[Xietor]

"Vine shield was probably not a good choice, since they are very strong. Gold shield would have done the trick."

Absians have good morale too. And the Burning Ones go berserk, making the gold shield useless. See I have to plan the shields for more than one fight. I had already tried the eye shield(without success). With the flails getting 2 attacks and so many of them, they hit anyway.

Besides ask Admiralzhao about gold shields. He had one on his harbinger(who already has awe), as well as a fear helm, and attacked a handful of my elephants. The theory being, i guess, that the low morale elephants would rout because of the awe/fear combo.

Unfortunately things do not always work out in game play as they do on the chalk board. And none(as in zero) of my elephants routed and they trampled that harbinger to death.