War Elephants / Video Games

• 0 A.D.: War elephants are units available to Carthage, Egypt, Persia and India.
• Age of Empires:
  • Age of Empires I gives War Elephants (which attack with their tusks), Armored Elephants (an upgrade of War Elephants with improved armor and attacks), and Elephant Archers (where the elephant in question does not attack at all, but the Bowman mounted on its back does). It also has wild elephants which can be hunted for food (though strangely, they cannot be tamed; elephant units simply create a trained elephant and rider).
  • Age of Empires II dials back the elephants, having (riderless) War Elephants as the unique unit of the Persians, but eventually introduced more with The Forgotten's Indian Elephant Archers and Rise of the Rajas that gave its four new factions Battle Elephants (and one of them, the Khmer, a Ballista Elephant as their unique unit). The dlc Dynasties of India turns the Elephant Archers into regional units (in place of Horse Archers) as well as the brand new Armored Elephant/Siege Elephant, a massive, armor-covered elephant which is a living substitute for Rams avaible to Indian civs.
  • Age of Empires III has the Indian faction which has a variety of elephant units. From the standard Mahout Lancer which are like the slower but stronger version of the Spanish Lancer and deals trample damage to boot, The Howdah which are elephants with a musketeer on the back and retains elephants' deadly melee attack, Flail Elephant that is basically a battering ram but on an elephant, and the Siege Elephant which has a cannon on the back and also has the advantage over other artillery by being faster and not having to unpack the cannon before it can start firing. There is also the Sufi War Elephant which can be obtained from a Sufi trading post.
  • Age of Mythology has them as the Egyptian faction's strongest cavalry unit.
• Age of Wonders: Some factions have access to war elephants and war mammoths.
  • In the first game, only the Azracs could build war elephants,which replaced siege rams for that race.
  • Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne: Nomads had access to Elephant riders and Frostlings could use Mammoth Riders
  • Age of Wonders 3: Frostlings still have their mammoths, but war elephants are absent. However, playing as the Arch Druid class enables the taming of wild elephants through the use of the befriend animal ability.
• ARK: Survival Evolved: Numerous animals can fit the motif. Mammoths prove to be it quite literally, being competent fighters and reasonably fast for mounts. The larger, slower Paraceratherium and Brontosaurus can even have siege weapons and towers built onto their platform saddles like old illustrations of war elephants.
• Assassin's Creed Origins features war elephants as high-level Optional Bosses.
• Aztec Wars: The Chinese use these; they have cannons mounted on their backs.
• Civilization has had war elephant units since II, where they were inexplicably available as a result of discovering Polytheism.
  • In Civ III, they're the Indians' special unit, replacing Knights but requiring no special resources.
  • In Civ IV, all factions can build them so long as they have a source of ivory, and though slower than horse units they have a combat bonus against them. The Khmer from the Beyond the Sword expansion have Ballista Elephants as a unique unit, which specifically target enemy cavalry when attacking a stack.
  • In Civ V, India, Carthage, and Siam get elephants as special units, replacing Chariot Archers, Horsemen, and Knights respectively.
  • In Civ VI, India's special unit is the Varu war elephant, a heavy melee cavalry unit that reduces the combat effectiveness of nearby enemies. The Khmer have the Domrey (which is the Khmer word for "elephant"), which once again carries a ballista, for mobile siege weapon strikes. Vietnam has the Voi Chiến, an elephant archer that is both strong and capable of Hit-and-Run Tactics.
• Subverted in Conqueror's Blade: Booming Games promised to add them as a mount for player characters, but ultimately canceled their development.
• The Crystal of Kings: The forces of chaos have multiple elephant-like monsters as their steeds, with the first boss being a giant elephant who tries to trample your character, as the halfling archers seated on it attempts to loose arrows on you. Later on two degraded elephant enemies show up in the third stage as Giant Mook foes.
• Dwarf Fortress: DF:2010 added the option for elephants to be trained for war. However, your dwarves can't actually ride them.
• Dynasty Warriors: War elephants are generally used as mounts by the Nanman, and sometimes unlockable as a companion animal by the player character.
• Empire Earth:
  • The first game has war elephants available to everyone in ranged and melee varieties from the Bronze to Dark ages. They have the same amount of health, but the ranged one's arrows do more damage than its tusks.
  • Empire Earth II: The war elephant is Egypt's early unique unit, and also unique in that its counted as Heavy Cavalry, it has a ranged attack (the only one until cavalry is replaced with tanks).
• Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth has a war elephant with branching tusks called the Primordiphant that roams a vast, wide-open terrain in Jagged Reach (the second stratum). When first met, its attack power and threat level are far beyond the capabilities of the player's character party, so they have to figure out a way to evade them. In the postgame, there's a sidequest where it's fought as a Superboss, and by that point the party should be ready for it.
• Far Cry:
  • Far Cry 4: The Golden Path uses war elephants as weapons against Pagan Min. They're unbelievably destructive when used against soldiers and vehicles, and being hit by one when driving a car results in a One-Hit Kill. Rabi Ray Rana and Hurk certainly love them.
  • Far Cry Primal: Takkar, The Beastmaster, can tame woolly mammoths. Admittedly, they're young woolly mammoths, but they're equally dangerous to anyone Takkar rides them into.
