| Unit Information | Game Strategies | History |
 In the Extended Edition, this unit/building is affected by a damage bug.
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The War Elephant is an Indian and Persian unique Elephant of the 
Classical Age, trained at the Stable.
Unlike other unique units, War Elephants do not replace any standard unit, but are a standalone unit entirely exclusive to the aforementioned nations.
Overview[]
War Elephants have exceptionally high armor for a unit of their age, which makes them very resilient. However, they also move as slowly as most Heavy Infantry -- slower than all other cavalry -- and are more expensive than other units.
Their high health, attack strength, and high armor also allow them to dominate fights against any equally-numerous foe. They convincingly beat out Light Cavalry and Ranged Cavalry in a head to head fight, and particularly excel at defeating Heavy Infantry, towards which they have a 100% damage bonus. They also deal decent damage against support and civilian units such as Supply Wagons and Scouts, although against Citizens their damage is below average due to a combination of negative damage modifiers.
Although not able to win an even-numbered fight, Heavy Cavalry are nonetheless fairly effective against War Elephants on a per-cost basis, with Cataphracts being one of the few units of the time able to win a fight against War Elephants with only a 3:2 numerical advantage.
Light Infantry have a 50% damage bonus against War Elephants, although because of the combination of the former's fairly low attack strength and the latter's extremely high armor, this is far from enough to make Light Infantry a truly effective counter. For example, War Elephants can hold their own against Javelineers even if outnumbered 2:1 if the latter stand their ground to fight. They could instead be thought of as merely average against War Elephants, as their limited range makes it difficult for them to safely participate in combat against them unless screened by other units such as Heavy Cavalry.
Foot Archers, with their fairly high attack strength, long range, and 70% damage bonus are the only other unit that are especially effective against War Elephants in combat. They're able to inflict more damage per hit than any other unit of the time, and their long range allows them to fire from relative safety without exposing themselves to being directly attacked back. Even with all these factors, should Archers try to hold their ground against an even number of enemy War Elephants, the Archers will still fail to take down the War Elephants by virtue of taking even more damage in return than they're able to deal. Effective use of Foot Archers will therefore involve kiting enemy War Elephants to best abuse the latter's slow speed and limited range.
The relatively low attack of Small Cities and early Towers against the high armor of War Elephants can allow them to be slow but effective raiders, being difficult to displace except by using multiple defending units or the threat of a Bribe. This is in contrast to other potential choices of raider, where the defender only needs a single unit of the correct countering type.
Despite their effectiveness on the battlefield on a per-unit basis, the War Elephant's high cost can make them a cost-inefficient choice except in specialized roles, such as if dealing with an opponent focusing on Heavy Infantry. For every two War Elephants produced, a player could instead have produced three or four other units for the same total cost which are likely to be similarly effective for most given combat roles.
Conversely they can be thought of as a unit possessing weaker counter-matchups than almost any other unit, potentially making them an attractive -- if expensive -- filler unit if fighting against an army of unknown composition.
One additional consideration for players considering the deployment of War Elephants is that their matchups evolve significantly once upgrade to Mahouts. Roles for which War Elephants are created for may not be suitable for upgraded Mahouts to fill.
Trivia[]
- War Elephants, along with the rest of the Elephants, are the units with the most armor in the game, even surpassing Main Battle Tanks, which have a point less.
