[MOD] Way Out West (WOW) (v1.3.9)

[kronenblatt]

Aeneas, this foreign adventurer from the glorious and fallen city of Troy, is seeking companions on further adventures to the west, to be taking place in an open and uninhabited world where a new city is to be founded. This is a mod in which the player starts out all alone on the map, in the beginning of the first millennium BCE, as a Greek or Phoenician colony. It will have to make the best of the situation, exploring the immediate vicinity on the map. Gradually, however, other factions will appear, initially other colonisers and over time, depending on the actions, other factions as well. The map will become more and more populated and new opportunities and risks arise.



Your faction

Aeneas, together with his companions, are to become the first colonists in the dawn of the first century BC, about to leave their old homelands to sail west for an uncertain future in unknown new lands. In the first turn, the old homelands (Euboia or Phoenicia) can be selected, also determining the origin and name of the faction: Greek Neapolis or Punic Carthago. If no selection, the origin will be randomised. In addition, the region of the new lands to settle in can be selected from a range along the Mediterranean coastline (plus some farther away), which will be randomised if no selection is made.

Gameplay

The first turn involves the opportunity of selecting your old homelands (applying their characteristics on your new faction) and new lands (the region that will be your sole region next turn) by way of two separate Regional Decisions. Alternatively, you could let one or both be random through not exercising the Regional Decision in question. So if you want a new and unexpected situation, exercise none of the two Regional Decisions.

In the second turn, your new faction will be located all alone in the world, in the region of your new homelands and resources be randomly allocated to all regions in that province. You will have the opportunity to change your government form, from the current Tyranny to Kingdom, Oligarchy, or Sect, through the 'One Government to Rule Us All' National Decision.

Going forward, as and when regions in other provinces get inhabited by you or other factions, resources will be randomly generated in the regions of these provinces as well. So take your time understanding your situation.

But not too much time!

Despite you being be alone on the map for a few turns, new factions will soon start to appear. These new factions are historical colonies, Greek and Phoenician, but when and exactly in which regions they settle will be somewhat random. Another aspect to keep in mind is that the world is not limited to colonists. Should you or the new factions stray too far inland away from the coast, tribal factions may (and in time surely will) appear. And to the east, there is Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, and the whole Fertile Crescent waiting to potentially come alive. Not to speak of the fierce Germanic tribes in the north and the steppe hordes in the far away northeast. And you may be lured to those mysterious islands to the northwest, called Britannia and Hibernia by the Celts on the mainland.

The world lies at your feet: will you survive, maybe even flourish, or will you perish?

Let us see and show us what you can achieve during the 100 turns of the mod, from 1000 to 470 BC! The world in in the beginning of the fifth century BC looked quite different, compared to five hundred years earlier. The early fifth century BC was a pivotal period in ancient history, particularly in the Greek world, in the western Mediterranean, and in the Persian Empire. Carthage began asserting control in North Africa and parts of Sicily and conflicts with Greek colonies like Syracuse was on the rise. Rome had just expelled its kings and transitioned into a republic, and early wars with neighboring Latin and Etruscan states were fought. The Greeks in Ionia revolted against Persia. It ended with Persian victory but laid the groundwork for the later Greco-Persian Wars, starting with the first Persian Invasion of Greece and the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). And if you want, you can of course continue playing further than the 100 turns and find out what lies beyond the horizon eastwards and beyond the fifth century BC!

Advice

• Mods can be daunting and overwhelming compared to the base game, just because they are mods with modded functionality and mechanics and lack of base game balance. That's the whole idea of mods!

• So start out at lowest difficulty (Easy) and get to know the mod from there.

• For this mod specifically, the higher the difficulty, the following applies:
  • The fewer units you get at start.
  • The earlier other colonies begin to spawn and with more units.
  • The earlier and more likely new nations (such as the tribes of Spain, Africa, and Gaul) will appear (and with more units) once you expand, especially inlands into landlocked territory.

• So the lower the difficulty, the opposite (you getting more units at start, other factions appearing later and less likely and with fewer units, etc.) will of course be the case!

• If you want to really minimise interference from other colonies and nations, consider establishing your own colony along the Bay of Biscay in western Gaul.

• Most importantly of all, take a relaxed approach and enjoy! This mod is not about winning but about giving a different experience in that the map is empty at start and its contents different every time!

Download and instructions (latest version v0.9 as of July 11, 2025)

1. Make sure to delete any old folders and files of the mod!
2. Download the latest version (1000BCE_WayOutWest_v139_20250711.7z) from my Google Drive HERE.
3. Unzip/extract the downloaded .7z file.
4. Place the unzipped folder (named 1000BCE_WayOutWest_v139) and its files in the SCENARIOS folder of FieldOfGloryEmpires, under Documents/My Games/.

[Culthrasa]

Sounds like fun. Will try it out!

Edit: My first impressions.

