Actually the author also has a 3 part article about war elephants https://acoup.blog/2019/07/26/collections-war-elephants-part-i-battle-pachyderms/ https://acou

Actually the author also has a 3 part article about war elephants https://acoup.blog/2019/07/26/collections-war-elephants-part-i-battle-pachyderms/ https://acoup.blog/2019/07/26/collections-war-elephants-part... He is of the opinion that elephants were okay (not great) on battlefield, but awful in terms of logistics, supply usage and breeding. A horse reaches adulthood in 4 years. An elephant needs 15, and pregnancy lasts over 3 years. There are no known examples of breeding elephants. Supply-wise, you could have 1000 cavalrymen or 54 elephants. He says the main reason India widely used elephants - aside from proximity - was to show off status. Also, don't make fun of J.R.R. Tolkien - he fought in trenches of WW1, on top of strong familiarity with medieval warfare because of all his reading.