Hey thanks gents for letting me know the finer points. Ok so my instinct about how to combat the elephants was pretty good (casting Earth Meld for now) and throwing masses of cheap troops at them in a 2nd wave (Hold and Attack). And the Counter-Elephants. I'm about to try this. I was hoping that "Spear Equipped" heavies might have been helpful though.
And as for the Gnomes....I'll find those little wankers on some casting set for a
Travelocity Commercial before I find them on this map :-)