Battle elephants strategy

I have just got into AOE2 recently and am wondering if there is a viable battle elephants strategy. I am only 1100 elo so not really any good. I like playing elephants but it seems the build up is a bit slow and I struggle to make it work. I have tried building up other armies then going into elephants let, but then it feels like elephants are only relevant late game and prior to this I can never seem to build up enough of a force to defend early.

So I am wondering if there is a viable elephant focused strategy or if they are just not really the best unit?