Questions about the current state of Stainless Steel

[Jet Jaguar]

Hi. I haven't played M2:TW in a long time (since before "Kingdoms" was released). Lately I've been busy with Europa-Universalis 3 and it's latest expansion. But I'd like to return to M2:TW and have some quality time with it before Empires: Total War comes out.

Although I haven't played in a long while, I do remember really enjoying Stainless Steel back then. My question is: what major changes has Stainless Steel (and M2:TW in general) undergone since "Kingdoms" was released? What's the current state of the campaign A.I.? What's the current state of the tactical battle A.I.? Thanks in advance

[SunofVich]

I can only tell you that this mod made me play MTW again. The AI is 100x better then vanilla. Arrows are a deadly force, and units reskined to match the faction they belong to along with banners and coat of arms. Also the campaign map is huge. So big in fact that the New World had to be cut.

But I have only started playing since 6.0.

[delra]

SS got brand new Lusted's, Byg's, Point Blank's, Quarks and Xeryx's mods (and many other I can't remember, see the annoucement). It's also much cuter, has new unit cards (finally), better loading screens too.

There's a whole new map (a big one) with lots of new cities and two new factions (Khwarezm and Cumans/Kypchacs).

Some factions got plenty of love, like Lithuania who got some armour upgrades or Poland who got some quality missile units (crossbowmen!).

Milan got replaced by Genoa (since it was Genoa who was historically more important), Russia got plenty of new cities so there's actually something to feed your armies there. Byzantine got their unique spearmen fixed.

And Hungary now has a kickass general in Satu Mare at the beginning who always betrays them with first princess he sees (so you can snatch him and have somebody with 10 stars of command).

Quark has added plenty of great buildings (can call them world wonders), so you will never again wonder why there's no huge Mosque in Cordoba you've read so much about. It's there now and it kicks ass.

Whole SS has been very well betatested so isn't broken as much as previous versions. Probably because I wasn't on the betatesting team for this version (KK: I won't forget that!).

You will enjoy it a lot. Like we all do.

[Ishoss]

And Hungary now has a kickass general in Satu Mare at the beginning who always betrays them with first princess he sees (so you can snatch him and have somebody with 10 stars of command).

That, is a myth. The Oh So great Istvaan is a 10/10000000 talent, but his holiness does not start with 10 command stars.

Istvaan does not betray, the rest of the country betrays Istvan by not following him.

[Tsarsies]

Well said Delra,

Then there is the many sub mods you can add to the core of Stainless Steel. All have had alot of work put into them and all are of SS quality. As all the sub mods are not compatable with many other sub mods it actually makes it challenging just to choose which sub mods you want to try as all of them are awesome in there own right!