Why you chose the mod(s) you play?

What do you look for in a mod that keeps you playing time after time?
Also what mod addresses those particular aspects? or better then any other mod?
(Bonus points if you direct myself or others to where you can get the mod)

For me it's a pretty long list I guess, I'm very particular.

Increased movement points for all units, especially for agents.
Increased number of settlements everywhere.
Altered build times and costs-should match the pace/cash flow of the mod.
Any added civilisations are welcome, as long as they are properly implemented.
More reasonable diplomacy.

That's all I can think of so far, and the mod I've played the most so far is Darth Mod 1.4D.
Increased agent speed, rebalanced unit stats, building time/cost changed.

Your turn.

Right now I'm very much enjoying Broken Crescent. Specifically the Byzantine and Ghorid campaigns.

I like the Byzantines for their different approach. You can use classic RTW tactics with them thanks to their lovely assortment of spear and heavy infantry units, not to mention their generals are the best armored cavalry in the game. They can route whole armies by themselves :P
The only downside is that their castle archers have a lower missile attack than levy archers. Some of their cities can recruit mercenary crossbowmen, though. Which is a real lifesaver.

The Ghords are great simply because of their sheer badassery. Their faction color is dark red, and a lot of their units wear black. It creates a rather nice effect on the battlefield and really gets you in the slaughtering mood ;)
Currently I'm hacking my way through India, and since the Indians are the BC equivalent of the Apachean faction in the Americans campaign (only with elephants) my Ghorid heavy cavalry is slicing through their infantry like a betentacled demon through a Japanese high school.
Let me tell you, heavy, lance equipped, cavalry against large armies of men whose armor consists of a turban, a loincloth, and a reed shield is a very one-way battle. Considering they tend to route at roughly .002 seconds after impact, even their spearmen dont do much good.
The Ghorids dont get spearmen, though. Makes me somewhat sad. And dealing with the Khwar and Mongols a real pain. Hiring mercenary spearmen is alright, but sort of limiting.
Speaking of mercenaries, the Ghorid region is positively infested with insane ghazi mercenaries. They dont have infinite morale (like the Ghorid's own Ghazi Fanatics), but its pretty close. I hire eight units of these guys for a siege and just throw them at the gate. They've got poor armor, but a decent attack, and so while lots of them tend to die, my OWN men are fresh for the real battles.

I just finished a short campaign as the Ayyubids in Broken Crescent.

I love the AOR system and the more exotic factions like Makuria and the Rajputs. Also some of the top end units look absolutedly stunning, ie Toassim Mamluks, Royal Mamluk Cavalry, Tabardariya etc.

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Originally Posted by Caledonian Rhyfelwyr

I just finished a short campaign as the Ayyubids in Broken Crescent.

I love the AOR system and the more exotic factions like Makuria and the Rajputs. Also some of the top end units look absolutedly stunning, ie Toassim Mamluks, Royal Mamluk Cavalry, Tabardariya etc.

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Have you tried the Seljuks? A lot of their units go into battle dressed up in rainbow colors :P

I too am partial to BC, since it is so radically different in setting to the vanilla campaign. For starters, it has a brand new campaign map of a brand new part of the world, which for me is a big plus over other mods such as Stainless Steel since I want mods to be a change from the normal campaign and in my view the campaign map is the thing which changes the least between TW installments. It also has a very different look and feel to vanilla, with the Muslim factions taking center stage and the Christians on the fringes, a reversal of the case in vanilla (plus the fact that the Muslim factions in BC feel much more detailed and varied than those of vanilla).

Also, the combat mechanics are quite different to vanilla. I had expected the battles to be dominated by hordes of horse archers and heavy cavalry; in fact, I find infantry and foot archers to actually be a good deal more balanced than in vanilla, while heavy cavalry, while still devastating against flanks, are far too expensive to be wasted in frontal charges (although TBF this is my experience based on playing as the Kingdom of Jerusalem, who have some of the best infantry in the game, so my view my change as I try more factions).

I also quite like the changes to the campaign map. Road trade is far more valuable than in vanilla, so control of coastal provinces is no longer so crucial; and generally the map seems to be more focussed around a few key fortresses and trade hubs, with many of the other intervening settlements are good for little else besides being defensive roadblocks. Also, the major cities will spawn large stacks of garrison troops when besieged. The consequence is that offensives have to be a bit more carefully planned; wasting too many troops taking every tiny village on the way to the enemy capital won't slow down their economy much, and will leave you too weak to take the capital.

The only slight fly in the ointment in my view is the fact that siege battles have been made so much harder, partly due to the fact that siege weapons are so scarce. TBH sieges are not at all my cup of tea and the bane of vanilla for me was the constant repetitive grueling siege battles so making the sieges harder for me just seems to be dragging out the agony (although they are mercifully rarer due to the large map and the scarcity of big cities). The only time I enjoy sieges is when I am using my cannons to make a quick, clean job of a siege which would otherwise be long and dull. Thank god the good old siege Autoresolve bug is still alive and well.

