Steam version and Modding

I recently bought the Steam version of M2TW+Kingdoms and I see people talking about modding a lot, and I'm always interested in the things that a community has to offer. I find it really lengthens the life of a game, or makes it playable (I'm looking at you Morrowind).

Well I grabbed the official retrofit mod and was about to install it but it said it was for version 1.05 and I had 1.04. I was wondering where do I get that patch and what mods work for it?

I'm interested in VanillaMod, Broken Crescent, and possibly Stainless Steel. But are there any African or Oriental Asian mods out there? And M2TW isn't nice like Morrowind and allows you to turn on and off your mods, is it?

Thank you!

Couldn't see the edit button, but I meant to add that I'm also curious about Lands to Conquor and which is better, that or Stainless Steel. Thanks again!