The King's Return - AOE III

 Alaafin is the head of the empire and supreme overlord of the people. Basically, he  is weaker than other heroes having only  50% hp & attack when compared to European explorer. However, each "Oyo Mesi Warchief" will increase Alaafin hp & damage by 33% (see Oyo Mesi below). The Alaafin himself will increase Oyo Priests' (Ogboni) hp & damage by 200%.
The Alaafin has a very unique ability called the "Royal Slave". You can turn any unit of your villagers or infantry units into a "Royal Slave". A royal slave is a villager-type unit (blessed by the king) with 15% higher gather rate. But bear in mind that once you turn a unit into "Royal Slave" they will be subject to slavery by enemy i.e. they can be auto converted by enemy much like herds (historically the royal slaves were called ilari whom they worked as high officials in the government thus enjoying  a very high status & prestige). The additional advantage of this ability is that you can turn your infantry into villagers (royal slave) though the ability itself has a very long time to recharge.

African Villager is a shared unit between all new African Civilizations in the game. It is the basic gathering unit. Unlike other villagers, when an African villager is killed he/she will not die immediately. Instead the villager will fallout for very short period before he/she dies. The fallen villager will contain a unique resource called "Slavery Points" that can only be collected by Slave Masters available to European Civilizations. Note that if you kill these African Villagers by cannon they will die immediately without falling out & producing slavery points!!

A royal slave is a villager-type unit (blessed by the king) with 15% higher gather rate. It is a non-trainable unit & can only be obtained by the king's special ability. But bear in mind that once you turn a unit into "Royal Slave" they will be subject to slavery by enemy i.e. they can be auto converted by enemy much like herds. Historically the royal slaves were called ilari whom they worked as high officials in the government thus enjoying  a very high status & prestige. Visually, in game, you will see an Aura around the Royal Slave representing the blessing of the king.

The highest religious authority in the kingdom. He is an enhanced version of the Oyo Priest with limit of 1 only. He possesses a special ability called "Parrot's Egg". At anytime time you can force your Alaafin to commit a royal suicide by offering him a parrot's egg in order to remove him. This ability will temporary sacrifice 50% of your villagers' gather rate but will also enhance hp & damage of all land military by 25%. Additionally, the kill bounty of +100 will be granted to you instead of your enemy. Once the king commits the suicide, a couple of parrots will be released in the sky to celebrate the event!.

The basic healer & religious authority of the Oyo Civilization. Oyo priest are only limited to 4 units. The Oyo Priest has only 50% hitpoints compared to other civilizations priests. However, the king unit (Alaafin) will enhance their hp & damage by 200%. Additionally, a further shipment can be researched so that the  Alaafin will enhance priests' hp & damage by 300%.
The Ogboni Priests themselves will enhance hitpoints of the Oyo Mesi Warchiefs by 15%. All priests can gather unique resources called faith from the temple. As other priest, the Ogboni Priests will cost gold but you will have the option to to train them by using faith unique resource.

The basic anti-cavalry unit. This unit is shared between African Civilizations.

This is a shared unit between African Civilizations acting as a light infantry unit (skirmisher). The poisoned arrow bowman is a cheap unit that shoots deadly poisoned arrows. The unit has a very high base attack when compared to similar units as it can fire at 1.5 ROF with a damage of 25. Despite the powerful damage effect of the poison, these archers lack accuracy due to the use of featherless arrows.
Poisoned Arrow Unit Basic Attributes:
Cost : 55 Food , 35 Wood
Hp : 100
Range : 16
Damage : 25
Accuracy : 55%

The Leaders of the hand cavalry army. Warchief is a powerful unit with high attack & medium hp that can be further enhanced by Ogboni priests (each priest will increase warchief hp by 15%). There are 4 Warchiefs each one corresponding to the hand-cavalry sub army mentioned below. Each warchief will enhance his army hitpoints & damage by 20%. Additionally, each wacrhief will enhance the King (Alaafin) attack & damage by 33%.

Oyo cavalry are powerful units but with their own "limitations". You cannot raise high number cavalry locally & you have to depend on imported horse.
In the game, the hand cavalry unit is divided into 4 sub-armies. Basically they are the same unit except for the training process & age availability. Additionally, each army will have a leader called a "Warchief" who will maintain the health of his army.

1. Metropolitan Army (Black Heads): trained as regular units from stable (limit 15 available at age 2).
2. Yorubaland Army (Red Heads) : trained in blocks of 5 units from stable (limit 15 available at age 2).
3. Tributary Army (Spear Bearer) : rather than being trained, these units are shipped to your homecity gather point in blocks of 5 (technically it is an infinite tech researched from stable - though  it won't cost any shipment) - (limit 15 available at age 3).
4. Egbado Corridor Army (Skull Heads): as Tributary Army, units are shipped to your homecity gather point in blocks of 5,  but this army will only cost gold (limit 15 available at age 3).

Assegai Horseman is a special spear-thrower unit. Like other Light Cavalry units, it has a bonus against Heavy Cavalry units. This unit is a hybrid between Dragoon & Cavalry Archer. It has a high base attack of 28, move as fast as dragoon, fires at ROF of 3 and have a ranged armor of 30%. Nevertheless, the main uniqueness of this unit is that it has higher range (14) than other Light Cavalry & has a minimum range of 8 and no melee attack in volley mode. Although the Assegai Horseman cannot use hit & run tactics (much like cavalry archer), they will automatically hit  & run once any enemy come close to the Assegai Horseman.  You can use the melee attack by changing to melee tactic mode but the melee attack is actually weaker than volley attack by 20%-25%. Additionally, a shipment tech can enhance the range & increase the minimum range of the Assegai Horseman make him very annoying skirmishing unit.

The Royal Army units under the direct command of the King himself. These slave warriors drawn from the captured states of Hausa Nupe and Bornu are extremely well trained & powerful. They are only loyal to the Alaafin. In the game, the Royal Slave Guards are extremely powerful around the Alaafin being as powerful as the "Stradiot Mercenary Unit" while they will be as weak as "Cossack unit" if not!