The results of my
"extensive research" are in.
"In addition to charging, the elephants could provide a safe and stable platform for archers to shoot arrows in the middle of the battlefield, from which more targets could be seen and engaged. The archery evolved into more advanced weapons, and several Khmer and Indian kings used giant crossbow platforms (similar to the ballista) to shoot long armor-piercing shafts to kill other enemy war elephants and cavalry."
Yesssss, I can mount cool shit on top of elephants.
Also, "Elephants are able to carry roughly 25% of their total body weight on their back without causing much pain or discomfort." A male african bush elephant used for war (the ones that I assume you use, as unhistorical as it may be) is roughly 6 tons in weight, so we are looking at 1500 kilos that it can carry.
*someone in the background shouts "wait whaaaaaaat" in a goofy tone*
And that is not all.
"Elephants were further enhanced with their own weaponry and armour. In India and Sri Lanka, heavy iron chains with steel balls at the end were tied to the trunks of war elephants, which the animals were trained to swirl menacingly and with great skill. Numerous cultures designed elephant armour, aiming to protect the body and legs of the animal while leaving his trunk free to attack the enemy. Tusk swords were sometimes employed. Larger animals could also carry a protective tower on their backs, called a howdah."
Now I also had some MORE ideas for elephants, so I took the liberty of doing mathmatics about weight and it's dispersion, so I could account for
defensive measures they can carry/pull/push.
Technically speaking, elephants could do some INSANE shit. Like carrying protective "umbrellas" made of wood above advancing troops to protect them from archers. You could use a 10 sqaure meter, 1 centimeter thick piece made of Oak, and your elephants could still carry it. Now if this doesn't sound that effective (I dunno why it wouldn't), you could do something else.
Elephants can easely push things so if we made spiked wooden barricades, the cows could easely push them in front of themselves into battle (the bulls have hors which would get in the way).
Of course if we talk about pushing, we must talk about pulling. Elephants can pull roughly 1.7 times their body weight behind them, so you could make some nice archer/mage platforms with that.
I also devised a way of making these elephants more
offensive. Of course the chains and swords are awesome on their own, but you could definetly up that. The main issue of the war elephants was their lack of mobility whilst charging. Troops could just stand aside and then kill the best when it stopped. But what if doing this is harder than expected? I say we attach metal blades suspended from a framweork onto the SIDES of the elephant, and make it pull a few chains or ropes behind it, that it can also use while wheeling around to extend it's reach. As long as it has proper armor skirts, it cannot even hurt itself. With the proper support of archers on top or behind, and other infantry and cavalry pushing the enemy towards them, these beasts could do MASSIVE damage.
We could easely retrofit most of the elephants with these weapons in the time period of a single night, so the enemy won't even see them coming the next day.
Anyways, these are just a few ideas I had in my head. Imma hit the sack now, tell me what you guys think.
