Wild West merges eight separate warzones into one massive battlefield, the Land of Liberty - the single biggest structural change of any season so far. Old positioning habits from earlier seasons stop working immediately here; the map is simply larger, and travel time punishes overextension in ways it never did before.
Decide your starting-area strategy as an alliance before the map locks in: a cardinal direction favors Capitol control and more active warfare, while a corner favors a quieter CrystalGold Tycoon run with less constant fighting. Neither is wrong, but mixing the two without agreement inside one alliance causes friction.
The economy runs on three linked resources: Coffee Beans build the Coffee Factory and type-specific Bars, Coffee feeds the Caffeine Institute (which raises Virus Resistance), and CrystalGold comes from zombie kills, the Trade Train, and events. Level Coffee Factories evenly across the alliance rather than rushing one member's to max first.