A friend and I had a long discussion on the use and usefulness of war elephants in period. He seems to think that they were pushovers and if you waved a spear at on it would run away and fall off a cliff (he saw some CGI elephants in 300 this one time,so now he's a f@ckin expert).
Dude,(you know who you are) put this in your pipe and smoke it............www.youtube.com/watch
If only he had been smart enough to wave a spear at it.
Dude,(you know who you are) put this in your pipe and smoke it............www.youtube.com/watch
If only he had been smart enough to wave a spear at it.
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West Virginia
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Sat, August 25, 2007 - 1:35 PMsmoke this too while you're at it.......www.youtube.com/watch -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Sat, August 25, 2007 - 1:36 PM -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Sat, August 25, 2007 - 1:39 PMThis has nothing to do with elephants, but still , WOW!.....................www.youtube.com/watch
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Sun, August 26, 2007 - 1:14 PMYa gotta wonder why no one ever thought to raise elephants for milk...... -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Sun, August 26, 2007 - 2:01 PMMust taste awful or somthing. either that or just to dangerous to milk.
Acctually, I did some homework and my friend is kinda right (in a wrong sort of way). The big disadvantage of war elephants was that they were prone to panic. What my friend didn't know was that when an elephant panics, it usually doesn't run, it goes berserk and attacks everything in sight. Some commanders issued hammers and big chisels to elephant riders to sever the spinal column if the beast went nuts on their own ranks.
The big advantage of war elephants was busting up shield walls. Even a well trained,stout phalanx would probably get crushed and tossed.
Their other big advantage was that they were poison to an enemy's morale. Picture the elephants in the above links with armor on their heads and legs with a small fortress containing 4 soldiers with bows and spears on their backs. I wouldn't want to stare that down either. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 9:17 AMAlexander the Great had his troops aim for and shoot the elephants eyes out. Cause a stampede. But it sounds as though they would have done this regardless.
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 11:45 AMSo, the basic strategy of using war elephants is to get them as deep into enemy lines and as far away from their allies as possible? -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Wed, August 29, 2007 - 5:29 AMSo, the elephant riders were early kamikaze pilots?
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Sun, August 26, 2007 - 2:19 PM$50,000.
That's what it'll cost to gitcha one.
Let me know. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 9:11 AMDo we dare ask, Malicious, where you'll be getting your hands on an elephant? -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 10:24 AMpart of the $50k covers the cost of not having to ask such questions.
Just accept that there is an elephant, and for fifty grand it could be YOUR elephant.
Hmm maybe i should buy a breeding pair.
If the neighbors think i should just "live with" the fact their yippy dog barks constantly, they should be able to "live with" the sultry sounds of massive elephant sex.
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 12:04 PMYou know what's funny?
I for a few second was seriously considering taking you up on that offer.
I mean, really. How cool would that be? You could meet some wonderful young lady who wants you to spend money on her and buy her dinner and the such and you could be like "Alright, I'll pick you up at 7 on my elephant". She'll be like "Uh... okay crazy person, an elephant. right." Then you would be "seriously, I really am going.. You know what? You'll see." and you could build one of the neat little house things you put on top of elephants and ride around in and take her to a drive in or simply cruise the circuit.
Traffic would never be a problem again either.
Only problem is, where the hell would I keep an elephant. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 3:40 PMwherever you want to man! Who's gonna move it? -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 4:12 PMWhat do you think the Cooper's position would be on elephant cavalry at the next war? It might make them re-think the whole horse issue if someone threatens to bring their elephant.
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Wed, August 29, 2007 - 5:33 AMGood point.
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 4:13 PM
We checked out what might have to transpire in order to do this people.tribe.net/missypota...862de6a46c
with pachys.
Took one phone call. Swear to God. Boy ones cost extra.
Ren and Stampy. That's what I'd name them. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, August 28, 2007 - 5:49 PMYooooouuu EEEEEE-dee-ought!!!!
You Stamped on our allies again!!!
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Wed, August 29, 2007 - 4:19 AMAnd a counter elephant measure... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_...ry_weapon) -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Wed, August 29, 2007 - 6:42 AMnow that would bring a whole new element to Pennsic.
also... ham. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Wed, August 29, 2007 - 10:34 AMNot to mention huge piles of elephant poo. Of course, judging by the smell and consitency of the mud at Pennsic this year,there may have been a herd of invisible elephants roaming around.
I wonder if you could train them to use the porta castles? -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Wed, August 29, 2007 - 11:18 AM"I wonder if you could train them to use the porta castles? "
For what?!?!?! Rampaging practice? LOL!
