Empire: Total War has now been ported to Mac! Brought to us by Feral Interactive in partnership with the Creative Assembly.
Empire: Total War for Mac contains all game updates, improvements and downloadable content, including The Warpath Campaign and Special Forces Units and the Elite Units of the East, West and America.
Written by: Clagius.
Project Empire Enhanced
Presenting Project Empire Enhanced, fresh off the press from the workshop of Shokh. This mod strives to make the vanilla ETW experience "more interesting and more challenging." The mod includes many bug fixes and new content, including a reworked AI, new textures for both land and sea, as well as the oh-so-fancy loading screens! Additionally, the battle mechanics have been heavily reworked, leading to much more realistic, and intense battles. In the end, if you want a better ETW experience while keeping the vanilla feeling, then Project ETW is the perfect mod for you!
Written by Nosjack.
Shokh Hates Sieges
Are you tired of siege battles and units unrealistically climbing up the walls? Shokh was too, so he found a solution with his new mod Shokh Hates Sieges!
This mod not only rids the game of city fortifications, but it does so in a way that doesn't cause problems for the AI. No more blobs of passive AI troops where a fort used to be! But if you think you're unable to defend without fortifications then it's not a problem because you're still able to build forts.
Written by Twilight Sparkle.
DarthMod v2.6 Epic Edition
Yet another reason why to join the Dark Side with Darth Vader's new release of DarthMod Napoleon v2.6 "Epic Edition". The most notable improvment is the battle AI which has been improved by 200%! To not find it challenging you must be like Napoleon himself! Especially be aware of the much powerful artillery which is the battle winner like it should be. Not to mention the effects have been improved further. Making you feel like you are on the battlefield yourself!
New sound effects are also included. They were made by no one else than Shokh. 2.6 version also has many other new features and improvements. See the full list here.
For some amazing live action see the trailer:
Written by Twilight Sparkle.
Bethencourt 1800
Bethencourt's 1800 mod by Bethencourt offers you two seperate campaigns. You can start at 1700 and continue up to the Napoleonic times where you will unlock new units and social changes. The 2nd campaign which will be released in the next update starts at 1800. So you don't have to play through 100 years to see the full impressions of the mod. As for other features. It includes new technology icons and is full of new units. The mod mostly focuses on Austria and France. Both start with new napoleonic units and technologies in the beginning so you can get a little insight and feel how it will be in 1800.
Here are some units for an eye candy:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Austrian jägers. Late period.
Austrian carabiniers. Elite light infantry.
French Guard Marines.
The next update will mostly focus on USA and the British so be sure to keep an eye for future updates!
You may have heard of it, if you haven't - now you have - but TWC has got it's very own A Song of Ice and Fire mod(or, for those who watch the series : Game of Thrones mod) called : Westeros Total War.
The dedicated team are working towards a 1.0 version release, as the mod's latest version is only Alpha 0.53. However, the team is giving us some previews on what we can expect in the mod's release!
King's Landing Preview
King's Landing is the Capital city of Westeros, from where the King on the Iron Throne commands the Seven Kingdoms. Not only that, but it's also possesses the main harbour of the entire continent of Westeros.
When he invaded, Aegon the Conquerer landed on the Blackwater, and founded a fort nearby. After he completed his conquest, he founded a city around the fort. The Targaryens expanded and improved on the city as time went by.
The Westeros Total War team have created this custom settlement for their mod, appropriate since King's Landing is such a distinct settlement in the lore.
Anyway, here are some screenshots for you to enjoy!
King's Landing
King's Landing In the Series
Artist's impression
In-game
(the yellowish mosque-ish building is The Great Sept of Baelor, the last pic is Maegor's holdfast)
For more information on King's Landing, visit here!
House Greyjoy of Pyke is one of the Great Houses of Westeros(along with Stark, Tully, Arryn, Baratheon, Lannister, Martell and Tyrell). After Aegon's conquest of Westeros, and abolition of House Hoare, the Iron islands picked House Greyjoy to lead them. Thus, the Greyjoys became lords paramount of the Iron Islands(since the Riverlands that House Hoare had were given over to the House Tully).
Their sigil is a golden kraken on black, and their motto is "We do not sow"(meaning, they don't buy or grow anything - but take everything from their conquests(or "paying the iron price"). Since the Greyjoys are the only Great House that believe in the Drowned God, the line "What's dead may never die" is attributed to the Greyjoys too.
