1 question and needed suggestion

Firstly, for some reason my game crashes to desktop when I enter any battle (historical, custom, campaign, any battle). This only started after I used the unpacker tool. I only used it to see the traits and ancillary lists for in game tweaking- I didn't alter any files. So I had to reinstall the game. The problem is, with nothing unpacked, I can't find the "saves" folder to reimplant my old saved games. Is there anyway to use my old saved games without unpacking the data folders, and/or is there a way to avoid this crash? (FYI I am using the patched 1.1 version)

Secondly, a suggestion for a new player: I am a bit overwhelmed by the availability of various mods, but feel that I need to choose one or two. I play mostly for immersion's sake...I am looking for a good mod(s) that would:

1. Increase Campaign difficulty...I suppose this means no ignorant AI in terms of armies and diplomacy (why the hell wouldn't england accept my ceasefire, when I had it down to one measley city defended by some peasants? How is offering a virtually dead faction a chance for survival "Very Demanding" on my part?)

2. Realistic years:turns ratio...I'd like my generals to age in corespondence to, uh, the date. Is that so much to ask? Not doing so is one of the stupidest aspects of this game. I mean, what were they thinking? Anyway, looking for a good mod that will fix this. I don't mind a gruelingly long campaign, but increased building/unit costs and times would be nice in any potential mod. I don't want Edinburgh to be fully built before 1100, if you know what I mean...

3. Trait/ancillary fix. Obviously this part of the game is riddled with bugs. I'd like one that fixes the obvious things like countless pagan magicians..but I don't really want one that goes overboard and nerfs the bad traits, resulting in perfect generals. Just a fix for the broken stuff.

Any help or suggestions or past experience with these things would be appreciated.

There are a couple of files that need to be deleted manually when you install the unpacker, did you do this? They are mentioned in the readme file.

The crash is 2 files (About geography). They're in the data folder and their names are in the unpacker readme.

1) Is semi-fixable by some AI mods, but the AI isnt that great even then, though its a marked improvement.

2) I know how to change the year/turn, but not age. Is that what you want?

3) There might be some mods...bt i'm not sure. You can change the build times manually, but its a pain the rear


Sorry I cant say more, gotta finish studying for exams.

Trait / ancillary fix mod without changing anything else at link below, just fixes the 50% of the files which CA left incomplete or broken.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=74566