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, August 30, 2007 - 10:59 AMBurning pigs! how cool is that! And we could just eat the damn things afterwards! -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, August 30, 2007 - 11:28 AMdon't listen to them binky... and no.. i will not buy you an ele-pant... -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 2:23 PMSorry for the bump but I watched the extended edition of Alexander and finally got to see what REAL (not CGI) war elephants would have been like in battle.
Wow. They were absolute horror on the battlefield.
If your thinking of watching Alexander, my advice would be to skip forward to the 2 big battles and Rosario Dawson's tits. Everything in between is just a bunch of talking and gay sex. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 2:47 PMand whats wrong with watching the talking and gay sex may I ask? -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 2:57 PMSome folk like those kind of movies, some folk don't. The production values of the talking and gay sex were great, but thats not why I bought the flik. -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 3:09 PMLOL...the production values are seldom why anyone buys a movie involving talking and gay sex....come to think of it theres really not much talking in most of 'em either...but thats a whole different discussion.
I am still giggling over the mental image of flaming screaming war pigs darting hither and yon on a battle field desperatly trying to outrun the fire rapidly cooking them......I know I am upgrading my seats on the bullet train to hell just contemplating the image....but man it's funny. How shameful would it be to be tagged with the job of trying to wrangle said flaming pork into heading in the "right" direction........your buddies are all war hardened and scarred and you...even the cooks laugh at you cause you ahve to try and aim a flaming live pig! -
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Unsu...
Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 3:49 PMRoast pork, anyone?
But first you have to catch it.....
;-)
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 3:52 PMGimmie a chef hat and a pitchfork, I'll do it! -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 6:14 PMElephants-shmellants, I want to see the war elephants from Lord of the Rings at Pennsic. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Fri, April 25, 2008 - 7:20 AMon... not again... : ) -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Fri, April 25, 2008 - 7:21 AMthats:
...oh no... not again... :) -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Sun, April 27, 2008 - 12:09 PMYES! AGAIN!
the following is an excerpt from the history channel special "The Pig Burners: Alexander the Greats Lamest troops", narrated by Robert Stack.
.............and was heard to say "Don't throw those away! Soldiers need to eat!". The Pig Burners, clad in thier pink pig-leather lorica, were spit on by all the girls in Babylon as they marched shamefully out the gates. Once battle was met, Thier job was to douse the pigs in oil, set them on fire, and somehow get them to run towards the elephants. Truly a dangerous task that garnered little respect, and indeed earned them the scorn and ridcule of the rest of Alexander's soldiers. They were most hated because of thier legendary incompetence. It was only after thier pigs escaped and wandered into Alexander's tent while he was with his boyfriend, that they were disbanded.
Alexander decided that since the swine were more expensive than the pig burners, he started having them set on fire instead of the pigs. They followed orders at least slightly better than the burning pigs and were a deciding factor in many battles, many small insignificant battle. -
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Unsu...
Re: the final word on war elephants
Sun, April 27, 2008 - 10:57 PM"When you're on fire...people respect you"
;-) -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Mon, April 28, 2008 - 3:28 AM"Meat's back on the menu boys" -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, April 29, 2008 - 8:05 AMi like hot guys... :) -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Tue, April 29, 2008 - 10:35 PMbut i'm not really into flamers... : ) -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 10:27 AMso... how do we get / make an elefant for the pennsic? : ) -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 11:13 AMI've figured it out d'ner.
I there is a section in the siege engines handbook that discusses "siege structures" such as pavisis, siege towers, etc.
the best way to do it would be to build a large wheeled structure with a crenelated battlement on t p of it and have a big animatronic elepant head sticking out the side.
For purpose of applying heavy combat rules, the "elephant" would basicly count as a mobile siege stucture. In other words, it would be a wheeled siege tower shaped like an elephant. You could put 3 or 4 combat archers and spearmen in it and it could be destroyed by 3 hits from a class B siege engine (ballista) or 1 hit from a class A siege engine (trebuchet,catapult) and would be immune to handheld weapons and combat archery projectiles.
Now...where do we get a big animatronic elephant head? -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 11:20 AMIn my girlfriend's nightstand. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 12:23 PMi might have the trunks...
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 2:46 PMoh for christ's sake.
We might as well put the biggest pair of truck nuts we can find on it too. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 4:34 PMGive it a weak point that will think independent of the rest of the body.
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 5:12 PMA couple servo motors some pulleys some vinyl mesh and lots of liquid latex. Would take about a week to design and build. Would you want the trunk to curl? That might take a little engineering but it would be doable. -
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Re: the final word on war elephants
Fri, May 2, 2008 - 8:31 AMGotta put in a sound system for the trumpeting too.
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