Lord Balon Greyjoy, King of Salt and Rock, Son of the Sea Wind, Lord Reaper of Pyke and so on, rebelled against Robert Baratheon shortly after he won the Iron Throne, to go back to the old days when the Ironborn raided and harassed the mainland coast, and declared himself King of the Iron Islands. They destroyed the Lannister fleet at Lannisport, but that was pretty much it. Balon's two oldest sons were killed, and Theon Greyjoy was his only living son(along with Asha Greyjoy, a daughter). Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, took Theon as his ward.
By the time of the start of the events of A Game of Thrones, Theon is still a ward, raised amongst the Stark children(Robb, Sansa, Bran, Arya and Rickon - and the bastard Jon Snow) and trained in arms by Rodrik Cassel himself. I won't spoil anything past that
In regards to the mod, the team have shown us the Greyjoy military.
They are EXTREMELY limited in cavalry, but have very strong and hard infantry.
And here's a gallery with the unit pics that the team have given us.
Danny X brings us the Road to Jerusalem map preview, a mod focusing on the crusades period in the Middle East. This mod will offer more factions and units on a bigger map than the Kingdoms Crusades campaign. The map is 4 times as big and there are 3 times more regions on it.
Where the Kingdoms Crusades campaign map doesn’t go much further than Anatolia and the Holy Land, this new map stretches from the forests of the southern Balkans to the trade port of Muscat on the Arabian peninsula and from the desert of Libya to the boundless steppes east of the Caspian Sea.
The amount of regions is maxed out to 199 regions and the regions are well-spread across the map, except for the deserts and other inhospitable places there are no regions left out .
Let us hope we can march our crusading or jihading armies over this land soon to bring glory to God or Allah and death to the infidel dogs.
The entire preview with loads of pictures of the map can be seen here!
Written by: lollsuck.
War of the West Scotland Preview
War of the West might be one of the most promising mods for Medieval II Total War.
Their goal is to create historically correct unit rosters and they’re succeeding in it
as Lord Hamilton keeps pumping out these stunning units.
After previews of England and the Lordship of the Isles the team now brings us:
No more savage men in blue kilts running around with huge axes looking for a barber.
Instead, we get a historically correct, more Norman influenced unit roster with fancy French names.
These units are one by one all masterpieces, some of the most realistic units I have ever seen. The variation within the units is high and the details are just stunning so you don’t get the feeling you are commanding a clone army. Besides this lovely unit roster the Scotland preview also includes two unique characters in the persons of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.
No more Mel Gibson in a ragged kilt screaming freedom, this Wallace has decided to ride to battle in an expensive armour and with a proper retinue. He is still eager to kill some Englishmen, it’s your task to not make him end up on the scaffold again.
If you thought the preview was good news than you’ll probably be rejoiced to hear that War of the West has released a custom battle demo, see the article about it in this very same edition of the Eagle Standard.
A new beta mod based mostly on older work created by Enguerrand has been released under the name Course ą la Suprématie. The main feature of the mod is the addition of the Kingdom of Mali to the unforgiving desert regions of North Africa with the faction boasting an impressive new roster unit including both re-skinned vanilla units as well as some brand new modelling work. Other additions are also made including new provinces for the campaign map and a couple of new units for other factions.
As mentioned at the start of the article the mod is still in beta at the moment and Sinople has asked for the people of the TWC community to help with testing it, so if you think you can help or you just want to play the mod visit the thread here!
Written by: General Brittanicus.
Tsardoms Total War - Bosnian Banate Preview
Tsardoms Total War is a mod which is aiming to bring the many conflicts and cultural clashes which occured in areas of the Balkans, Near East, Eastern and Central Europe, Italy and Switzerland during the period 1345 AD to 1530 AD to the world of Total War. The team behind the mod have already previously produced several extremely high quality previews to showcase some of the excellent work that has already been produced for factions such as the Ottomans and the Tsardom of Serbia, as well as several others. The new preview is no different and once again the team have put together a glorious new preview, but this time to showcase the work that has been done for the Banate of Bosnia.
The preview begins with a very interesting read regarding the history of the Banate and covers several of its rulers throughout the era, as well as other topics such as trade, finance and religion of the area. This text is well worth a read, but if you want to skip right to the pictures all you need to do is keep scrolling down the first post and you will eventually find yourself in an area packed with screenshots of the new Bosnian units. The screenshots cover a wide number of units ranging from the fearsome Bosnian Axemen to the majestic Bosnian Vlastella (noblemen and magnates), as well as many more high quality units.