• For Honor: At one point in the story mode, a playable Samurai hero has to break out of a rival Samurai fort by goading a war elephant into breaking the gate mechanisms via Ramming Always Works.
• Gems of War: the War Elephant is a troop from the Leonis Empire. They're classified as Beast/Knight units and their magic can empower the other troops.
• Heroes of Might and Magic: The wizards of the Silver Cities use elephants as war-steeds in Heroes of Might and Magic V, providing them with a good view of the battlefield from which to cast spells. The expansion packs add Dwarven Runemages who ride into battle atop mammoths, casting spells while their steed gores the enemy with its tusks.
• Imperator: Rome: War elephants are available to anyone who can trade with a province that supplies elephants, which generally means North Africa and India. They also cost double the supply limit of any unit.
• Kingdom Rush: Vengeance: Two variants appear in the Hammerhold Campaign, both of which count as Mini-Boss units (with Contractual Boss Immunity) that move extremely slowly, but have a gargantuan amount of health and cannot be blocked by troops/heroes, instead just dealing huge, constant damage to those in their way. The War Elephant has two archers on its back that send volleys of arrows on your troops, while the Drum Elephant has a drummer that buffs the damage and speed of mooks around it.
• Legends of Runeterra: Armored Tuskriders are elephants bred as war mounts for the Noxian army. They're absolutely massive too, easily several sizes bigger than a real life elephant. And true to the trope, the flavor text and character interactions make it out to be a symbol of fear for its enemies.
  "There's no stopping a warbeast once it's in motion—best just to get out of the way."
• March of War: The African Warlords tend to use these in place of armored vehicles, in the 1940s, going up against super-heavy tanks and Diesel Punk Mecha.
• Master of Magic: The trolls make use of war mammoths.
• Metal Slug: One route in Metal Slug 3 has you free an elephant from ice and use it to stomp on all the zombies that got in your way. It could also pick up and eat chili peppers and batteries to spew flames/lightning at them as well.
• Noblemen 1896 from Foursaken Media: The final technology you get by advancing your global level is the War Elephant. Since the game is set in a steampunk America, the War Elephant is not used for trampling enemies or other melee fights (though this creature is so gigantic that a tank comes up to its knees). Instead it's been armoured and made into an artillery platform. The War Elephant carries a rig that holds three large mortars for firing in rapid succession.
• Original War: Mastodons can be trained for this role by Arab sheikhs.
• Rimworld: Skilled animal handlers can use trained elephants as attack animals. They can't ride on them, though, unless you get a Game Mod like "Giddy-Up."
• Rise of Nations: War Elephants used by the Persians and Indians are the only unique units that aren't replacements of existing units like other nation-exclusive units. They're effective against crowds of infantry while being vulnerable to archers and heavy cavalry.
• Ryse: Son of Rome features Boudica, of all people, invading Rome with a bunch of elephants to take revenge on Nero and his son Commodus, the latter of whom killed her father. They're pretty resilient, unless you have a siege crossbow, or are Commander Vitallion with his pilum.
• Tears to Tiara 2: Noa the elephant. Tart and Charis can ride it in battle. Also the other eleven elephants Tart summons as part of The Cavalry.
• Tembo the Badass Elephant is a slightly more literal example than most.
• Total War:
  • Rome: Total War: War elephants appear, with the more advanced types carrying archers on their backs. Only Carthage and the Seleucids can train them.
  • Medieval II: Total War: Elephants are Game Breakers, hugely effective in combat and capable of charging through enemy lines, flattening everything in front of them. Their only downside is their tendency to go berserk and rampage at random, which is only a problem if you have friendly units nearby. The vanilla version has a howdah full of gunners, while cannon and even rocket elephants are also recruitable. They make the scripted Timurid Invasion all the more terrifying.
  • Third Age: Total War (a mod for Medieval II): Harad has access to Mûmakil in their late game. Mordor has similar units in the form of their Great Beasts.
  • Total War: Warhammer: Norsca can field massive war mammoths twisted by Chaos, with visible mutations such as multiple tusks and trunks tipped with clawed, hand-like appendages. They come in a few variants, namely as feral monster units (the cheapest, but with low leadership, no armor and a tendency to rampage), as semi-tamed war beasts with howdahs on their backs, as an upgraded version thereof mounted with a shrine to the Chaos Gods and with the ability to buff and encourage nearby units, as mounts for Norscan generals, and as a unique Regiment of Renown in the form a white-furred specimen known as the Soulcrusher.
  • Total War: Three Kingdoms: In The Furious Wild DLC, the Nanman tribes can mount their generals on war elephants, which prevents access to the general's character traits and ability to duel other characters but makes them combat juggernauts with powerful trampling and goring attacks. In addition, three actual units of elephants are present — southern elephants, which carry howdahs of slingers on their backs; more heavily armored war elephants better suited for charging into enemy units while still sending out ranged fire; and Nazhong elephants, which lack the slingers but instead carry drummers who boost other units' stats and morale.
• Warlords Battlecry: Mounted elephants serve as elite cavalry for The Empire faction.
• World of Warcraft: The Draenei utilize elekks (elephant-like creatures brought over from their homeworld) as their racial mount. Mammoths are also available to players in the northern region. Neither of these were specifically used in combat very much, though, until the Shadowlands expansion allowed Hunters to tame both mammoths and elekks.

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