Incidentally, I like the comparison of the Rajputs to the Apacheans, it's a similar sort of unit makeup: Large numbers of weak infantry with a few very powerful elites (elephants/mounted thunder braves).

Aye, it was something I noticed fairly quickly. Although Rajput archery isnt quite up to the Apachean standard, IMHO. Maybe its just because they end up fighting against lots of opponents who cover themselves in armor from head to toe once you take out the rebels and other Indian factions.

My main problem with BC is that the AI seems to be unwilling to attack cities and castles with decent garrisons. And it seems like its even more unwilling than the vanilla MTW2 AI to make peace.
A big second is the 'donations' to the AI. Some factions get +6000 gold per turn. The Kypchaks in particular tend to get insanely powerful because of a) Weak neighbors and b) A lot of area to expand into.
Starting a war with them is likely to lead to about twenty full stacks marching through the caucuses. My war with them as Georgia started with me trying to deplete their armies with my generally superior units (quality over quantity :P)
Unfortunately, every time I took out a stack, another one popped up. In one turn, I took out five stacks in three battles, only to have eight more appear on the edges of my little empire. I took those out, then next turn four more stacks showed up...and so on.
I ended up sueing for peace, since little ol' Georgia really doesnt have the resources to go out and take over the entire Russian steppe >_>

Kypchaks won't have such weak neighbours now that I'm playing as Georgia. :beam:

I love the Georgian Monaspa bodyguards as well...

Its nice to play as a solid infantry faction after the micromanagement with the Ayyubids.

Haha ok I didn't mean for this to be a BC love fest but fortunately I just happened to have gotten it recently. I do like the increased unit recruitment capacity of castles, when i have enough money to utilize it that is. Of course I have no idea where to start really, trying not to just play something terribly easy like Byzantine. Any suggestions for moderate/interesting factions? Playing on Hard/Hard.

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Originally Posted by entwo

Haha ok I didn't mean for this to be a BC love fest but fortunately I just happened to have gotten it recently. I do like the increased unit recruitment capacity of castles, when i have enough money to utilize it that is. Of course I have no idea where to start really, trying not to just play something terribly easy like Byzantine. Any suggestions for moderate/interesting factions? Playing on Hard/Hard.

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The Ghorids are fun. They can be a challenge to, depending on how the AI goes. Usually your neighbors ignore you or attack you, depending on who you run into first.
The REAL challenge for the Ghorid's is taking the a-historical route and going west. They have no spear units. At all. And guess who sits directly west of the Ghorids? The Khwar, followed by the Seljuks. And the Mongols, when the show up. You basically have to rely on mercs for your spear units to fend off the cavalry.
Other than that, they just look cool, as I mentioned earlier.
If you're into an easier challenge, then just go eastwards. Heavy cavalry is like a nuke when you're fighting the Rajputs. And elephants are a loooooooooooot weaker in this mod too. Their main role seems to be to rampage in siege battles and mysteriously avoid the AI's troops while doing so.

Oman is an interesting challenge. You start out on the end of the Arabian peninsula, totally isolated, with three provinces. Fortunately there isnt anybody near to your mainland (although the Sindh or somebody may show up on your little 'colony'), and they have a somewhat interesting unit roster.

Likewise Georgia, its in a similar situation, only its got a lot of powerful neighbors (The ERE, Turks, Seljuks, and Kypchaks). Plus its dirt poor. On hard it'd be a real struggle. They do have some quite good units, though...the only issue is that those units all have rather high upkeeps.

Markuria was...intersting. Sort of like Oman. My game turned into a grind-fest with the Abs, though, which got kind of boring. It takes a loooooooooong time to get reinforcements when your major cities/castles are all at the very southern edge of the map.

I'd recommend the Rajputs. You start off in a corner of the map, and the Indian provinces are incredibly rich. If you can snag the rebels quickly, and beat the Ghorids to Delhi(or just take it from them, I suppose), you'll have a very solid power base. Plus, you've only got one place to worry about defending for a while due to the vast desert to the west.

Also, armies with 1/4 elephants are quite fun for havoc causing. And the fact that you should be quite weatlhy will ensure you've got plenty of cash for whatever units you want to train.

They're EASY though. Once you've got India, you're making 100 billion florins a turn :P

The Raj's do have cool units, though. Their high-tier guys are awesome looking. Especially the axe guys. I mean, come on, they go into battle wielding a chunk of metal roughly the size of their torsos? Whats NOT awesome about that? ;)

That's true, many of the elite units, especially axemen, just look vicious. I particularly like the Ayyubid Thaqlah axemen (I think).

