Hi guys,
I did some research on elephants and I was suprised about some facts about african elephants:
I found some info on this site: http://www.upali.ch/differences_en.html
QuoteIs keeping African elephants more difficult?
The rumour is wrong that Asian elephants would be easier to keep in zoos or circuses than African elephants.
Both elephant species live in various circuses and zoos. The only thing that rendered the Asian elephants better known as working, zoo and circus elephants is the Asian tradition of catching and taming wild elephants.
So the most famous zoo and circus elephant "Jumbo" was a african bull.
When the Belgians in colonial times intended to stub the jungle of Belgian Congo, they employed Indian mahouts, who successfully caught and trained the African elephants according to the Asian method. Nowadays safaris on the backs of African riding elephants become more and more popular in Africa.
here is some info regarding Ptolemaic elephants: (according to all four links Europa Barbarorum got it wrong)
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/after-2000-years-ptolemy%E2%80%99s-war-elephants-are-revealed
http://www.archaeology.org/news/1750-140121-africa-asia
http://www.livescience.com/42672-elephant-mystery-solved-at-ancient-syrian-battle.html
http://blog.oup.com/2014/02/proving-polybius-wrong-about-elephants/
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/war-elephants
And here you can find info about hannibal's elephants:
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history/unsolved-mystery-where-did-hannibal-get-his-war-elephants-002447
http://www.thehistoryherald.com/Articles/Ancient-History-Civilisation/Hannibal-and-the-Punic-Wars/hannibal-s-elephants-myth-and-reality
I think the north african forest elephants theory seems reasonable, though I'd like to read more on it.
Well Hannibal had probably at least 1 Syrian elephant, the rest of his elephants were probably north African, but it's also possible that it were bush elephants or Syrian elephants but the latter two are very unlikely.
Regarding the Ptolemaic empire, they probably used bush elephants
The Seleucids used mainly Indian elephants, which the seleucids recieved from the Mauryan King Ashoka between 305 BC and 301 BC, however it might have been possible that the Seleucids also deployed several Syrian elephants (if this was true they were only very small in number).
I personally think we should make all types of elephants available to each elephant faction as aor troops (Indian, Syrian, north African and bush elephants) ;I wouldn't give the Romans access to Syrian elephants since those were extinct by the time the Romans reached Syria; we could however represent them as expensive mercenaries that don't replenish.