply to the Armoured Elephant, since they also apply to the Ballista Elephant).

Elephant Archer​

Less likely to spread to the Rise of Rajas civs and the Persians. Currently there is no civ with both Elephant Archers and Cavalry Archers. It would be funny for Burmese to get it (they are missing 2 Archer Armour techs and Thumb Ring, but they have Parthian Tactics and their CA UT).
Bengalis have the best all round Elephant Archers (missing Thumb Ring, but their CA UT makes up for it), since they have no clear weaknesses (they take less bonus damage (good vs skirms and halbs) and are resistant to conversion (monks are normally a big threat)).
Dravidians are probably the second best: they are slow and missing techs (Parthian Tactics, Bloodlines, and Husbandry), but regenerate slowly and fire very quickly (25% faster from civ bonus and 18% faster from Thumb Ring for a total of 47% faster attack).

2 * 0.85 * 0.8 = 2 * 0.68 = 1.36
2 / 1.36 = 1.47 (47% faster)

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Gurjaras are missing techs (Parthian Tactics and Archer Armour (3)), but have more bonus damage (vs buildings), cost 25% less food (with a UT), have +4 melee armour (with a UT; but it's more like +2/-4 given that they are missing 2 armour techs), and are created 25% faster.

Battle Elephants​

Bengalis have good, usable Battle Elephants. Bengalis might even rival Khmer (although the Khmer speed is no joke). There is probably almost no time when you would want to build a Dravidians Battle Elephant.

LeoMontero said:

i thik that if you are gonna compare elephant civs, the upgrades that dont belong to elephants, doesnt count, as siege enginers.
also you cant compare the elephant archer line, because persians dont even have them, or the hindustains either, so whtas the point

Click to expand...

I included those upgrades because it's possible that the Raja civs and Persians could get Siege Elephants and/or Elephant Archers