I'd just like to note that the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds has a probably-unique surviving suit of elephant armour, which is displayed on a stuffed elephant in pride of place:
Not on display due to conservation issues (but noted on the display text) are the tusk swords, because once you've got an angry Indian elephant wearing armor pointed at the enemy why wouldn't you strap a pair of giant swords to its tusks?
If you're ever in Leeds — in the UK — I'd highly recommend a day trip to the Royal Armouries, especially if you have any kind of interest in the history of armour, guns, and murder cutlery.
(Posted to add a reality-based perspective to the 100% fictional imagery of war elephants in the OP.)
Those Total War games are worth checking out. They've basically been iterating for 20 years on the same engine and have made a whole bunch of titles, mostly with a view to historical accuracy. They made a fantasy title from the tabletop Warhammer game, it's arguably more fun because of the sheer variety in units, the scale of it is also ludicrous like maybe you have a battle with 10,000 units fighting each other.
Rome Total War (the original) is one of the most fun and replayable games out there. It's also still got a massive modding community, that have expanded the base game in enormous ways - the Rome Total Realism[1] and Europa Barbarorum[2] mods are very well done, if you want to go for a bigger and more historically accurate experience.
The successor Medieval 2 is arguably the high point of the entire series.
Rome 2 Total War was sadly not nearly as good; it may be playable at this point, but I was very disappointed with it.
Bingo. Even though CA actually did put some effort into getting Rome:II TW patched/updated it still is no where near the level of the original. Medieval:II is the high water mark for the series (with Rome being an extremely close second) and that is unlikely to change anytime soon, based on CA's current lineup.
“Iterating for 20 years” is the most polite interpretation. They’ve been shoveling out re-skinned games with massive performance and AI regressions every few years.
The original tech was awesome. The people at the studio are awesome. The Sega > Creative assembly executive teams, not so much.
From my very, very brief reading on the subject, I would look up discussions of the historical accuracy of the battles (particularly the more ancient ones). It seems that in real life, battles would typically take _much_ longer (an entire day), with breaks, small skirmishes, etc. The idea that each unit could be directed in coordinated, rapid, precise, and decisive movement with one unit throwing itself wholesale into the other and either obiterating or being obliterated does not really reflect reality.
I hate to give such an uninformed perspective on here (where expertise is valued so highly), and I hope people will correct me if I am wrong. But skepticism, assuming it's not blind and unchangeable but to ensure accuracy, is usually a good thing.
Still some fantastic games, though. Wonderful, very satisfying and engaging tactical strategy.
Most of the time in ancient battles was spent in reforming the lines while the combatants watched each other from a distance. In between there were a few skirmishes, a lot of swearing and battle cries and all waiting for an opportune moment or looking for a weakness in formation. Committing to engagements, like we see in the movies and games would have risk in the breaking of the lines and an eventual route.
Aside: The WH series is just fun. It's total candy, not a lick of realism or historical accuracy, just total fantasy and great visuals. The IP from GamesWorkshop has a lot of depth and breath that CA has been able to really bring to life with their engine. I'd recommend it to anyone with the sufficient computer resources and a few free weekends.
I actually did ride an angry bull elephant in real life in the jungles of Chitwan national park (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitwan_National_Park) in Nepal when I was in 7th grade. I was on the elephant along with its mahout (controller) and my parents and let me tell you it is not fun. I saw it topple a boat full of passengers over (thankfully they stepped out into the river before he could do any damage and the river was 2-3 feet deep).
Apparently, it was mating season and he didn't like being separated from his female when we started the ride. The mahout eventually brought him under control but it was an experience worth remembering none-the-less.
It was part of the safari experience where one group will go on elephant back into the forest to spot tigers/leopards/rhinos,etc and the other group would go in small boats in the river to spot gharials (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gharial).
The boat that was toppled was full of tourists going for that. After the mahout got him under control though there were no other incidents. We were on him for the full 4 hours.
According to the Islamic tradition, before the Hijri calendar was established, the Arabs used the "aam-ul-feel" - the "year of the elephant" - marked by the event of Mecca being under attack by an army with war elephants. There's a small chapter in the Quran called "The Elephant" about this.
They mentioned the war elephants used by Hannibal in the Battle of Zama (during the Second Punic War), but only briefly. The opposing Roman general, Scipio Africanus, was already prepared to deal with the elephants, effectively using them against Hannibal.
While elephants can take on the role of an almost tank-like unit on the battlefield, they still have an inherent sense of self-preservation; when given the choice of running into a wall of soldiers wielding spears vs going through an open path in between, they will opt for the path of least resistance. With this in mind, Scipio was able to effectively set up his army's formation.
From what my extended family in India told me, it is relatively easy to get elephants trained for work, but training war elephants was extremely hard and required a lot of time. Having said that, well trained war elephants, although harder to come by, held to their nerves during the battle and were very devastating; Given they encounter the army they were trained to fight.
During the first battle of Panipat, the invading Mughals had canons, which the opposing War Elephants were not trained for, and their alien sound broke their charge. If, for example, those elephants were trained with Canons in mind, they would probably have been successful in their charge.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 69.3 ms ] threadhttps://i.pinimg.com/originals/43/bb/15/43bb154f887b493c76c3...
Not on display due to conservation issues (but noted on the display text) are the tusk swords, because once you've got an angry Indian elephant wearing armor pointed at the enemy why wouldn't you strap a pair of giant swords to its tusks?
If you're ever in Leeds — in the UK — I'd highly recommend a day trip to the Royal Armouries, especially if you have any kind of interest in the history of armour, guns, and murder cutlery.
(Posted to add a reality-based perspective to the 100% fictional imagery of war elephants in the OP.)
I didn't find an explicit quote, but for example look: there is this institute in UK called "institute of conservation" https://icon.org.uk/groups/archaeology/about-archaeological-...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_War_(series)
The successor Medieval 2 is arguably the high point of the entire series.
Rome 2 Total War was sadly not nearly as good; it may be playable at this point, but I was very disappointed with it.
[1] http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?26-Rome-Tota...
[2] https://www.europabarbarorum.com/EB1/
The original tech was awesome. The people at the studio are awesome. The Sega > Creative assembly executive teams, not so much.
I hate to give such an uninformed perspective on here (where expertise is valued so highly), and I hope people will correct me if I am wrong. But skepticism, assuming it's not blind and unchangeable but to ensure accuracy, is usually a good thing.
Still some fantastic games, though. Wonderful, very satisfying and engaging tactical strategy.
[1] in D&D
Apparently, it was mating season and he didn't like being separated from his female when we started the ride. The mahout eventually brought him under control but it was an experience worth remembering none-the-less.
It was part of the safari experience where one group will go on elephant back into the forest to spot tigers/leopards/rhinos,etc and the other group would go in small boats in the river to spot gharials (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gharial).
The boat that was toppled was full of tourists going for that. After the mahout got him under control though there were no other incidents. We were on him for the full 4 hours.
While elephants can take on the role of an almost tank-like unit on the battlefield, they still have an inherent sense of self-preservation; when given the choice of running into a wall of soldiers wielding spears vs going through an open path in between, they will opt for the path of least resistance. With this in mind, Scipio was able to effectively set up his army's formation.
During the first battle of Panipat, the invading Mughals had canons, which the opposing War Elephants were not trained for, and their alien sound broke their charge. If, for example, those elephants were trained with Canons in mind, they would probably have been successful in their charge.
I am talking about Indian elephants though.