Patches and mods - where to start? :dizzy2:

Hi everyone.
Wanted to also say thanks for all the info here on the game, makes things easier.

My situation: I have the original version of the game, unpatched. I have been playing this for a few months. Obviously I ran across a lot of bugs. Anyway, I downloaded patch 1.1, but held off install because I saw 1.2 was coming soon. I also noticed a lot of additional 'fix-it' patches on this site in signatures and what not. So my question is, what combination of patches do you recommend? I'm still new to the game, so I don't want to modify the core game itself (as I see a few mods do), but rather fix the annoying bugs (i.e. 2-handed weapons, AI armies that just sit there , etc).
Additionally, can I continue to play my lengthy saved game post-patch, or will it not work?
Any recommendations?

Domo Arigatou from Japan!

Welcome to the .org
First of all, this goes to the Modding Questions forum:yes:
As for your question: You'll have to start to set up your modding environment properly. As there's only one official patch yet, that is obviously recommended (and you'll need it for modding).
I can't really talk about inofficial bugfixers.

Thanks for the info.