| “ | Shots from our bows rarely miss their mark. | ” |
| —Dialogue in The Siege of Jerusalem | ||
The Archer of the Eyes (Archers of the Eyes before the Definitive Edition, in plural despite being a single unit) is a foot archer hero in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. He has the appearance of an Arbalester but always hits his target, not needing to research Thumb Ring. It cannot hit moving targets accurately in the Definitive Edition, prior to which it could track moving targets without requiring Ballistics.
Archers of the Eyes are present in some campaigns and can also be found in the Scenario Editor. As heroes, they cannot be converted and can regenerate hit points (since The Conquerors). All archery upgrades also benefit Archers of the Eyes.
Campaign appearances[]
Barbarossa[]
- The Emperor Sleeping: Saladin has several Archers of the Eyes in his army.
Saladin[]
- The Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin's forces start out with several Archers of the Eyes among them.
- The Lion and the Demon: There are some Archers of the Eyes in the Acre garrison. In the co-op version, player A starts with some Archers of the Eyes.
Bari[]
- Arrival at Bari: In the HD Edition, The Emir of Bari has several Archers of the Eyes as his personal bodyguards.
Prithviraj[]
- A Promising Warrior: Sanyogita's Champion is a renamed Archer of the Eye. Prithviraj has to defeat him if he goes to meet with the guru.
Yodit[]
- The Right Partner: Archers of the Eyes are part of Beja raider groups that attack Yodit's harbor base. In addition, the Nobatia city to the west has a number of them stationed near its Castle and can train them.
Trivia[]
- The historical Archers of the Eyes were expert Nubian archers reputedly so accurate that they could hit enemies in the eye and blind them without killing them, hence their name. Another was "pupil smiters". This is the main reason for them being 100% accurate without needing to research Ballistics nor Thumb Ring.
- Despite the Nubians being people from present-day Sudan and southern Egypt, their original icon depicts a man with pale skin and reddish-brown hair. They are also armed with arbalests instead of their famed reflexed longbows (though crossbows were also used in Medieval Nubia). In the Definitive Edition, the icon is based on the model of the Cavalry Archer line, which looks vaguely Middle Eastern.
- The first mention of "Archers of the Eyes" is from the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century, but associating Nubians with powerful archery goes back to Ancient Egypt, when the southern border was called Ta-Seti or "Land of the Bow". The Medjay were also Nubian archers.
- The Archers of the Eyes were instrumental in stopping the Muslim expansion along the Nile and preserving the Christian Sudanese kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia until the 16th century. The peace treaty between the Muslims and Makurians established the Baqt, in which the Makurians agreed to provide Egypt with a small number of high quality slaves and mercenaries. This agreement lasted for seven centuries, and it is likely the reason Saladin receives Archers of the Eyes in the game after he conquers Egypt.
- In The Hot Gates, Ethiopian archers draped in leopard skin are mentioned, referring to these Nubian archers who served as mercenaries and soldiers to Egypt and the Mesopotamian powers. The Ancient Greeks used the term Ethiopian for all black people.
Gallery[]
Replica of 11th Dynasty models of Nubian archers, from a tomb in Asyut. Original from c. 2000 BCE
A Nubian archer depicted in a 16th century Portuguese codex
