War Elephant
War ElephantBase values, before Blacksmith upgrades. The Blacksmith raises attack and armour for infantry, cavalry and archers — Blast Furnace, for instance, gives "+2 Attack for infantry & cavalry". Late in a game, the real numbers are higher.
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War Elephant
Castle
Elite War Elephant
ImperialThe coach's briefing
You're piloting a 450 HP beast with 15 attack that gets bonus damage vs buildings. Your War Elephant is the ultimate siege-support unit - you can tank arrows while smashing through enemy walls. But at 0.8 speed, you're incredibly slow. Halbs deal massive bonus damage and monks can convert you. Never attack without pike protection and anti-monk units like Light Cavalry.
STRONG AGAINST
You win these trades cost-effectively.
WEAK AGAINST
Avoid these fights or bring support.
Just lost against this unit?
Your coach names the counters during the match — not once the game is over.
Strategic Analysis
Tactical Identity
The War Elephant is a **walking fortress**. With 450 HP and 15 attack, it's designed to tank massive damage while crushing enemy buildings and units.
Tactical Playbook
Push Power
Use War Elephants to tank for archers and siege. Nothing survives long in melee against them.
Building Crusher
+30 bonus vs buildings makes you excellent at destroying Town Centers and Castles.
Trample Damage
War Elephants deal splash damage in melee, damaging multiple units at once.
Critical Point
**Halberdiers and Monks are your doom**. Halbs deal 60+ bonus damage and monks convert you easily. Always have Light Cavalry to snipe monks.
Understanding The Stats
The War Elephant has extreme stats - massive HP pool, high attack, but very slow movement and costly investment.
Massive HP
Highest HP of any land unit. Takes forever to kill without counters.
High Attack
With +30 vs buildings, you deal 45 damage to structures.
Very Slow
One of the slowest units. Enemies can kite or run away easily.
Expensive
Very high cost. Losing War Elephants hurts your economy badly.
Coach's Tip
450 HP is insane - that's 3x a Paladin. But 0.8 speed means any ranged unit can kite you indefinitely. Always close the gap with siege support.
Mechanics & Bonuses
Attack Bonuses
| Target | Bonus Dmg |
|---|---|
| Building | +30 |
| Stone Defense | +30 |
Armor Classes
War Elephant
Vulnerable to units with bonus damage vs this class.
Cavalry
Takes heavy bonus damage from Pikemen/Halberdiers and Camels.
Unique Unit
Vulnerable to units with bonus damage vs this class.
Key Upgrades
Feudal Age
Castle Age
Civilizations
* 1 civilizations have access to this unit.
Other Units
AoE Coach analysis
Context & meta
The War Elephant is the Persian unique unit and one of the most physically imposing units in the game — a slow, enormously high-HP cavalry unit that deals heavy attack plus trample damage to everything around it. A mass of War Elephants is nearly unkillable by conventional means and simply walks through buildings, units and defenses. The catch is severe: they are extremely slow and very expensive (heavy food and gold), making them a niche map-breaker rather than a default strategy. On closed maps where their slowness is hidden behind walls, a War Elephant push is a brutal, hard-to-stop win condition.
History & balance
The War Elephant has always been a balance puzzle: too cheap and it dominates, too expensive and nobody builds it. The Definitive Edition repeatedly tuned its cost, speed and trample damage to keep it a situational unit. Persian unique techs and the addition of the Savar reshaped how Persians reach their lategame, but the War Elephant remains their iconic power unit. Elephants as a class (also fielded by other civs as Battle Elephants) have had their anti-building damage and bonus-damage vulnerability adjusted to keep them killable by dedicated counters.
In pro play
War Elephants are a specialist pick on closed maps — Black Forest, Hideout, Michi — where their crippling slowness is irrelevant behind walls and their HP simply cannot be killed in time. Persian players in team games sometimes commit to an Elephant push as a pocket win condition. On open maps they almost never appear because Camels, Monks and Halberdiers punish them so hard. Casters treat a War Elephant army as a "do or die" commitment: if it reaches the enemy base it often ends the game, but if it gets countered the resource loss is catastrophic.
How to counter it
War Elephants have three hard counters. Monks are the best: an Elephant is so expensive that a single conversion is a massive swing, and Elephants are slow enough that Monks reach them easily — a few Monks dismantle an Elephant army. Halberdiers shred them with the anti-cavalry bonus for almost no resources. Camel Riders also counter them cost-effectively. Beyond units, their slowness is the ultimate weakness: kite them with any ranged unit, never let them corner your army, and pick off the supporting units so the Elephants arrive alone and get converted or speared down.