Africans

The **Africans** are a culture group of civilizations based geographically in Africa. As such, despite the Egyptians perhaps being considered a Middle Eastern civilization, it is part of the African culture group. African civilizations feature some unique gameplay mechanics and buildings, such as using the Library to Age-up.

## Overview

The African continent is huge and diverse, but often neglected. In *Wars of Liberty*, the intention is to do justice to a diverse continent as it was in the 19th century, during the scramble for Africa, when the nations of Africa had to fight to keep their independence from European empires. From north to south on the African continent, each civilization features very distinct gameplay, even though they're part of the same culture. They explore the map with their own civilization's leader, whose abilities vary depending on the civilization. Their gatherer is the African Villager, who has no special attributes. Their late-game resource buildings are the Lot (Food), the Quarry (Coin), and the Spice Shop (Export). Export can be used to hire foreign units at the Spice Shop, some Home City cards require it, and you will need it to research some technologies. The Garrison trains basic units, the Cantonment trains stronger units, and the Palace trains the elite unit and heavy artillery.

Instead of having buildings in their Home Cities, they have European Ambassadors with cards representing their interests. This way, each African nation has access to mercenaries from four foreign nations.

### Aging-up

The most striking uniqueness of the Africans is the way that they Age-up. They require a special building called a Library that contains three types of techs: Military, Economic and Civic. These techs enable buildings, units and other technologies in a fashion similar to *Rise of Nations* or *Age of Empires II*. Aging-up is merely an aesthetic element for them, because reaching the Colonial Age does not necessarily mean they will have military units. Destroying the African Library will severely hinder their advance. Because of this system, the Africans may have Industrial Age-like units very early at the cost of a Discovery Age-like economy, or vice-versa.

Various tech combinations may result in an Age-up.

To get to National Age      there are 4 ways:

* Research the first 2 technologies of a single color (3 ways)
* Research the first technology of each color (1 way)

To get to Frotress Age      there are 4 ways:

* Research the first 4 technologies of a single color (3 ways)
* Research the first 3 technologies of each color (1 way)

To get to Industrial Age      there are 12 ways:

* Research the first 4 technologies of 2 different colors (4 ways)
* Research the first 6 technologies of a single color (4 ways)
* Research the first 5 technologies of a color and the first 3 of a different one (4 ways)

To get to Imperial Age      there are 4 ways:

* Research the first 6 technologies of 2 different colors (3 ways)
* Research the first 5 technologies of each color (1 way)

The first tech of each color takes 25 secs.

The rest of the redline takes 55 secs.

The rest of the yellow line takes 60 secs.

The rest of the blue takes 65.

## Features

* **Aging-up**: As detailed above, African civilizations Age-up at their unique Library building and can choose the order in which techs are researched.

* **Ambassadors**: The African Home City cards are divided between different Ambassadors representing a civilization. Cards tend to provide an additional bonus inspired by that civilization, such as French Diplomat cards improving the gather rate for your Villagers or Greek Delegate cards improving the research speed for your tech.

* **Leaders as Explorers**: The leaders of the African civilizations are also their Explorer units. They have unique abilities, such as the Egyptians' leader being able to build Obelisks for Line of Sight. As with other cultures, Home City cards can further enhance your leader. They additionally have access to a unit called the Tradesman who explores, builds Trading Posts, and can gather Export from Spice Stalls.

* **Spice Shops**: The Africans offer a twist on the Export mechanic introduced with **Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties**. They can build Spice Shops that can then spawn Spice Stalls to collect Export from using Tradesmen or Villagers. Export is an important resource for them as it is not only used to acquire foreign troops, it is also used in the later Age-up upgrades at the Library and required for certain military and economic upgrades.

* **Lots**: Their Food gathering building is reminiscent of Farms from earlier *Age of Empires* games, the Lot supplies a set amount of Food and disappears when all of the food is gathered. As a result of only one villager being able to gather at each Lot, Lots must constantly be built to keep a decent Food income. The Granary contains upgrades for the Lot gathering rate, and Home City cards offer improvements as well.

* **Quarries**: The Africans' late game Coin source is the Quarry, which lets them create rocks to mine. The Quarry houses its own gather rate upgrades, and Home City cards offer improvements as well.

* **Palace**: The Africans' Palace is a mix between European Forts and Asian Castles, it is a powerful defensive building and contains the civilization's elite unit, special artillery units. and upgrades. Unlike the Forts, Palaces do not require Home City cards to construct and can be built like a normal building. In addition to Food, Wood, and Coin, all Palace units will cost Export and nearly all the Palace techs require Export as well.

## Gallery

The Zulu have a unique mechanic of training units from YouthsThe Zulu Home CityThe African culture utilizes a Spice Shop to gather ExportThe Ethiopians' Home CityAn Egyptian caravan. Their Dock, the Harborship, is unique in that it is mobileEgyptians' Home CityEach African civilization Ages up by researching technologies at their Library

## Portals

* Civilizations
* Minor Allies
* Religions