Using mods with Steam RTW including BI and Alexander

The established way to run mods (right click in Steam game list->Properties->Set launch options...) has some drawbacks: you need to perform these steps every time you want to swap mods or run vanilla. Also it forces you to use Steam game list if your mod is based on BI. Below are two other approaches:
1) right click->Create desktop shortcut, then edit the shortcut to append your mod parameters (e.g. -mod:eb -show_err -nm). This works for vanilla and Alexander mods but not for BI
2) running BI mods requires setting up of Steam environment variables. Below is a batch file (with some irrelevant omissions) I use for Viking Invasion 2:

Code:

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set SteamAppId=4760
set SteamAppUser=user
set SteamAppVersionId=0
set STEAMID=000000000000000
set SteamPath=D:\Games\Steam
set SteamUser=user
set suppress_restart=1
set ValvePlatformMutex=d:/games/steam/steam.exe
set __STEAM_BOOTSTRAPPER_ICON_ID__=128

set PATH=%SteamPath%;%PATH%

RomeTW-BI.exe -nm -show_err -mod:bi\vi2

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You need to susbstitute

1. user with your Steam user name
2. d:\Games\Steam with you Steam path
3. d:/games/steam with your Steam path
4. 000000000000000 with your actual Steam ID. So far the only known way is to run RTW manually, switch to desktop, run Process Explorer and check the value of STEAMID environment variable in process properties.