The work related to the Bosnian Banate is all contained in the thread here, so make sure to check it out. It is also well worth having a look at all the other previews that have been produced for the mods other factions, which can be located here!
Written by: General Brittanicus.
Isandlwana - The Thin Red Line Campaign Preview
The title of the mod "Isandlwana - Thin Red Line" may be somewhat of a giveaway for most of you concerning its content, but for those of you can't place the name, the mod focuses on the disastrous (for the British anyway) battle of Isandlwana fought in 1879 between the thin red line of the British forces and the formidable hoards of the Zulu tribes. The creator of the mod - who is also named Isandlwana - has managed to create some excellent looking units for both the British and the Zulus, which are historically accurate down to company/troop level for the British and regimental level for the Zulus. These units were included in the initial release of the mod, which was purely battle based, but the mod creator - Isandlwana - has recently made a glorious announcement that he has begun work on a campaign to complement the excellent work he had already done with the battles.
The campaign will be focused on south-eastern africa and will cover the lands controlled by the Zulu tribes, as well as parts of the land controlled by the British Empire, the Swazi Kingdom and the Colony of Traansvaal. It won't just be a new map that will be made though, as Isandlwana has already given us brief glimpses of some special locations such as Rorkes Drift, the photos that will be used for each characters portraits and a very nice UI made by Radboud as well as hinting at a lot more to come.
- The Region Map for Isandlwana's new campaign
The campaign has not yet been released, but you should definitely pay a visit to this thread to have a look at new previews (as well as the old ones) and to keep up to date with the mods progress. You should also bear in mind that you can currently play the battles section of the mod, so if you want to try and change history and preserve your thin red line or you want to smash it to pieces again with your Zulu hordes you can still do so whilst you wait for the campaign by downloading the current mod version from the mod thread!
Written by: General Brittanicus.
Brittanica Map Preview
The War of the West is a mod that hopes to bring a Broken Crescent type depth into the Western World and one point of major focus is of course the British Islands. The Isles aim to be the pinnacle of realism with an incredible amount of focus into creating them and giving them life. Currently the map is a work in progress so you should keep checking in every now and then.
They hope to have around 160 total settlements separated from Castles and Towns each with their own unique attributes. Furthermore each city and castle will be painstaking named to represent it with the utmost of historical accuracy across the entire Island with a total of eight factions competing for dominance among many other great features.
Currently they also have several videos showing off the landscape:
Southern England
Make sure to check out the rest in the main thread and show a little interest in this promising mod.
Written by: Kamos.
Brittanica Custom Battle Demo
Now everybody loves a good battle, after all we're all fans of the Total War series and Total War isn't exactly about playing nice!
So now the The War of the West is proud to bring you a custom battle demo in which you can pit three of their favourite factions against one another in bloody combat. Enjoy the sights and the scene of the Lordship of the Isles, The Kingdom of England, and The Kingdom of Scotland tearing each other apart in the fine lands of the Isles.
Currently this is an Alpha release and they plan on fixing any issues and later on even adding more of the eight factions you'll be seeing in the full version of the mod. So feel free to come along and add your input or just bring your experiences with you. After all no song is sweeter than the tales of battle in Albion!
Come get some and get it here!
First the rugged Dwarves, it's a pretty big picture as well.
Then the fierce Orcs And Goblins.
Written by: Kamos.
Wrath of the Norsemen: The Baltic Release
When I found out about Wrath of the Norsemen a long time ago I remembered the days of the Viking Invasion Expansion for Medieval Total War and remembered the satisfaction of getting immersed in as a Viking, getting a taste of the ‘berserkgang,' and was bellowing at my ‘fair maiden’ (wife) for more mead! Now that I have had the opportunity, nay the pleasure of playing this fine mod, those calls have rang out in my halls once more (sadly enough on deaf ears), but after pillaging a ‘rebel’ city or swooping down on a sworn enemy with my Jomsvikings, Vikingkar, Berserkers, and God knows what else has satisfied my yearning for an epic battle between Viking heavyweights.
This mod will have you gnashing on a shield and charging those who dare to stand in your way! From the exquisite units to the loads of towns waiting for the taking as well as plenty of factions to bring your Nordic down upon, you will be more than satisfied with this mod if this time period meets your fancy. Now remember it is still in Beta stage but it still packs a wallop, and for a true Viking challenge play on VH/VH if you dare!
Written by: ♔Old Dragoon♔.
