Basic Mod player questions: Introductions

At the risk of sounding like a Jackass or a newbie (which I am, to mods), I need to ask a few questions.

MTW2 is too damn easy. I've had the game since it's release and I always play on the maximum difficultiy. I know there are a TON of mods, the probelm I am having is that I can't seem to find a nice summary for the mods. An introduction to some basic, popular COMPLETED mods is something i've been looking for. I dont' want to just randomly pick some and install them without knowing what i'm getting into. Can anyone point me out to a quick, concise summary of what is available? The main things I want are:

-Challenge! some sort of improved AI. The AI in total war seems incapable of winning seige battles, making successful heavy cav charges, protecting fragile missle troops, raising balanced armies, etc.

-Variety. I've been playing the game for a while, i'd like to try a few new things.

-Not looking for something that is massively different in theme, or is in an unrealistic setting.

one of the most popular mods is SS(stainless steel), it comes in 2 parts because there alot of info on it, so make sure you hav lots of free space on your computer, i alos recommend getting the 6.1 patch 4 it after installation,
anyway ive found tht money is alot tighter on this game, even though you could edit tht, but if u want a challange there nothing like not being able 2 afford an army lol, ummm id say the comp on it r stronger, they expand quick as there r more settlements on the game map aswell as new factions, challenging enough 4 me, havent got a link but should b easy 4 u 2 find, SS is pretty much an over haul of MTW2, its a vast game and a good mod if you hav a good computer 2 run it!

@MESSAGE

Another popular one is 'Lands to Conquer'
I just started playing with mods for the same too easy reaon, am at about turn 30-40 as milan using LTC on vh/vh and I'm starting to lose finallly! Strategic and battlefield ai is improved, battlefield doesn't seem vastly better but it is a bit, strategic ai seems a lot better, vicious even.

I know there's a separate version of LTC with just the battlefield and strategic ai changes, I'm not sure if I like all the other changes with the mod I'll probably try that next. The author is Lusted who works for CA now, hopefully that bodes well for empire