Chains of Gold- Western Africa Mod 1229-1591AD

[Machinekng]

Hello all,

I've been lurking the boards for a little while. I had been playing Total War for a long time, and I've been here before, but I really never got into modding before. Then, I downloaded Stainless Steel, and I've been in love with mods ever since.

Thus, I made up my mind and decided to start working on a mod of my own. I'm still learning, mainly using the tutorials on this forum, but I've already come up with some ideas. Just from looking around the mod threads, one region that no one really seems to have worked on is Africa, and I think there's plenty of material for a campaign focusing on west Africa, namely the Mali and Songhai empires.

Although I'm not trying to make a team, I could use some help. If you have any comments or ideas pertaining to my planned factions and features, I'd love to hear them. If you know of a similar mod that has models or scripts I could use, it'd be great if you pointed that out as well. Otherwise, I'll just post material as I finish it.

Also of note, the start/end dates are only provisional and may change as I continue to research.

Proposed Factions:
1. Mali Empire
2. Songhai Empire
3. Sosso Kingdom
4. Mossi Kingdoms
5. Kingdom of Benin
6. Ife
7. Nube
8. Niri
9. Takrur
10. Jolof Empire
11. Sultanate of Kanem-Borno
12. Hausa States
13. Taureg Tribes
14. Almohad Caliphate
15. Marinid Caliphate
16. Hafsid Dynasty
17. Kingdom of Portugal (Emergent/Unplayable)
18. Rebels (May be split into several factions).

Proposed New Features:
-Option to enslave armies and settlements of different religions in lieu of exterminating them.
-Sandstorms as a new weather effect.
-Changes to the merchant system including the ability to place tolls on foreign merchants.
-Overland trade routes that can be blocked at certain points along the route, generating income while impairing the income of those factions using the trade route.
-The ability to convert between religions at any time if a large enough proportion of your capital/nation follows it. Each religion will have special bonuses (for example, becoming Catholic will give you profits from trading with the Portuguese and allow you to hire Portuguese soldiers.)

[dmcraanen]

Sounds funky and original, but I'm going to need a bit more information than that. Perhaps you can show what you've learned so far, or at least draw up a map of the region(s) you ll be representing and the faction starting positions. Some pictures of what you intend the units to look like would also help. I do know that there's some mods that have some focus on this (not directly but indirectly for sure). I'm not sure if the units are in any way related to western africa because frankly I don't know anything about it, but Isandlwana made a mod called the Thin Red Line which takes place in the late 19th century in africa. perhaps he is willing to help out.... anyway, more information would be good since I am fairly sure hardly anyone knows about this era and region.

[Machinekng]

I'd advise making the mod late enough so that you can play as Portugal or whatever European factions were there Different play style and all that

Then again, not having them playable makes them the scary weird army youve never fought before, change them tactics

I've thought about making them playable, but I do want to try to treat the colonizing powers as a menacing spectre. I have thought about splitting the game into a eaarly and late eras, however. In that case, the relevant European factions would be playable in the late era campaign

Sounds funky and original, but I'm going to need a bit more information than that. Perhaps you can show what you've learned so far, or at least draw up a map of the region(s) you ll be representing and the faction starting positions. Some pictures of what you intend the units to look like would also help. I do know that there's some mods that have some focus on this (not directly but indirectly for sure). I'm not sure if the units are in any way related to western africa because frankly I don't know anything about it, but Isandlwana made a mod called the Thin Red Line which takes place in the late 19th century in africa. perhaps he is willing to help out.... anyway, more information would be good since I am fairly sure hardly anyone knows about this era and region.

Okay then. Here's a quick mock-up of the planned campaign map:



Some notes on the map:
-I haven't really been able to find anything on the Diafanu, but I'll keep looking.
-The small states (those labled 22-25) will probably be represented by rebels.
-Wagadugu was conquered by the Mali and later by the Mossi, so I don't think that I'll be representing them with a faction.
-The city of Benin itself was inside Ife territory at the time.
-The Tauregs will start with a couple of settlements in the Sahara, probably around the Air Mountains.
-I'm still not sure where the Kanem-Borno's capital was, but they were definitely centered around Lake Chad.

For notes on the time period:
-The Empire of Ghana, centered west of the Niger river, has recently collapsed, conquered by the Sosso. The Empire's former vassals, the Mali, Songhai and other neighbooring states now face the threat of the Sosso.
-In the north, the Almohad Caliphate has fallen into a state of civil war. The Banu Marinid have risen up against the Almohads, and the Hafsids, governers of Tunis, have declared independence. While the Marinids only hold a small territory, they field a powerful and fierce army.
-The states south of the Niger river have yet to achieve prominence, but as the Europeans come down the coast, they will be able to benefit from European trade and technology. However, it will come with a cost, as the European lust for gold, ivory and slaves might change their ways of life irrevocably.

[Mr Kriegtooth]

I'd advise making the mod late enough so that you can play as Portugal or whatever European factions were there Different play style and all that

Then again, not having them playable makes them the scary weird army youve never fought before, change them tactics

[Vladyvid]

Interesting idea. Looking forward to see some first results or some more details. Good luck.

[Vladyvid]

With such arrangement, most of the central part of the map would be rather useless desert. Would you consider focusing only on the subsaharan part, perhaps including just southern part of Sahara?

[Marshal Sa'd of Jerusalem]

It would be nice to include east Africa as well, adding Nubia, Ethiopia, and Semien.