User blog comment:GSFB/Warg Riders vs Carthaginian War Elephants/@comment-5232784-20130410230002

I guess I shall vote first, hehehe

1. Infantry weapons

The Orc scimitar will be longer than the Falcata, and will be poisoned tipped. The Orc spear can have a larger, more savage spearhead than the Sarissa, and is likewise poisoned tipped, yet the Sarissa has better range. Of course, with the Orcs bestial strength, they could throw their spears, but this is rarerly if ever done, and Orcs are terrible shots so it would be a useless endeavor. The Orc Black Bow is a powerful composite bow, firing a poisoned tipped arrow, but either due to Bad Orc eyesite, bad training, or a flawed designed in the bow, the Orcs have poor accuracy with the weapon. Fighting Uruk-Hai are far better with the weapon than normal Snaga or Uruk orcs, so perhaps the orc's poor aim is a biological-based mishap. The carthaginians, being human, don't suffer this problem, and their Soliferrums are well aimed. Though composite bows have more range and accuracy than javelins, the bad shots of Orcs evens this out, to the point that humans are more likely to hit their targets with the javelin than the orcs with their bows, so humans get the edge here. Though the Orcs may wear some metal armor along with their beast skins, either steel or iron, they often wear no helmets, while the Carthaginians always wear brass helmets alongside their bronze armor. And while steel is tougher than Bronze and brass, some Iron is  weaker than bronze, albeit lighter. Since some orcs carry no helmets, yet may have better metal in their armor, I give this a tie.

The Orcs win with their scimitars, Carthaginians win with their Sarissas, Soliferrums, and with a preference for wearing helmets

EDGE: Carthaginian war elephant

2. Steeds

This is the main enchalada here folks:

Intelligence wise, Wargs have the edge; while elephants are surprisingly smart, Wargs have human-level sentience, on par with their Orc riders. Indeed, during a ride the Orc is not the master, but an equal with the warg, unlike human/horse mounts. To imagine human level intelligence in a wolf the size of a dog brings to mind a beast of terrible capabilities, even more so when the Warg is influenced by the great evil that mutated their ancient ancestors.

Wargs also have the advantage in speed and agility: though elephants are fast, Wargs can outrun ponies, rivaling horses in speed, or even in some cases potentially surpassing them.

Elephants however have the size and strength advantage, and go through harsh martial training, being stabed repeatedly with arrows to make them not panic in combat; no indication is found in the Tolkien mythos that wargs undergo such training, though in the heat of battle they show incredible discipline and skill, and are far less likely to panic and turn tail, pun intended, than orcs are. And being sentient, Wargs may continue the battle with wounds relative to an elephant that could cause its larger opponent to panic. Still, it takes a lot to panic a war elephant, and it no doubt has the better training.

Also, unlike Wargs, elephants wear armor: they have a spiked head plate and a caparison. They were also able to use their trunks as deadly weapons: Warg's noses do not move, do not have 100,000 muscles in them can could fell a Lion with one blow, and do not grab things to strike their opponents (regular elephants have been known to grab fallen trees and use them as clubs). Nor can Wargs use their noses to lift horse-sized animals right off the earth and slam them down with crushing force.

Both animals are highly brutal, so they equal out in this department.

So let's look at the tape:

1. Intelligence=Warg

2. Size and strength=elephant

3. Training=Elephant

4. Discipline=Warg

5. armor=elephant

6. speed and agility=Warg

7. Weapons= Elephant (Trunk and tusks, tusk blades)

8. Determination=Warg

Yet in a one on one encounter, the elephants will smash both warg and rider, and the orcs have less discipline and low quality weapons and armor overall compared to the humans of Carthage. War elephant triumphs

CARTHAGINIAN WAR ELEPHANTS WAYLAY WARG RIDERS