- Starting army way to small. Takes forever to get enough forces to conquer a single region.
- Leaders seem to be dying EVERY turn. Don't believe i ever had a general on an army for more the a turn or 2. Also faction leaders died very often and got four or five new leaders in 10 orso turns.
- very fast spawning of neighbours, each with a much bigger start army. Got declared on in all my games (about 10 restarts) and lost every time (army's into the 70's strength on turn 8 or so)
- Starting near Cartago is impossible. One game i got declared in turn 3, they had an army of 79. Second time i conquered the province (adjusted the scenario to give me more units) and they rose up with 119 strength on turn 7. Again, game over....
- Is it possible to let the new nations start with one region instead of a whole province. The delay in turns till they spawn isn't nearly enough to compensate for them getting 5 orso regions instantly.

I like the premise of the scenario, but I can't see how to be successful no matter where i start or what i do (and i have done a worldconquest with judea so I know the game well)

[kronenblatt]

Sounds like fun. Will try it out!

Edit: My first impressions.

1. Starting army way to small. Takes forever to get enough forces to conquer a single region.
2. Leaders seem to be dying EVERY turn. Don't believe i ever had a general on an army for more the a turn or 2. Also faction leaders died very often and got four or five new leaders in 10 orso turns.
3. very fast spawning of neighbours, each with a much bigger start army. Got declared on in all my games (about 10 restarts) and lost every time (army's into the 70's strength on turn 8 or so)
4. Starting near Cartago is impossible. One game i got declared in turn 3, they had an army of 79. Second time i conquered the province (adjusted the scenario to give me more units) and they rose up with 119 strength on turn 7. Again, game over....
5. Is it possible to let the new nations start with one region instead of a whole province. The delay in turns till they spawn isn't nearly enough to compensate for them getting 5 orso regions instantly.

I like the premise of the scenario, but I can't see how to be successful no matter where i start or what i do (and i have done a worldconquest with judea so I know the game well)

Thanks for input! Didn't see until now: sorry about that.

1. When you say "forever", how many turns? And which army size (i.e., how many units and of which types) would be more reasonable? (Please then keep in mind that a standing army will cost you as well.)
2. Intentional, because keep in mind that the first 10 turns are 20 years each, the following 15 turns 10 years each, 20 turns after that 5 years, and finally 25 turns 2 years, etc. (After that, a turn is 1 year.) Therefore, leaders and rulers are much more likely to get deteriorating health and die, the earlier in the game you are.
3. Will make spawn pace depend on player's set difficulty.
4. That's an interesting input and I will let it be like this, because then players can find sweet spots (and sour spots) on regions in which to start, depending on which type of challenge they would like to have.
5. Let me think about that: maybe it could be linked to player's set difficulty, like #3 above. But one advise is to avoid the landlocked regions and to only expand along the coasts...
6. Which difficulty level did you play at?

Balancing is difficult in a mod, and it seems that currently it's too challenging, but maybe it can be remedied through linking more features and mechanics to the player's difficulty.

(This said: I've made some playtesting with hands-off AI games, and in those cases, the colony AI seems to be doing fairly well.)

Stay tuned!

[kronenblatt]

So... Now I've implemented some adjustments based on the difficulty set by the player and uploaded a new version with download link and instructions in the opening post. Also, some advice along the way, general and for this mod.

• Mods can be daunting and overwhelming compared to the base game, just because they are mods with modded functionality and mechanics and lack of base game balance. That's the whole idea of mods!

• So start out at lowest difficulty (Easy) and get to know the mod from there.

• For this mod specifically, the higher the difficulty, the following applies:
  • The fewer units you get at start.
  • The earlier other colonies begin to spawn and with more units.
  • The earlier and more likely new nations (such as the tribes of Spain, Africa, and Gaul) will appear (and with more units) once you expand, especially inlands into landlocked territory.

• So the lower the difficulty, the opposite (you getting more units at start, other factions appearing later and less likely and with fewer units, etc.) will of course be the case!

• If you want to really minimise interference from other colonies and nations, consider establishing your own colony along the Bay of Biscay in western Gaul.

• Most importantly of all, take a relaxed approach and enjoy! This mod is not about winning but about giving a different experience in that the map is empty at start and its contents different every time!

Let us see and show us what you can achieve during the 100 turns of the mod, from 1000 to 470 BC!

The world in in the beginning of the fifth century BC looked quite different, compared to five hundred years earlier. The early fifth century BC was a pivotal period in ancient history, particularly in the Greek world, in the western Mediterranean, and in the Persian Empire. Carthage began asserting control in North Africa and parts of Sicily and conflicts with Greek colonies like Syracuse was on the rise. Rome had just expelled its kings and transitioned into a republic, and early wars with neighboring Latin and Etruscan states were fought. The Greeks in Ionia revolted against Persia. It ended with Persian victory but laid the groundwork for the later Greco-Persian Wars, starting with the first Persian Invasion of Greece and the Battle of Marathon (490 BC).

And if you want, you can of course continue playing further than the 100 turns and find out what lies beyond the horizon eastwards and beyond the fifth century BC!