OT- What are the best M2TW mods?

[oudysseos]

I just got M2TW as a gift and want to know what the EB community think of the various mods out there. Should I try Deus lo Vult? Sicilian Vespers? Pro Deo et Rege? Any suggestions welcome.
Thanks.

[Intranetusa]

This section is EB for Rome Total War. Try the EB2 or the MTW2 section...

[EdwardL]

The Long Road is the best one out there IMO. Tornnight is the modder and hes just awesome with his community, taking feedback, responding to bugs and integrating their ideas and such. He's working on a big overhaul now which would incorporate various elements of other popular mods such as BBB and has many ideas he has implemented and will be implementing that are of his own design.

[oudysseos]

Yah thanks I thought that there would be some overlap of interest, also this is one of the most active forums, and is full of people likely to have valuable opinions. And of course I really want an EB level of quality, so where best to ask?

Edward- thanks. I'll have a look.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I've played:
Lands to Conquer - Kind of like vanilla plus.
Road to Jerusalem - Pretty good, but their stat/cost system needs balancing. I like their map.
Stainless Steel - Didn't play it too long. Seemed like another vanilla plus.
Rise of Kings - Pretty good, but the AI turns took too long for my computer to handle.

I really can't wait til some of the total converstion type mods start coming out with their first releases.

[russia almighty]

^The broken crescent is doing that . There is also a Persian wars -Pelopponesian era mod in the works too .

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Yeah, Broken Crescent looks good. That is one of the few that looking forward to.

[Pied Piper]

I tried Lands to Conquer and it was ok, but didn't hold my attention long.

Then I found The Long Road and found it to be very good.

Since then I have switched to Deus Lo Vult and love the role play aspect of it (similar to why I like EB so much). I find myself playing it more than The Long Road (plus the TLR modder is gone for awhile celebrating the birth of a child).

I wish they could blend/merge DLV and TLR to make a dream mod, in my opinion. You can't go wrong with either. But also remember, M2TW mods are not as stable or complex as RTW mods (especially EB) since they haven't worked on them as long.

[EdwardL]

yeah, torn is enjoying his break atm. Once he gets back up to speed and churns out the next patch (major overhaul), its going to every other mod

[Dooz]

The Long Road was the first major mod I tried and I instantly fell in love. Perfect pacing mostly and economic challenge. It's just great. Then more recently I tried DLV and it's a lot of fun for all it's traits and RPG type elements. As Piper said, a sort of combination of the two would be an absolute dream mod. Eh. Anyhoo, I have an AAR going with the DLV mod (link in sig) if you want to maybe get an idea of what that's like. Oh and put Broken Crescent on your "must download" radar. That's gonna be one hell of a mod when it's out.

[EdwardL]

TLR 2.1 will be that perfect blend :)

Take a look at some of the things in work for the upcoming patch

DONE:
- Fix Byzantium Skin/Armour Progression
- Integrate BBB 2.0
- Add Character Names Project 3.0
- Add New Royal Titles
- Add Naval Traits Modification
- Add new Siege/Capture Costs (1000 to start a seige, 500 to maintain one, 500 to storm the walls, 500 to setup a ruling government if you capture the settlement)
- Tweaked AI economy, AI now usually has 2 full stacks and decent garrisons.
- Fix Minor Bugs
- Fix Unit Balance for 2-Handed Units (Swords and Halberds) and Knife wielding units.
- Add new Renaissance Event requirement for some units.
- Finally fixed custom battle map positions
- Add new Province Names
- Added new Reduced Interface Sounds (Now you can hear those War Cries!)
- Tweaks to the Battle Rank system to make it easier to acquire. No more generals with tons of battle experience as Knight Bacheliers
- Secret Project
- Extensive AI overhaul
- Tweak Campaign AI to be more aggressive.
- Fix Campaign AI spamming Vassal requests

TODO:
- Add Denmark Reskin
- New Build Tree with Government Building Requirements
- New Regional Levy based recruitment

POSSIBLE:
- Add portions of King's Banner Mod
- Fix Unit Cards
- Correct unit sprites
- Add new Acegogo inspired ancillary weapons and armor

Coincidentally this mod has been in part inspired by EB players who have grown accustomed to the mechanics of EB. A big pool of the mod followers are current / former EB players and Torn is akin to taking feedback of what players want in a mod and putting it in, hence the government build tree etc.

Should be a perfect fit IMO for anyone who plays EB wanting to try something in the Medieval era

[oudysseos]

Thanks everybody for your input. I'm trying DLV at the moment and it is very good, though I agree a combo of DLV and Long Road would be perfect. Mostly I'm very excited at the possibilities that M2TW show for EB2! So much more to work with- the units will look fantastic and the RPG/gameplay potential is huge. Too bad it'll be at least a year until there's an EB2 release...

[socal_infidel]

I may be biased, but I'd say give PRO DEO ET REGE a try!

PDER v0.4 is out now, but soon we'll be making the move to a slightly larger map and adding three new factions - one of which will be the Kingdom of Georgia.

Cheers!

[bovi]

I tried The Long Road after being recommended here, and it is very good. The first mod I've played where I'm actually afraid to war with another faction, as I only have one settlement able to produce any units but peasant rabble and every battle I've fought so far has had me losing about 1/3-1/2 of my force even when I outnumber them slightly. Those AI bodyguards get perfect charges every time, demolishing a whole unit, while mine stutter along and never seem to connect with the enemy.

Fortunately the AI is oddly being very calm towards me, even with an enemy halfstack hovering outside one of my settlements that I snatched after they had failed an assault, so I can go on campaigning against the few remaining free cities with only a skeleton force guarding the homeland, and keep building up those all-important grain exchanges to get more merchants. Maybe soon things will really get started . Terrified to attack a catholic faction, I wouldn't know what to do if a crusade was called, having to repel 5-6 attackers .