What mods can you recommend?

[Fitzjeraldo]

I played vanilla years ago but only briefly. I really don't think I can be bothered to go through MTW2 as it stands. I have kingdoms as well but that's even more of a bore, so I was thinking what mods are highly recommended which would improve gameplay and features?

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Stainless Steel - keeps the game more or less in the same roots, but improves greately on pretty much everything, like more factions, bigger map, more units, etc, etc...

Broken Crescent - Map is spanning from middle east to Russian steppes, and even India

Third age - A total conversion mod which takes you to the realms of LOTR. Has everything you would ever want for a casual player, is really well done, only thing lacking IMO is unit variety.

Call of Warhammer - Another total conversion mod, is based on a fantasy world with giant mummies, scorpions and so on...

Sicialian Vespers: Chivalry II - Spans from dark ages to Rennisance, havent had a chance to play it, because i have installed it wrong

Well, anyways, just look here and choose on your own!

[Sitalkes]

Third age - A total conversion mod which takes you to the realms of LOTR. Has everything you would ever want for a casual player, is really well done, only thing lacking IMO is unit variety.

Wargs, Balrogs, Trolls (several types), Dwaven axe throwers, Mumakil plus all the types you see in M2TW,.... how much more varied do you get? Unless you mean that unit types within some factions (eg. dwarves, elves) are restricted

[Snakes]

This really depends on what you're looking for. In my experience, good mods include:

Stainless Steel - Longer, more challenging campaign with improved AI, lots of options (Early and Late Era, aggressiveness of AI, etc.), and more interesting historical and background events. Plus, the addition of several factions makes multi-front wars much easier to get caught up in.

Broken Crescent - I found this mod particularly challenging in the early campaign. It moves the entire map east and features several new units, factions, etc. It's good for moving the historical perspective to fresh, new locale.

Westeros: Total War - Because hey, it's Westeros. Fantasy setting with an entertaining campaign, though I'm not very fond of the map (this is not the creator's fault, but rather the setting itself) as I like more centralized bodies of water. Still in development, and with plenty of room to expand. Plus, if you're familiar with the characters, it's just plain fun.

Those are the three I've played and enjoyed the most. I've only played a couple of others, though. Hopefully these descriptions are helpful. I hear good things about Third Age and Chivalry II as well, but have yet to play them. The Long Road is good, but I really think Stainless Steel sort of ended its usefulness on my drive (personal opinion, here).

Keep in mind that the same, basic gameplay is always there. These mods just change setting and (dramatically) improve the AI and unit selection whilst mixing in new factions.

[Hazzard]

Westeros: Total War - Because hey, it's Westeros. Fantasy setting with an entertaining campaign, though I'm not very fond of the map (this is not the creator's fault, but rather the setting itself) as I like more centralized bodies of water. Still in development, and with plenty of room to expand. Plus, if you're familiar with the characters, it's just plain fun.

Just so you know vanilla Westeros isn't particuerly good yet, you are much better off playing as the enhanced version, because factions like the starks will get hospitaler knights, which seems clearly wrong to me.

Mods I recommend:
THERA
Massive map, but not extremely long turn times.
Factions are incredibly diverse, some have few gunpowder units and play like high era medieval 2 europe factions without gunpowder, others like Romans. Some still play like native american factions from kingdoms.
And many more I have not yet played.

Rule Britannia
Like the Britannia kingdoms campaign but much better.

[Sitalkes]

I have kingdoms as well but that's even more of a bore

What was it that you found boring? If you want truely inspirational music, artwork, and maps, plus battle scenes that look as though they came from the Lord of the Rings films, try Third Age Total War. However, winning will still require you to manage your cities and move your armies. If you don't like managment, you might find it more fun just to play custom battles or battles against a human opponent via hot seat mode.

[shikaka]

I played vanilla years ago but only briefly. I really don't think I can be bothered to go through MTW2 as it stands. I have kingdoms as well but that's even more of a bore, so I was thinking what mods are highly recommended which would improve gameplay and features?

It depends on what you prefer. I will list a few I know, but only write the differences to each other, every one of them is actually improvement over vanilla.

Fantasy:

Call of Warhammer:
+ brilliant unit skins
+ no clone factions (except for the empire duchies, but that is lore)
+ very athmospheric
- lots of scripted events

Third Age:
+ really good loading screens, music, etc.
+ custom settlements!
+ faction variety
- if scripts not removed, boring gameplay
- some underdeveloped factions

Thera:
+ great faction variety (from indians on mammuts to kaiser's musketeers)
+ great unit rosters
- map is big, but quite barren (to improve performance, so that can be a + too)



Grand campaign-ish:

Stainless Steel:
+ the biggest collection of quality skins
+ great number of submods
- lacks historical accurancy (map, units)

ChivalryII:
+ has great medieval athmosphere
+ improved build tree (for medieval feel)
- not updated for some time
(this is the best grand campaign mod imho)



Other:
Last Kingdom
+ unique setting (viking invasions of britain and magyar raids on northern france)
+ brilliant unit skins
- AI needs some help

Broken Crescent
+ unique setting (islam worlds during crusades)
+ great faction diversity
+ great unit diversity
+ historically accurate
+ unique way of representing unit classes
(not cons, this is the best mod I ever played)

For King and Country
+ unique setting (english revolution, pike and shot)
+ very accurate and athmospheric
- AI cannot handle pike and shot really well

[Vipman]

Besides what other people said, Deus lo Vult + BB submod if you want more features and the game to be A LOT harder.