As for the Rajputs' economy, it's a funny one; on one hand, they have gold mines in virtually every province which make more money than you could ever reasonably spend. On the other hand, most of their cities aren't very big and take ages to grow, so I found that the main thing limiting my expansion was the very restricted supply of elephants. I found I had huge amounts of money and nothing but lightweight infantry and jav cav to spend it on.

Regarding their archers, they're actually pretty good given how cheap and plentiful they are, I think the problem is as you suggested, that they inevitably end up facing massively armoured factions with hordes of heavy cavalry so archers just aren't going to fare that well. The Apacheans, on the other hand, will almost always be up against lightly armoured infantry.

So far I've played a few for say I don't know 20 turns each.
Started with Makuria which have some decent units but not a terribly good position or economy.
From there I played Oman and Armenia two very awkward positions.

Armenia gets completely boxed in a short while and you don't have much time/money to expand before you're bordered by the Turks, Eastern Roman Empire, probably Jerusalem and if you're really lucky the Abbasid's will share a border with you too.
Oman's settlements lie on the outskirts of desert so you get spread fairly thin and in no time at the very least the Seljuks come a knocking and they don't play nice.

Playing Georgia at the moment and after some well slow expansion it all went down hill, damn near full stack of troops under a captain rebelled and then the Abbasid's took one of my outlying settlements.
Less than 5 turns later the Kychak Confederacy decided to attack my capital...extremely ironic.

I just hope I don't get extremely frustrated and start again.

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Originally Posted by Poor Bloody Infantry

That's true, many of the elite units, especially axemen, just look vicious. I particularly like the Ayyubid Thaqlah axemen (I think).

As for the Rajputs' economy, it's a funny one; on one hand, they have gold mines in virtually every province which make more money than you could ever reasonably spend. On the other hand, most of their cities aren't very big and take ages to grow, so I found that the main thing limiting my expansion was the very restricted supply of elephants. I found I had huge amounts of money and nothing but lightweight infantry and jav cav to spend it on.

Regarding their archers, they're actually pretty good given how cheap and plentiful they are, I think the problem is as you suggested, that they inevitably end up facing massively armoured factions with hordes of heavy cavalry so archers just aren't going to fare that well. The Apacheans, on the other hand, will almost always be up against lightly armoured infantry.

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Aye. I found it rather ironic that I was the richest faction in the game, yet I was having trouble getting my cities upgraded. I'm always leery of building the farm upgrades, because of the squalor problems it leads too.

I, personally, find that elephants en-masse are a hindrance. I prefer using lots of cheap infantry and committing a unit or two of elephants at a weak-point has a wonderful effect. Just telling the elephants to charge through a line of infantry is quite a sight. Usually resulting in a chain-route, which is where my half-naked Indian tribesmen come in handy, since they run a bit faster than most other guys.
Frankly, I find the best way to deal with cavalry is to stop them with those horrible spearmen, then flank and charge them with swordsmen or axmen. Its not quite as good as decent spearmen, but you can always get more of those guys, and its better than losing lots of your elite units.
India's supposed to be a bumrush faction anyway :P

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Originally Posted by entwo

So far I've played a few for say I don't know 20 turns each.
Started with Makuria which have some decent units but not a terribly good position or economy.
From there I played Oman and Armenia two very awkward positions.

Armenia gets completely boxed in a short while and you don't have much time/money to expand before you're bordered by the Turks, Eastern Roman Empire, probably Jerusalem and if you're really lucky the Abbasid's will share a border with you too.
Oman's settlements lie on the outskirts of desert so you get spread fairly thin and in no time at the very least the Seljuks come a knocking and they don't play nice.

Playing Georgia at the moment and after some well slow expansion it all went down hill, damn near full stack of troops under a captain rebelled and then the Abbasid's took one of my outlying settlements.
Less than 5 turns later the Kychak Confederacy decided to attack my capital...extremely ironic.

I just hope I don't get extremely frustrated and start again.

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Aye, I havent played Armenia yet, but the other factions gave me pretty much the same problems. Makuria just gets boring, although I imagine it might be interesting once you get out of the Ayyubid slugfest.

Like I said, try the Ghorids. They're a whole new experience. Plus their 'core' region is fairly easy to defend. Its all mountains, so you just have to guard a few passes.
And the Ghazi Fanatics are AWESOME units. You get them at a level 2 mosque from a castle. They're morale-locked, which means that they'll NEVER route. Ever. Total fanatics.
The only real downside to them, aside from the neighbors and lack of spears, is that they've got a fourth unit-building line in the Slave System, which is what you need to get their ghualms and so forth. On the upside, in addition to making units, it gives you cash ;)

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Originally Posted by Sheogorath

I'm always leery of building the farm upgrades, because of the squalor problems it leads too.

