Employing war elephants

[Robert Vermaat]

The ability to fire a bow or javelin from the tower while the elephant is moving is a real hit or miss affair and is nothing more than a wild shot. It's not like you can use the Parthian horse archers firing method and fire when the two front legs of the horse are in the air. Sitting on the back of the elephant is more stable than in a tower. My conclusion is the tower and crew are there to protect the mahout, nothing more. Kill the mahout and you disable the elephant. The guys in the towers cannot protect the elephant, which is the role of the elephant escorts.

Interesting! And how about the defenders employing a long lance? Would archery be more realistic if the animal stood still, with the elephants being employed as archery platform at the back of a formation?