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Basic overview

Aside from using the Indians, the Sufi are the only way you can access to war elephant units. The Sufi offer a variety of economical improvements. The first increases the maximum amount of villagers your civilization can have, the second allows your villagers to gather more at the expense of their HPs, and lastly they can give you a scaled amount of fattened goats depending on how long the game has lasted. You can have up to 6 War Elephants for each Sufi trading post you have standing, and they appear on 5 standard maps; Deccan, Boreno, Indochina, Silk Road and Mongolia.

The unit – War Elephant

The Sufi War Elephant functions as a heavy cavalry unit; however it has numerous unusual properties for this class.

Analysis

The War Elephant costs a significant amount more than the Hussar, and again like most Asian cavalry units it specializes against ranged infantry units. On the other hand, this means that it will be weaker against anything else, and its base damage is rather low. However, War Elephants can tear ranged infantry apart very easily, with its splash damage creating a big impact on a large grouping of such units.

It is a rather durable unit with high ranged resistance and a decent siege attack, so it can be used effectively in this role as well. War Elephants can replace standard cavalry units in some ways, but because of their lack of speed in comparison and difficulty at beating units other than ranged infantry, some caution might be needed before you train these. You need to be aware of the drawbacks that come with these guys.

Technology

Pilgrimage

Cost: 250 food, 250 coin

Effect: Delivers 1 fattened Goat for every 2 minutes of game time

Comments: The problem with this technology is that it costs food when most civilizations will get food out of it, so if you are short on food it might be problematic. Other then that, the technology becomes useful very quickly for a quick burst of food. Sending it any time after 12 or so minutes is worthwhile.

Fasting

Cost: 200 wood, 200 coin

Effect: Villagers gather all resources 10% faster but have 40% less HP

Comments: It really depends on how confident you are that you can protect your villagers. 40% is a really large amount, and 10% - although a significant benefit - isn’t huge considering its costs. It gets stronger the more villagers you have however, so some careful timing may be needed here. It is probably worth it at 40 or 50 villagers, where it effectively gives you 4 or 5 extra villagers - provided you can take the risk of having less HPs.

Sharia

Cost: 100 food, 100 coin

Effect: Maximum villager build limit is increased by 10%

Comments: Another technology that can be of benefit in the late game. Civilizations such as the Dutch, Japanese and French are likely to find a use for it sooner.

Summary

The Sufi are a rather well-rounded group. That said, the Cherokee are probably even more so because the Sufi economic benefits don’t really come into play until the mid to latter stages of a game. War elephants, although expensive, are certainly worth their cost and can be devastating against enemy ranged infantry. You need to keep in mind that they are indeed notably slower and can sometimes have difficulty pathing to find their targets, due to their larger size. Overall they can work in a balanced army, but you need to be aware of their weaknesses before using them.