Broken Crescent: The Imamate of Yemen Preview
THE IMAMATE OF YEMEN
The glorious team of Broken Crescent mod has something in store for all its fans and first time players alike, coming with the future release of Broken Crescent 2.4. There are a load of units for this faction preview separated into Factional Units and Tribal Units, so check out this amazing mod here at Broken Crescent 2.4 Faction Roster Preview: The Imamate of Yemen. This preview does an excellent job in giving the reader background information on the faction itself and as stated earlier breaks down the unit roster in to two categories:
Factional Units consisting of Imamah Infantry, Imamah Heavy Infantry, Al Rajalah, Yemeni Nobles, Al Fursan, Tihami Warriors, Zaidi Taberstanis, and the Al Ahbash.
Imamah Heavy Infantry
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Tribal Units consisting of Mathahj, Yafea, Hamadan, Nahid, Khawalan, Al Mahrah, Kindah, Zubaid, and the Al Azd.
Hamadan
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
According to the preview a player playing as Yemen can expect a more than significant threat from the Ayyubids from the West. So it appears that you must meet that threat very quickly in order preserve this faction if you so choose it!
The information, the unit pictures and information on them, as well as hints to expect out of BC 2.4, will definitely be worth the wait for this update to a truly great Medieval II Total War mod! I am sure those who read this like myself can sum up the anticipation for another preview from this modding team in three words..."GIVE ME MORE!"
GRANTO's Ogniem i Mieczem (With Fire and Sword): Total War 3.1 has been released, now translated to english language!
This time it's hard as ever! New improved battle AI and more difficult campaign brings the game to an entirely new level. With the new, improved, map the campaign will be double the fun!
With longer battles, new formations and new battle environments the battles are a more joyful to experience. Definitely worth a try.
After a long hiatus Rome Total Realism Platinum Edition has got a new release, version 2.0 is now out and ready for download. The new version is reworked to work on the ALX.exe, which allows numbering of both first and legionary cohorts as well as many other improvements.
This completely modfoldered version solves a few bugs and fixes some CTD’s from the last version.
A few smaller mods, like Davide Cool’s Servian& Greek walls and the forced diplomacy mod, have been included, as well as a new feature were you can only recruit ships from coastal regions with the timber resource. An optional mod is Marcus Camillus’ 4 Turns-per-Year mod, which has been updated from the previous version.
While also adding historical names of factions and leaders! This mod has a big potential with its future updates where settlement names, portraits and possibly new units will be included as well! So be sure to keep an eye on it!
Written by: Twilight Sparkle.
Ran no Jidai
Ran no Jidai brings STW on RTW's engine! If your old machine is unable to run STW2 or you just want to try something new with RTW then this amazing mod is for you! To make a better Japanese atmosphere new artwork and sounds have been included. Historical accuracy also hasn't been forgotten. Every clan starts with different relations with each other and all have their own pros and cons. Be it with the new units or other factors. Not to mention the Western technologies and gunpowder will also arrive at a later date so be sure to attain them first and take their advantage against your foes!
Here are some awesome pictures where you can see the new UI and some action as well!
Excellent issue guys. Im off course bendt on WotW, but WotN and all the other Kingdoms news enriches my daily life.
Cheers!
~Wille
Thorolf was thus armed. Then Thorolf became so furious that he cast his shield on his back, and, grasping his halberd with both hands, bounded forward dealing cut and thrust on either side. Men sprang away from him both ways, but he slew many. Thus he cleared the way forward to earl Hring's standard, and then nothing could stop him. He slew the man who bore the earl's standard, and cut down the standard-pole. After that he lunged with his halberd at the earl's breast, driving it right through mail and body, so that it came out at the shoulders; and he lifted him up on the halberd over his head, and planted the butt-end in the ground. There on the weapon the earl breathed out his life in sight of all, both friends and foes. [...] 53, Egil's Saga
I must tell you here of some amusing tricks the Comte d'Eu played on us. I had made a sort of house for myself in which my knights and I used to eat, sitting so as to get the light from the door, which, as it happened, faced the Comte d'Eu's quarters. The count, who was a very ingenious fellow, had rigged up a miniature ballistic machine with which he could throw stones into my tent. He would watch us as we were having our meal, adjust his machine to suit the length of our table, and then let fly at us, breaking our pots and glasses.
- The pranks played on the knight Jean de Joinville, 1249, 7th crusade.
This is the only forum I visit with any sort of frequency and I'm glad it has provided a home for RTR since its own forum went down in 2007. Hopefully my donation along with others from TWC users will help get the site back to its speedy heyday, which will certainly aid us in our endeavor to produce a full conversion mod Rome2.