I've been praising TLK on the wargamer quite a bit over the last week, just thought I'd copy and paste my comments here for the TLK mod team as well. TLK is just incredible. Just a bunch of my posts compiled from this thread. I'm MC82 there.

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I haven't played enough yet to comment on things such as the AI, but so far this is just AWESOME! Why CA doesn't hire such high quality modders (along with the Europa Barbarorum, Deus lo Vult, Broken Crescent and Chivalry II teams, among others) to create commercial expansions or addons is beyond me, as I would gladly have paid the usual add on price ($20) or so for this- If the AI is improved like it is in most M2 mods, I'll up that to full retail game price easily.

The atmosphere, historical info (nowhere near as extensive as EB, but possibly the next closest), unit skins, and etc is just top notch. This just seems incredible so far to see what the Last Kingdom modders have done with M2, if there is a donation link on their homepage they will be getting at least usual add on price from me.

For those who also enjoy this mod, I cannot recommend enough Bernard Cornwell's "The Last Kingdom" book series, it just gets better and better. http://www.bernardcornwell.net/index...=1&seriesid=10

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I am in nerd heaven between this mod and Chivalry II- still awaiting the "will be out soon!" (since March) 4.0 version of Chivalry II :-P

From my day of rampaging around as glorious, pre-christian Norwegians, I can say that the AI in this mod is top notch on the battlefield, like Xtiaan I can't comment yet on the Campaign AI as it's been a straightforward sack, rape and pillage-fest so far. Not only has the mod inspired me to re-read (for the 100th time) Bernard Cornwell's "Saxon Stories" (see link above), but my poor wife has had to spend most of the day listening to my rediscovered love of Swedish/Norwegian Black Metal as well. Nothing goes along with battles quite like some Marduk or Satyricon for me, YMMV.

(some random Chivalry II rambling mixed in here, sorry, too much caffeine and wine tonight)
Chivalry II uses an older version of the XAI (Xeryx AI) mod, which makes dramatic improvements in the AI, and it shows in the mod's (Chivalry II, again rambling) battles- the suicide generals now at least risk such death in a gamble on the flanks or rear, instead of proudly charging a spear/pike wall right at the beginning.

The Last Kingdom uses the latest XAI (4.0), and does it EVER show.. The battle AI will happily outflank you, run units around to your rear when not expected, and so far seems to actually protect it's normally kamikaze generals.

This, again, is amazing, and if you like TW games at all and have M2 with Kingdoms, download it by all means.


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haven't had this much fun with a Total War game since the original Medieval TW. This mod, so far, is THAT good. I believe the AI used in this one is the newer XAI 4.0, and it is incredible for the most part.

Playing a game as Hordaland (the larger Norwegian faction), moved in to attack the Vestfold (other Norway faction) capital, and they immediately sent a full stack army after me. I have not played a TW battle like this since M1- The AI initially set up on a hill and waited for me to attack (and that faction gets longbows and brought several units of them, mine doesn't), then once the battle started actively tried its hardest to DESTROY my army, flanking, feinting (yes, feinting, at least it seemed like it), and still maintaining a defensive line, while also NOT immediately suicide charging its general. The whole thing was an "edge of your seat", almost frantic experience. I won, barely, and with horrible losses, including three of my own best generals (and almost my king).

This is a far cry from the "Heroic Victory!" with "Your losses: 13" "Enemy losses: 2000" (with an army half their size) that I've gotten used to by now.

I've seen the battle AI do some dumb things with reinforcements during a siege (not sure about field battles), and once had a random occurence of what looked like "Default M2 AI" mode kicking in when I was assaulting an unwalled village, and the AI troops just ran out and got themselves shot to pieces by the horde of bowmen I'd brought along. I think this one might have been an attempt to hurry and chase down my archers, which wasn't a good idea when I had a line of heavy infantry just behind them. This kind of AI stupidity has only been occasional and likely in response to my own cheap tactics, and this is the first time I've been reduced to resorting to cheap tactics to win in a TW game in quite some time.

Really, this is like a breath of fresh air, having the AI both actively defend its regions from invasion (it likes to either attack your invading army directly, or just send one of its own into your territory as a response), along with actually surprising me repeatedly in battles that I'm sweating through, instead of using all sort of self-enforced "house rules" to try and give the poor, stupid AI a chance.

Again, this mod is amazing, I'm having as much fun as I did with Medieval 1 again, finally.

Edit: as Xtiaan said, morale levels seem to be insanely high here (I'm using Very Hard battle difficulty), as many even surrounded lower tier units will happily continue fighting until they're all dead without ever routing (or getting the surrounded "rout" status of "fighting to the death").

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This is the first one I've kept M2 on my HD for more than a weekend for in a long, long time.

Usually my "reinstall M2 to try new mod" experience goes something like one of these:

- Start off interesting, get my faction out of debt/get economy going, fight a few initially difficult battles due to being stuck with mostly rudimentary militia troops- after a little infrastructure and economy building, realize that I'm now beating the crap out of the hopeless AI again, either get annoyed by massive "peasant" armies in besieged cities spawned by turn-time eating garrison script, or get tired of using the "create_unit" cheat over and over to help the AI and make city assaults something other than anti-climactic, uninstall.

- Get fed up with insane restrictions placed on player, which end up increasing frustration more than difficulty (AI is still usually dumb as brick). Realize I've played game compulsively for 4+ hours trying to "win" over the player restrictions but AI still doesn't have a clue as to what's going on, uninstall in frustration.

- Install promising new mod, realizing it's missing ONE feature I've come to love and now see as a dealbreaker (for example, after playing with one of the many "realcombat" stat based mods, playing another one that still depicts levy militia as heavy cavalry killing machines just ruins it for me. Hunt endlessly on mod forum for submod or something that will fix this, realize sub mod was for an older version (after I've destroyed my current installation that probably took half an hour to download and install), rage-uninstall in frustration. Go back to EB or Mount and Blade and probably start drinking by now.

The Last Kingdom (and still in beta at that) is the first TW experience I've had since MTW1 where I could just install, and then happily play away.

Found a donation link at the mod download link, these guys are getting paid.