Slitherine

I've been doing a lot of looking around with regard to War Elephants. It seems to me that the Corvus Belli Carthaginian ones have the most realistic howdah tower (wood versus the mini stone castles that seem to be found on quite a few others). Likewise, their elephant without the tower looks pretty good as well.

Obviously Carthaginian war elephants go well with Carthaginian armies (which are on my "to do" list). If I was to add War Elephants to my Late Republican Rome army, these would probably be the ones to go with yes/no? I'm thinking of something along the lines of when Caesar took the War Elephant into Britain. (Mentioned by Polyaneus in "Eight Books of Strategems")

Also, does anyone have an idea how the scale of the Corvus Belli "15mm" elephants compares with Old Glory 15's?

BTW, I just read a book that is pobably the best "one stop shop" on war elephants I've ever seen (in addition to being heavily researched and footnoted). "War Elephants" by John M. Kistler. Highly recommend it.

Thanks,
Will

Interesting stuff, Will.

I have read speculation to the effect that some of the elephants used by the Carthaginians were of a now-extinct north-african species, and some were of the sub-saharan african species that we know today.

In general, it's worth remembering that North Africa, like Lebanon and much of the rest of the shores of the med basin, was considerably more well-watered and verdant in the 3rd century BC than it is today.

And the Sahara Desert was roughly half to one-third of its present-day size.

It is generally accepted that all the Carthaginian elephants were the forest type - except maybe one of Hannibals.

I assume you're speaking of Surus? The one tusked Asian that survived the crossing of the Alps?

There's also suspicion that some of the elephants purchased from Egypt and Syria might have been Asian, though yes, the majority were the African "forest" type, which are generally considered too small to carry towers, versus the African "bush type" which are significantly larger.

So, bringing it around, it seems like African elephants are probably the better way to go, although Asians can be argued to be appropriate in some cases.

I could go with or without a tower, but "without" might be a little more historically accurate, since it's likely that any Carthaginian elephants that made it into Caesars control would have been the smaller "forest" variety.

So that brings me back to manufacturer and ideas. If I wanted to represent a Late Republican Roman War Elephant, I'm thinking Corvus Belli, non tower model, and then maybe placing a "cavalry" roman on it instead of the mahout that comes with it?

I'm pretty sure the Old Glory war elephants come with the mahout cast into the body of the elephant, but it looks like the corvus belli ones are separate, and thus subject to modification.

This may be a wild idea that's gone way too far (though I keep having thoughts of the cover of Rise of Rome). Anyone have any thoughts on whether I'm going down a bad road or not?

Will