Best M2TW MOD to try first?

[Quixote]

I have gone through the game a few times

Tried Turks first time playing, was not prepared for the Mongols.
Played as Poland, strong faction.
Played H/H as Spain, pretty easy.
Currently playing Scots H/H, thought it would be harder

What are the best MODS to level the game out and add something new?

[Baby Boomer]

I don't usually play M2TW a lot but these are mods I've heard of:

Broken Crescent
Deus lo Vult
Stainless Steel

There are several very good mods in production but they're just that; in production.

[Quixote]

What about Vanilla?

I read through a bit of the threads for it and it seems to keep the game closest to the shipped version...

[Monsieur Alphonse]

What about Vanilla?

I read through a bit of the threads for it and it seems to keep the game closest to the shipped version...

Vanilla is the shipped version, the original grand campaign.

[Quixote]

Vanilla is the shipped version, the original grand campaign.

So the VanillaMOD in the hosted mod thread is no change?

[Baby Boomer]

Vanilla is the original.

VanillaMod is a mod FactionHeir has created andcontains many fixes, balances and more.

[Wodeson]

I can only speak for the mods I've personally tried.

I recommend Lusted's "Lands to Conquer 3.1" for M2TW or "Lands to Conquer Gold" for Kingdoms. Lusted managed to create mods that are very stable. Additionally I found LTC a very good base on which to start tweaking and further modify to my own ends.

I tried "Stainless Steel" once which looked very exciting, but it crashed on the first turn. I may well give it another try in the future though when more of the bugs have been ironed out.

Darth's "Darth Mod" is another stable mod that works well, but it's not a mod that is immediately open to being modified itself for various reasons.

Point Blank's "Real Combat" is one of my favorite mods, not least of which because it's one of the smallest mods to download and can be inserted into other mods fairly easily.

Presently I'm playing LTC Gold with a slightly modified Real Combat 1.3 dropped in on top. (I had to add boiling oil to RC's projectile file, and copy a few standard Mongol units to create the additional "Mongol Horde" units that LTC Gold uses.)

The next mod I'm thinking of trying is definitely "Broken Crescent" though.

[SigniferOne]

Stainless Steel and Broken Crescent are the biggest mods right now, with Deus Lo Vult coming in close second. Make sure you get the latest versions at TWC. BC especially will impress you with a very exotic medieval Middle East campaign.