Worth playing a vanilla campaign?

[AngryPolack]

Rome 2 needs a lot more time to be brought up to speed, so as I wait for Hegemony Rome I was thinking about playing M2. I was wondering if you guys think a vanilla play through is worth it? I'm listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast on the Mongol invasion ( can't recommend this podcast enough) and was wondering which campaign features this invasion in M2. Also, are their any mods that are easy to install for a Steam copy that are worth it? Trying to install some of the major mods seems pretty dancing for my limited skills. Thx for any answers

[UndrState]

I love vanilla, and it's vanilla that has the Mongol and Timurid invasions.

The main mods are pretty straightforward to install ( IIRC some even have installers ), and I'm sure all instructions are posted in their respective forums.

M2TW is still my favourite total war game, and I've been playing since it came out.

[Nzg]

Vanilla is the best Right now I'm playing as the Turks and for the first time I have problems(real problems) with the Mongol invasion. Maybe because I didn't kill Egypt fast(I went on rushing Konstantinopole), but right now my empire is spread(I keep Genua, some islands, Tunis, Kiev with no land support) Mongols attacked near Bagdad and didn't siege it(I had it loaded). They went on to Edessa leaving a fed garnison in Mosul and sieged Edessa killing it. Most of Mongol 1 wave died on Antioch, but the second wave came and wreacks havoc in my lands Get's really fun right now so I truly recommend it to you.

It's also fun to build a crussading empire in the holy lands Taking Jerusalem-Antioch with one of the italian nations is fun and easy to play. Greate militia can keep those pesky hordes away

[Aeratus]

Vanilla is worthwhile for its arcade-like quality. The campaign is simple and fast pace, and you can do whatever you like.

[Rijul.J.Ballal]

Play through it just to get a feel of it. It can be quite an experience.

[Badmanis]

Yeah its worth it M2 is a great game!

[yiplong]

Yeah its worth it M2 is a great game!

Agreed. M2 is a great game and very well polished (in stark contrast to recent TW games). I wish it were more streamlined though.

[Gronndar]

Yeah, vanilla is worth playing, in fact its amazing game. This game has surprising amount depth and character. I played many vanilla campaigns before trying any of these mods.

Only bad thing I can recall... or maybe its not relevant anymore and its old news, is that two handed units have that animation bug which makes them pretty inferior. I know Kingdoms fixed that, but did vanillas patches fix that?

[Badmanis]

Played M2 vanilla for like 130hrs but then i switched to Mods, Stainless steel and Third age to spice of the game abit.

[Woxolo]

Vanilla M2TW is very good indeed.
Give it a try, and install some mods if you're not happy. Good luck!

[SirRobin]

It's definitely playable and enjoyable, even though it has many annoyances.

Haven't found a mod yet that makes it truly better - Stainless Steel improves a lot of things, but also changes other things in a way that I personally don't like.

For example, SS makes heavy cavalry have more "mass", which means that their charges are much more devastating. That's nice. But that also means that a single heavy cavalry unit can push their way through your city defences no matter how many spearmen or other troops you place at the gates. That's not so nice.