Recruiting elephants with Roman Faction

[romadepor]

I am using the Brutii faction and have conquered Egypt and up to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and am unable to recruit elephants. I have placed a merchant in the elephant "square", an army general in the square, and a merchant within the army general camp in the square, and there is no optionality to recruit elephants; only archers and bedouin cavalry.
Not sure if I am missing something obvious here, but can't find anything online either.
No point capturing the east if you can't use elephants to do it!

[Vicboss]

I'm pretty sure you can't actually recruit elephants as a Roman unit in this game. You CAN recruit elephants as mercenaries, but they will only pop up in regions where elephants would be and also are semi-random in appearance.

[romadepor]

Originally posted by Vicboss:

I'm pretty sure you can't actually recruit elephants as a Roman unit in this game. You CAN recruit elephants as mercenaries, but they will only pop up in regions where elephants would be and also are semi-random in appearance.

Good point, to clarify, I don't have the option to recruit as a mercenary unit either. No matter whether I place an army general or merchant in the elephant square, there is no option to recruit elephants, only the typical egyptian/parthian mercenaries.

[Mayer]

Rome can only muster men against beasts.

Romans were also unskilled in the use of elephants, so when they captured war elephants they would often reuse them as circus attraction.

[Vicboss]

I think the elephant resource on the map doesn't imply you can recruit mercenary elephants in that region, but if you are a faction that can recruit elephants naturally you would be able to build them there. I am fairly certain you can't recruit mercenary elephants in the Middle East. You need to head to North Africa to find them. Keep in mind they are rare, but I'm sure if you check every territory in North Africa with dedication (if you really must have them :P) you will find them eventually.

[Jambie Lionheart]

Merchants don't affect mercenary recruitmenet pool, nor do they affect a factions recruitmenet abilities in any way. Romans can never recruit elephants. I wonder if you're thinking of Rome 2, where recruitment options are a little more region based.

[Vicboss]

Originally posted by }P.B{ CtMurphy:

Merchants don't affect mercenary recruitmenet pool, nor do they affect a factions recruitmenet abilities in any way. Romans can never recruit elephants. I wonder if you're thinking of Rome 2, where recruitment options are a little more region based.

Romans CAN recruit elephant mercenaries, which is what OP is talking about.

[Jambie Lionheart]

Originally posted by Vicboss:

Originally posted by }P.B{ CtMurphy:

Merchants don't affect mercenary recruitmenet pool, nor do they affect a factions recruitmenet abilities in any way. Romans can never recruit elephants. I wonder if you're thinking of Rome 2, where recruitment options are a little more region based.

Romans CAN recruit elephant mercenaries, which is what OP is talking about.

I know, i'm pointing out that merchants don't do anything to change the recruitment pool.

[Vicboss]

I'm watching a video on Youtube where someone has them and claims he recruited them outside of Jerusalem, and that the second location is further west in Africa. So I would start at Jerusalem and work my way west through Africa.

[Jerroser]

All mercenary units should all have specific regions they can always be found in. For Elephant's I believe you should be able to get them both in the North African area as well as the stretch of coast between where Egypt and the Seleucid's start but can't remember the specific regions aside from Antioch (I know for a fact that I found them there in the original game).

[romadepor]

Originally posted by Vicboss:

I'm watching a video on Youtube where someone has them and claims he recruited them outside of Jerusalem, and that the second location is further west in Africa. So I would start at Jerusalem and work my way west through Africa.

More out of curiosity wondering how this works now, as I have recaptured the legionnaire standards from those pesky parthians without elephants!
I've conquered the entire eastern region of the game, and no elephant mercenary option. I'm working my way through Carthage now so will give an update later on.
Vicboss, would be forever in your debt if you could post the video link.
@PB, I haven't played Rome 2, so not sure how that works...
Thanks everyone!!

[SyndicatedINC]

Mercenaries are not always available. Elephant mercenaries even less so. You can wander all the regions they are able to spawn for dozens of turns before one becomes available.

[Vicboss]

Originally posted by romadepor:

Originally posted by Vicboss:

I'm watching a video on Youtube where someone has them and claims he recruited them outside of Jerusalem, and that the second location is further west in Africa. So I would start at Jerusalem and work my way west through Africa.

More out of curiosity wondering how this works now, as I have recaptured the legionnaire standards from those pesky parthians without elephants!
I've conquered the entire eastern region of the game, and no elephant mercenary option. I'm working my way through Carthage now so will give an update later on.
Vicboss, would be forever in your debt if you could post the video link.
@PB, I haven't played Rome 2, so not sure how that works...
Thanks everyone!!

Sure thing, I'll link the video. The guy does mention that the elephants have a 1/200 chance of spawning in regions as mercenaries that they can even spawn in. So it's not uncommon to play an entire campaign and never see any.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqxfLMxP2co