Creating a World – Steam (and Disk) Install for TATW 3.0 and 3.2

This tutorial is available as PDF download here.

Introduction

There have been a number of guides and instructions that have been based on old versions of the Steam client and the game itself and out of necessity have been complicated, if not to say convoluted. The goal of this tutorial is to simplify the procedure as much as possible.
The procedure described underneath has been performed on 13th February 2017 with an up to date version of Steam and Medieval II Total War.

Downloading

Use the links provided on this TWC page, for the sake of convenience they are listed below:

• Third Age - Total War 3.0 Part 1of2 file
• Third Age - Total War 3.0 Part 2of2 file
• Third Age - Total War 3.2 Patch file

Installing

The path

The 3 parts listed above have to be installed in the sequence they are listed. Start by running\double clicking the TATW_3.0_Part1of2 application file to start the installation.
When presented with the installation path you will need to alter it to match your Steam installation. Simply click on the marked button and browse to Steam directory (default is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam) and then down to the Medieval II Total War directory as shown in the picture below, then click 'OK'

https://image.ibb.co/nj9Jea/TATW1.jpg

Now finish the installation and repeat the same path setting for the remaining two installation parts (part 2of2 and Patch). Please note that there is a slight delay at 18% in the first installation: this is due to large files being processed - do not interfere!

Steam specific Stuff

Unfortunately, the launcher (desktop shortcut to BAT file) does not use the universal batch file method, it will exit with this error message:

https://image.ibb.co/nORmXv/TATW2.jpg

This can easily be fixed by following my tutorial here.

Once you have run that tutorial simply run\double click the Third Age - Total War desktop shortcut to start the mod.

This tutorial is available as PDF download here.

If I understand correctly, buying the game on steam, would give me more access to online battles etc. So, the procedure above, is what I should do after having bought the game on Steam? Cause I've never used steam and therefore I cannot follow this guide 100%.

I am not aware that the Steam version would get you more access, possibly because there won't any mismatch between versions as can happen with disk versions.

Disk version - skip the 'Steam specific stuff' (doooh)
Steam version - follow all of the instructions