Renaming the Tughlaq Dynasty's siege-type elephant unit to "Arrada Elephant"

[Blast9867]

Here’s a way better idea of what to do with the Tughlaq Dynasty’s elephant unit that uses a ballistic weapon than removing it altogether: Rename the unit to “Arrada Elephant”. While the Tughlaq Dynasty can keep the elephant unit that has a Ballista equivalent weapon, the name just needs to be changed so the future Khmer civ can use the name “Ballista Elephant” for its own elephant unit that replaces the Springald. This can solve the problem: Tughlaq Dynasty’s ballistic-armed elephant is called “Arrada Elephant” while the Khmer’s is using the classic “Ballista Elephant” name.

[MadMax8915]

To help provide context, for those who still don’t know where the names of these weapons come from or their existence in real life.

@GoldenArmorX

About the Ballista Elephant in Delhi Armies, or “Arrada Elephant”

---

I’m going to focus on the Delhi Sultanate.

Apparently, they did have elephants with “ballista,” or at least it’s theorized that it was an Arabic ballista.

The full name of the weapon in Arabic was Arrada, which is assumed to be a type of ballista.

• It’s the Arrada that is mentioned as being charged on top of elephants, which could be acted as mobile siege towers to fire at guards posted on the walls.
• It’s also mentioned that the weapon was used on the Walls themselves as a defensive siege weapon. Does that sound like the Stone Towers with Springalds from the game?
• They were light enough to be carried on an elephant’s back, and should not be confused with the manjaniq, which was apparently a heavier mangonel, trebuchet or onager used to destroy walls.

Interestingly, those uses and characteristics are similar to the uses of medieval ballistas, so there’s a pretty strong correlation between the two, and the fact that the Ghurids brought siege weapons to India makes sense that the Delhi Sultanate have them too.

As a side note, the one describing the quote, Amir Khusrau, was a poet and writer who lived between 1253–1325 and witnessed the rise of the Tughlaq Dynasty.

Here’s the page in question (for educational purposes), and you can check the source:

---

---

Source

• Athat Ali, MILITARY TECHNOLOGY OF THE DELHI SULTANATE (13-14th C.), Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 1989, Vol. 50, Golden Jubilee, pp. 166-182

MILITARY TECHNOLOGY OF THE DELHI SULTANATE (13-14th C.) on JSTOR

It would be even more perfect if they could discover the real appearance of an “Arabian ballista” and thus create a new model and place it on top of the Tughlaq Dynasty elephant.

Anyway… we expect an update at some point, with the name changed and perhaps even the appearance redone.

*Note:I hope to see Khmer added in the future as a new civilization.

[MadMax8915]

Our esteemed colleague @GoldenArmorX has located the correct model of the crossbow/ballista, also used by the Khmer civilization, for their “Ballista Elephant”.

I’m posting it here so that one day we can remind the developers to use the correct model.

Thank you.

@GoldenArmorX

Bed Crossbow or Siege Crossbow for Chinese

---

Considering that some levels of the campaign will take place during the Tang or Song dynasty, it would be good to consider a siege weapon more suited to that era.

The Bed Crossbow was a siege crossbow that, like Western ballistae, was used to fire at guards on walls or towers, or from high positions and fortifications to fire at attackers.

Currently, it is a special siege unit for the Chinese, present in Age of Mythology for the Chinese civilization.

The Japanese in that game also have another variant of the Bed Crossbow, called the Oyumi.

In AoE4, the Bed Crossbow would be the East Asian version of the Springald, currently for three main civilizations: China, Mongols, and Japanese.

It would also appear in the two variants: Zhuxi and Sengoku.

Future civilizations, such as the Jurchen, Khitan, Vietnamese, and Khmer, would also have this model.

It is important to consider this model because a unique unit, the Khmer Tower Elephant, had this type of crossbow mounted, unlike the Western version.