Mod recommendation.

[Al: Total Gore]

Well, I've been playing M2TW for a week now and while many aspects of the game have really impressed me, I still don't get enjoyment out of it like I did with the original MTW, and I'm hoping for a mod recommendation. My first game as my favorite faction, the Byzantines, was a bit of a disappointment. Basically I have two gripes.

My first gripe is lack of epic and meaningful battles. I would frequently make large stacked armies of well trained and armored troops, while the AI would not. The AI often sends numerous small armies of 1-3 units and if it did have a large army, it would often contain too many of a certain type of unit like siege weapons or archers. Sieges are not too fun when major AI cities and castles often have only 1-3 units garrisoned.

I can think of only two entertaining battles out of the nearly 100 I've fought so far. First was being on the defensive of a two pronged attack from in front and behind on the bridge outside of Venice. I actually felt threatened and really needed to think about strategy for that battle as I was outnumbered 2 to 1 with a good opponent. The second was recapturing Jerusalem from a full stack of decent rebel troops that emerged after the Hungarian Crusaders lost the city. Every other battle consisted of warding of small army stacks. I can see why the risk board of the original MTW was a good thing since it forced the AI to use all military assets in a province.

Battles seem to be short, and a lot of units seem to move exceptionally quick. Maybe it's just nostalgia but I remember battles in the originally MTW too be far longer and unit movement to be slower.

The battle AI seems ok to me when the AI actually has a decent army. Unfortunately, the strategic AI is seems very poor at managing armies and frequently digs itself into a hole by making small armies of poor composition.

Just a note, most of the battles I fought in this campaign were against Muslim factions. My incursions into Western Europe were limited to Venetian territories and the HRE's Italian province. Seeing as Western Europe as a lot of provinces, are factions there any better at making decent armies?

[Baeksen]

Hi

I'm in a hurry, so it's gonna be quick.

Check out The Long Road: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=315

It really makes the game a lot better, more challenging and longer.

Cheers Baeksen

[phunkbot]

Lands to Conquer (ltc) is a great one that actually addresses all issues you listed + more you probably havent noticed so far :)

as an extra bonus, it comes as an installer and does not affect your regular Medieval installation, you just have 2 icons - one for regular med2 and one for ltc.

you can find a link to it here

im sure you will not be dissapointed by it.