Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="SHARK" data-source="post: 473767" data-attributes="member: 1131">Greetings!Hey there mmadsen and Maldur! LOL! Yeah, I apologise, lately I have been quite busy, and not able to contribute as often as I would like to the threads here. I miss you all as well.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Chapter XVI really liked how the 5th Legion adopted the elephant as an emblem for their unit banners. That is so cool! Indeed, elephants were a danger to use on the battlefield, but the fact that they were used successfully throughout warfare in Africa, the Middle East, and India for hundreds of years testifies to their impact on the battlefield. In classes on Ancient History, my professor, Dr. Chrissanthos from USC, explained that even though Alexander the Great in his conquest of Persia and parts of India defeated opposing forces that deployed elephants, he also was quite eager to enlist hundreds of elephants into his armies as he marched onward, gathering new armies, and conquering new lands. War Elephants were a welcome part of Alexander The Great's army, and they were welcome because they were effective. No unit is *unbeatable* in any kind of circumstances, but all units can contribute in whatever ways they can to the overall victory. Such is the view that I think Alexander had, and even in Roman times, War Elephants were still effectively used in warfare. The fact that the Roman 5th Legion trained for a whole year in special anti-elephant tactics is a stark testimony to the terror and grim effectiveness that elephants could have on the battlefield.And, the fact that the 5th Legion was allowed to use the elephant as part of their banner after defeating them in battle is evidence that it was a heroic accomplishment, because, had fighting elephants been easy--because elephants were lame and ineffective in battle--then there would be no compelling reason to decorate a unit with such an honour, and celebrate the accomplishment as anything particularly heroic or special.Obviously, though, even though Caesar personally opted to not use elephants in battle, he as mmadsen mentioned, had an immense respect for their capabilities and the threat that War Elephants posed in battle, even to veteran Roman Legions.I'd say that that is quite a testimony to elephants skills and abilities in warfare. That is one reason why in my own campaigns, I often make use of trained elephants as mounts and war beasts.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Semper Fidelis,SHARK</blockquote>

Verification