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I have never found squalor a problem in M2TW, only in RTW where I too was scared of building farms.

Now I build them right away as a priority to boost population and thus taxes.

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Originally Posted by phonicsmonkey

I have never found squalor a problem in M2TW, only in RTW where I too was scared of building farms.

Now I build them right away as a priority to boost population and thus taxes.

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Happened to me late-game in vanilla once, with Portugal. I had to do the old RTW 'abandon the city, re-take it and slaughter everybody' thing. in most of my core provinces.

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Originally Posted by Sheogorath

Happened to me late-game in vanilla once, with Portugal. I had to do the old RTW 'abandon the city, re-take it and slaughter everybody' thing. in most of my core provinces.

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I must not be playing for long enough..

I have heard that in BC Baghdad can get out of hand.

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Originally Posted by phonicsmonkey

I must not be playing for long enough..

I have heard that in BC Baghdad can get out of hand.

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It was due to overpopulation. Eventually the squalor gets so high that no amount of garrison units or tax-cuts can control the raging weekend-warriors :P

Thats a handy bit of advice. I've been driving towards it as the ERE for a while now. I guess I'll have to exterminate it instead of just sacking :P

TBH I've never had a problem with squalor in M2TW, except in places like Baghdad (in vanilla) that are large cities near the map edge.

In BC I actually find I have to build farms in almost all my cities in order for them to grow at all. Baghdad I found topped out at around 15000 without the top farm upgrade. Oh, and I wouldn't recommend exterminating it, it is the most profitable city in the game so well worth keeping a large garrison in.

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Originally Posted by Sheogorath

Aye, I havent played Armenia yet, but the other factions gave me pretty much the same problems. Makuria just gets boring, although I imagine it might be interesting once you get out of the Ayyubid slugfest.

Like I said, try the Ghorids. They're a whole new experience. Plus their 'core' region is fairly easy to defend. Its all mountains, so you just have to guard a few passes.
And the Ghazi Fanatics are AWESOME units. You get them at a level 2 mosque from a castle. They're morale-locked, which means that they'll NEVER route. Ever. Total fanatics.
The only real downside to them, aside from the neighbors and lack of spears, is that they've got a fourth unit-building line in the Slave System, which is what you need to get their ghualms and so forth. On the upside, in addition to making units, it gives you cash ;)

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Hah wow, I have to say the Ghorids are actually really easy. Going to the east and sacking cities you can continue to the edge of the map without building much of anything, I've only built mosques for Ghazi's everwhere :D

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Originally Posted by entwo

Haha ok I didn't mean for this to be a BC love fest but fortunately I just happened to have gotten it recently. I do like the increased unit recruitment capacity of castles, when i have enough money to utilize it that is. Of course I have no idea where to start really, trying not to just play something terribly easy like Byzantine. Any suggestions for moderate/interesting factions? Playing on Hard/Hard.

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As the byzantines i start with the medditeranian trade and peace.I make everyone happy and content:wings:
Then I expand using the troops i already have (to stop bankruptcy)
Somtimes i take settlements with some spearmen and a general because their so good.
I expand in georigia and up toward the kypaks and kill them and sack their lands:duel:
Soon I can deal with the turks and the sejulks now i'm swimming in money and lands Ha Ha
Plus everyones Happy yay!!:medievalcheers:

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Originally Posted by entwo

Hah wow, I have to say the Ghorids are actually really easy. Going to the east and sacking cities you can continue to the edge of the map without building much of anything, I've only built mosques for Ghazi's everwhere :D

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Like I said, how hard the Ghorid's are depends on which way you go ;)
If you go East, things are easy. The Rajputs dont have any serious cavalry and their elephants go down fairly easy in the face of Ghualms.

Going West, though...you run into the Khwar and so on, who all have heavy cavalry.
And you dont have ANY spearmen 'cept those you hire.

Hah well I'd have to say start game expansion is not the time to be attacking proper factions so east is the way to go. I've been pretty lazy, just using stacks of Ghazis to kill everything, they go alright for their cost. Is there any faction with decent heavy infantry that doesn't cost like 300 a turn? I don't want to drown in upkeep for some strong infantry.

Hm, go for the Christian factions if you're looking for lots of heavy infantry. Georgia is pretty challenging, and, although I havent played them, Armenia looks difficult too.
Jerusalem is probably difficult too, I imagine.

The only problem is that they all tend to be rather poor. Playing as Georgia, I'm having trouble keeping up 6,000 per turn with no buildings. Mostly because I have to put large garrisons in my border towns, true, because being poor is better than instant war with all of your neighbors.
Fortunatly the Kypchaks have decided that it would be fun to attack the Khwar and the Seljuks at the same time. So they're off my back for now ;)