Elephants and terrain.

[GEOFFRM1]

Hi,
     I cannot understand why elephants count rocky ground as good going.  They cannot actually lift their front feet more than 40-50cm and find any rock very difficult to climb.  We had it in England where an elephant tried to climb over a wall about 45cm high and it tripped over it.

Geoff

[lionheartrjc]

Is this true of all elephants?  The African elephants that Carthage used came from the Atlas Mountains and some African elephants used by the Ptolemaic Egyptians came from the Abbysinian Highlands I believe.

Richard

[LawrenceG]

FWIW in DBMM elephants count rocky rough as difficult and scrubby rough as good going.

[badhabum]

May this help a little
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9607-why-elephants-avoid-the-high-road/

Now I fail to see how crops would be a nuisance for such a beast .

Same for vineyards and low trees

Now about crossing walls that seems something else and I mean crossing not fighting .

Nellies are used in forest and jungles, used to travell trough mountains ..

[GEOFFRM1]

The elephants in the north of Africa are of the Sub Saharan variety as opposed to the bush elephants that live to the south and did not actually live on the mountains but in the areas around them.  Elephants can climb a mountain using a road but even then Hanibal lost most of his along with half his army.
It is the fact that under our rules elephants count rocky ground as good going that I do not agree with.  Humans do not count it as good going but elephants who would have much more trouble traversing it do.

[badhabum]

Not so sure :

https://www.gettyimages.no/detail/video/men-ride-elephants-over-rocky-terrain-stock-video-footage/1176876179

[lionheartrjc]

Clearly it depends upon what you think rocky ground actually looks like. Personally, I would be open to the idea as it would add a bit more variety to terrain choices.

Richard

[LawrenceG]

Not so sure :

https://www.gettyimages.no/detail/video/men-ride-elephants-over-rocky-terrain-stock-video-footage/1176876179

Depends what you mean by "rocky".

[nikgaukroger]

Clearly it depends upon what you think rocky ground actually looks like. Personally, I would be open to the idea as it would add a bit more variety to terrain choices.

Richard

As MeG Rocky cannot be used to hide any troops in (unlike say Brush) it doesn't appear to be representing something overly covered with rocks. Could probably argue one way or the other for days, but a change could add a bit more variety.

[badhabum]

We might open a separate  discussion on it before you rewrite all the rules 

MEG is a very good root

Perhaps there are some ideas in REG

And some people might add good ideas

But in a separate discussionµµI'll let that up to Nik and RJC and Simon to decide if they want to do it but IMO it is the right time and interesting

[Dru]

In my head, rocky ground is baseball or maybe slightly bigger sized rocks at most. It is just rough enough that you wouldn't want to charge a horse through or try and push a coherent phalanx through, but an elephant could comfortably navigate.  That you cannot hide troops in it, helped me visualise that small-sized rock idea.

[Simon Meg-Meister]

Clearly it depends upon what you think rocky ground actually looks like. Personally, I would be open to the idea as it would add a bit more variety to terrain choices.

Richard

As MeG Rocky cannot be used to hide any troops in (unlike say Brush) it doesn't appear to be representing something overly covered with rocks. Could probably argue one way or the other for days, but a change could add a bit more variety.

The intention was too rocky for a line of troops to hold formations but not giant boulders.