Elephant
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The elephant is a Gaia animal in Age of Empires. The elephant comes in two forms: The relatively passive normal elephant and the stronger, more aggressive elephant king.
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Background
Elephants (Elephantidae) are the largest living land mammals and the only remaining member of the order Proboscidea (which included species such as mammoths and mastadons before the last ice age). They are broken into three species - the African Forest Elephant, the African Bush Elephant, and the Asian Elephant. Because of habitat destruction and poaching, the elephant is now a protected species worldwide, placing restrictions on capture, domestic use, and trade in products such as ivory.
Elephants are found in areas with ample vegetation, and roam great distances in search of food. Their gliding shuffle is deceptively fast, and they are able to travel further in one day than most other animals. They especially like the borders of forest and grasslands, which provide a mixture of trees and grasses in their diet. They also require nearby water to drink and help regulate their body temperature. Female elephants live in family groups and are very social, while males live a solitary life. Elephants have been used by humans for a variety of purposes, including military use as war elephants.
Role in play
In random maps elephants are typically found in pairs or small groups. They provide a good food source in the early game due to their large meat yield compared with other animals like Gazelles and very slow spoiling rate, though they are a risk to hunt due to their aggressive nature when attacked. Unlike Lions elephants will not harm player units unless provoked. Early on it is better to avoid hunting elephants as they can kill villagers with ease. Groups of 3 or 4 hunters should be able to take one down with no losses. An advanced tactic is to lure the elephant close to the drop point, allowing for maximum gather rates.
Mechanics
Elephants are the only passive animal in Age of Empires that will still attack when provoked. Elephants charge the unit responsible for the attack, attempting to kill them. If the unit gets away from them they return towards the spot where they were attacked. If they do kill the attacker they will not attempt to return to their original position. In this way their mechanics is a lot like that of the wild boar unit in Age of Kings. Elephants are slightly slower than normal units, affording some chance of escape from an unwanted encounter.
Like most other Gaia animals, the elephant cannot travel over shallows terrain.
Use in scenario design
The above property regarding shallows terrain has been used to make puzzles in custom scenarios (see for example The Taigun II, Scenario 6: 'The Tyrant'). An example of an elephant related objective may be bringing a commander to an elephant, which he starts the next scenario mounted on. Another may involve luring an elephant to a location, for example Underhand Dealings of the Hatti Archive, Scenario 1: All Along the Watchtower (named after the song). Avoiding contact with an elephant may also be used as a loss condition - for example a mighty elephant king may block the path of the scenario's main character, who must find a way around it or lure it away somehow. He may well be able to defeat it hand to hand, but to maintain realism the designer could use bring object to object to ensure the player loses if he comes to blows with it.
Elephants can also be used to represent other similar animals (e.g. Mammoths) or even fantasy animals like Tolkien's Oliphaunts. Designers should keep in mind that elephants were more numerous and wider spread in ancient times, being found in areas like North Africa and much of Asia.
Elephant king
The elephant king is a stronger 'king' version of the elephant available in the scenario builder only. It is a much more powerful animal with higher hitpoints, a natural aggression, and a much higher attack (triple that of the regular elephant). In combat it will prove 4 times as strong as a regular elephant, and can take on powerful units with its very high attack making up for lower hitpoints. Elephant kings could represent a bull elephant in its musth condition.
Unit stats
(Elephant king in brackets)
- HP: 45 (60)
- Attack: 10 (30)
- Rate of fire: 0.63
- Range: 1 (Melee)
- Speed: 1.24
- Food: 300
- Rate of decay: 0.2 food/second
- Other: Can't walk on shallows
