Modded Or Unmodded?

[A Nerd]

I like little tweeks. I'm proud to say that I actually find vanilla entertaining. Who coined the phrase 'Gah!' anyway? I've been reading it for years...

[Megas Methuselah]

Europa Barbarorum.

[Thermal]

Europa Barbarorum.

Naaaa

[Megas Methuselah]

Yeah, children generally don't like it. Too much historical accuracy, and it ain't fast enough. Bears too much in ressemblance to a history class, don't it?

[Cute Wolf]

Avoid playing it entirely. :3

you should try some
unless you don't want to kill about 30000 men per season because you are starting to doing systematic genocide on Romaioi Barbaroi (in EB)

[Raz]

The way I wanted the game! I'M THE DAMNED CONSUMER!!

[Secura]

Yeah, children generally don't like it. Too much historical accuracy, and it ain't fast enough. Bears too much in ressemblance to a history class, don't it?

Is this a little poke at the fact I said that I'd avoid playing it entirely?

I'm actually studying History and Social History at university and hope to go on to become a History teacher for 11-16 year olds, and I'm following that course because I feel that History is becoming a less subscribed course at 14-18 and onwards (in the UK, less people taking the course at GCSE and A Level than was the case in the early 2000s when I was still at school); I asked my own cousin (two years older than I) who Churchill was and he was adamant it was the nodding dog from the television adverts. He genuinely didn't know who the real Churchill was, a man that was voted as the most iconic Brit ever.

History's always been my favourite subject; if I see a game that accurately emulates the historical periods I'm interested in and it's actually good, I'll play it. But the Total War series hasn't appealed at all.

you should try some

I've heard alot of negativity about the Total War series, principally from these forums. What is it I've seen them called... Cash Cow: Total War? I heard one game had the same units for every single faction in-game, just wearing different colours relevant to their nation. Something to that effect.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I used to play a lot unmodded, but then I found EB...

But now my computer dies all the time, so I gave up on games.

If I get a new PC I want to somehow get one that I can play the old STW/MTW on...

[Megas Methuselah]

Is this a little poke at the fact I said that I'd avoid playing it entirely?

Uh.... Wha? My comment was aimed at Thermal Mercury. I respect and admire your decision to avoid those games, but if you're going to do something (RTW), it's worth doing it all the way (EB).

[Thermal]

Yeah, children generally don't like it. Too much historical accuracy, and it ain't fast enough. Bears too much in ressemblance to a history class, don't it?

I am quite childish when it comes to games, I guess.

I just don't like how I start the game with Aedui and begin with -3000 per turn when my army only consists of about 3 warband.

I'm trying (and liking) COW (call of warhammer for medieval 2) and BoA (battles of asia with japanese map for rome) at the moment.

I reckon broken crescent is the best mod I've ever played.

[Subotan]

I just don't like how I start the game with Aedui and begin with -3000 per turn when my army only consists of about 3 warband. .

Start as Rome then. Or Qart-Hadast

[drone]

I generally play vanilla, and after I play a lot I'll go with little tweaks. Full conversions can be fun, but only if I'm really interested in the newer universe. My biggest problem is that I barely have the time to play the vanilla version of a game, I can't really afford to run trials of lots of mods.

[Beefy187]

Europa Barbarorum.

Seconded.

[Paltmull]

Europa Barbarorum.

Seconded.

Thirded

[Subotan]

Europa Barbarorum.

& TAVERN

[Myrddraal]

If you can handle old school graphics, you should try MTW: VI Secura. I think it's my favourite installment, though if you like historical accuracy you might want to just go for vanilla MTW, the VI expansion is a bit off the rails in a historical sense.

The reason you hear a lot of negative comments here is because most of the patrons have very high expectations of the totalwar series (myself included) due to it's revolutionary nature when it first appeared. Rome was fun, even if it wasn't perfect.

[Martok]

My experience has been varied. I played -- and still play -- Shogun completely vanilla. Of course, STW was also probably the least moddable title out of the whole series (ironically enough), so that's probably the main reason why.

I played MTW/VI (which remains my favorite) with just the vanilla version for a long time. I then started getting into the mods about -- 4, maybe 5 years ago? -- having primarily played XL, Asai Nagamasa's Pocket Mod, Samurai Warlords, and a bit of both HTW and Redux. (I've still gotta get around to playing OmarPacha's Hyborian mod, although I do have it installed.) Now, I can barely imagine playing MTW unmodded, although I definitely don't regret the time I've spent doing so.

I can't really comment on the other games. I was utterly disgusted by my experience with Rome (gave up on it after just a couple months), and subsequently wasn't much interested in Medieval 2 (since it was based on the same engine). Similarly, I haven't been able to bring myself to play Empire that much -- at least until a patch/update comes out that fixes/improves the strategic AI to the point where factions are no longer insane/suicidal -- and so haven't had the desire to try any of the mods for it. In regards to both RTW and ETW, I see little point in trying mods if the underlying core game is broken.

Who coined the phrase 'Gah!' anyway? I've been reading it for years...

You can thank an old (and by now, rather legendary) Orgah named Vanya for that. I don't know if he was the one who first actually coined "Gah!", but he's certainly the one most responsible for having caused it to become widespread.

[Madoushi]

Vanilla Rome was pretty flawed, but with Europa Barbarorum it's easily one of the best in the series, and after playing Medieval II, I'm not sure if I could go back to playing MI.

Heck, I hated vanilla Rome, and even after playing it I could barely go back to MI.

Edit: Not to rag on Medieval I. It was the first one I played in the series, and I loved it, I just prefer the newer engines a lot.

[Cute Wolf]

Why are a lot of you hate Vanilla Rome? Without them, there will be no EB forever.....

And yes, the best things come with Vanilla Rome are Fire and Forget missiles on four legs.... known as dogs...

[Thermal]

Vanilla rome was always so predictable...

The Seleucid's are always bested, egypt & rome always steamroll, gaul and greek factions always eventually die out...

Which is why I mod the game to create variety whilst keeping the vanilla-ness mostly in tact.