Total War series: general advice and mod suggestions needed, pls

[Pedrito]

While waiting for Football Manager 2012 I've found a nice offer on Steam and bought a good bunch of TW titles: Rome and Alexander, Medieval II and Kingdoms, Empire, Napoleon.

Being a complete noob of the series, I'm needing Total Wargamers here to give me some general advice on these games, plus info on noteworthy or needed mods.

Bse assumptions:
- I won't multiplay
- suggested mods must not be too far from the vanilla version of the game
- having Steamed them, I haven't got a physical game manual, and i can't be bothered to read several-pages long PDFs of rules.

Thank you 

L.

[Tamas]

Play Medieval 2 first. It is nice enough vanilla to learn what the series is about, the graphics are still okay, but would be less so coming back from the visual feat that is Napoleon.

After getting a taste of vanilla Med2 (and it is rather nice if you forgive the ahistoric world conquesting going on), if you have Kingdoms, check out the 3 campaigns in it. The British one is a little meh but still nice, the Crusades one is cool but very frustrating as the Crusaders, and the Teutonic one is simply excellent.

Afterwards, you may skip Empire for Napoleon, imo.

[Ed Anger]

I've never been impressed with mods for these games. The mod nerds usually add a bloated map, a kajillion units that all about do the same thing and make many computers wheeze as they try to process all the crap.

[Tamas]

I've never been impressed with mods for these games. The mod nerds usually add a bloated map, a kajillion units that all about do the same thing and make many computers wheeze as they try to process all the crap.

Ed is wise.

[Pedrito]

Given that I'll play them mainly on a 18-months old laptop, this is exactly the kind of advice I'm needing about mods. 

If there's something that cannot be renounced, though, say it now or shut up forever.

L.

[viper37]

For Medieval II, get Darth Mod: The Last Episode
For Empire, get DarthMod Empire.
There's the American Revolution mod, but it's half-baked.

For Napoleon, I tried Napoleon Empire Realism, but it was still an early beta and i didn't really like it. They're now at 2.0, so it might be better.

As for any mods, you can still choose the number of units.  Now, even if you were to play with a gazilion unit, Medieval II was released in 2007...  You computer will handle it.

And don't play vanilla.  Go for the mods right away.  Wag tried the vanilla Empire and hated it.

[Tamas]

plz play vanilla until you get bored with it. Ed Anger's take is actually spot on for this series. Mods are extremely noob-unfriendly.

[Ed Anger]

plz play vanilla until you get bored with it. Ed Anger's take is actually spot on for this series. Mods are extremely noob-unfriendly.

I imagined all the mod makers as Spellus types who read way too many history books instead of getting laid.

OMG! R:TW doesn't have Spartan Skiritai! Boycott!

[The Brain]

Which are the best nudity mods?

[Razgovory]

The biggest problem with the TW series has always been the AI.  It's annoying to have the AI march units back and forth over and over again with no discernible purpose and in battle they tend to use the ancient tactic of forming a mob that attacks rushes your center.  It was kind of sad with Empires when they did this with musket armed soldiers who ended up shooting each other.

[viper37]

plz play vanilla until you get bored with it. Ed Anger's take is actually spot on for this series. Mods are extremely noob-unfriendly.

no, really, no.

First, the AI is dumb.  Extremely dumb.  That is corrected.
Second, you got more units.  Too many units, imho, but on the battlefield, it looks great.
Third, everything is better.
Fourth, the technical requirements are the same as for the original game, unless you want huge unit sizes.

[viper37]

plz play vanilla until you get bored with it. Ed Anger's take is actually spot on for this series. Mods are extremely noob-unfriendly.

I imagined all the mod makers as Spellus types who read way too many history books instead of getting laid.

OMG! R:TW doesn't have Spartan Skiritai! Boycott!

DarthMods were made to correct the AI first&foremost.  Overtime, some other mods were added, like new sounds, musics, graphics and uniforms.

[Razgovory]

plz play vanilla until you get bored with it. Ed Anger's take is actually spot on for this series. Mods are extremely noob-unfriendly.

no, really, no.

First, the AI is dumb.  Extremely dumb.  That is corrected.
Second, you got more units.  Too many units, imho, but on the battlefield, it looks great.

They help, but don't fully correct it.  I used the Vader Mod on Empire and while the AI was certainly better it wasn't great.  With out it, the AI acted very strangely.  Declaring war but not actually attacking you.  Just wandering about in your territory.  The Darth mod helped this a bit in that the AI was merely bad rather then bizarrely useless.  Actually I liked the 2D map from first engine better.  The AI at least made sense then.

[FunkMonk]

I miss the old 2D engine. 

[szmik]

I miss the old 2D engine. 

ditto