About to take the first step into Third Age: Total War, advice please.

[Snakeb1te]

I've been dabbling in Battle for Middle Earth 2 and I came across this for the first time. It looks great, and I'm looking to get involved. I don't do anything half-assed though, so if I do start playing this mod I'm going to take it mighty seriously, so I'd like to gather some information first.

I've already had a look at the Q+A topics, and read a few random posts here and there, as well as watched a few battle videos.

1. Is this mod 'complete?' By complete I mean all art work finished, all final balance sorted, all bugs fixed. If not, please tell me how close it is to that, or if there is ongoing support for this mod.

2. Is the game significantly different to understand than the original Medieval 2? I actually had a lot of trouble playing the campaign on normal difficulties because after 60 years or so I used to get bogged down in constant sieges every single turn because of an AI that built armies as if they were ants. If I found the original game difficult, will this be too hard for me without invested an obscene amount of hours? Or are the general mechanics still in place (cavalry, spearmen, heavy infantry, very light infantry e.t.c.)

3. Anyone care to offer their overall opinions on the mod? (I'd quite like comments from newcomers and very experienced players alike. This mod has been out for (5?) years now so surely there must be some diehards out there.

4. Any hints and tips for a newcomer looking to get stuck in with the campaign. I'm pretty bad at the RTS aspect overall, so I wouldn't mind general advice for that too.

Thanks.

[Wizad]

This mod is super awesome and definitely playable, though I wouldn't call it a 100% finished (I'm quite demanding, others will disagree). If you want to get into the most complete experience right away, download the MOS submod and play as Gondor. Don't underestimate the difficulty though.

This mod was made for the people who thought that Medieval 2 on very hard/very hard was too easy. So if the normal Medieval 2 AI is holding you back, you will probably lose your first sets of campaigns in this mod. The easiest faction of all is Harad. The Elvish factions are the easiest of the good factions.

There are definitely die hards playing this mod. I think it is the most played mod from all of Total War together with Stainless Steel and some Rome mod which name I have forgotten. You can put 100s of hours into this mod and it will still entertain you. Usually newcomers will come on the forum ask how to make it easier, however the challenge is part of this mod. Everyone starts out finding it difficult, but the difficulty becomes fun if you play enough.

Take it easy in your first campaign. Pick Harad as that is the easiest faction. Build the economic buildings and take the rebel cities. There are a couple of hidden mechanics that make it impossible to steamroll the AI.

[Kiliç Alì]

1 - It can be considered finished, I disagree with the one guy above Art is done, balance is quite well sorted (almost never AI factions are defeated by AI), bugs may happen but aren't very frequent.
Official support, as I understood, is over, but community patching is ongoing: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ernative-patch

2 - The pacing is different, it is supposed to be played for a significant amount of turns. Recruitment is slower for the player, and basically you have to win your battle with very little losses if you want to survive the very first turns. Also you should win your battles on the field and besiege the enemy, not the opposite (income is lower if you are under siege, even if you sally out and win, for money is detracted at turn start). Also, AI has significant bonus.

3 - It is of stunning quality, and you'll love custom settlements. Moreover, new content keeps being added constantly in the form of submods (remember you usually can't have more than one of them installed): http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...?1154-Sub-Mods

4 - Don't be afraid of lowering the difficult, VH\VH is supposed to be a challenge for even the best players; also Gondor is considered by many the hardest faction. But it is the one with the most compelling experience IMO.

Oh, and welcome

[Snakeb1te]

Thank you both for your replies. I will certainly not be put off by the difficulty, though if it proves to be extremely challenging I'll come and ask a few things on here!

Just a few things still to ask:

download the MOS submod and play as Gondor.

It is of stunning quality, and you'll love custom settlements

Moreover, new content keeps being added constantly in the form of submods (remember you usually can't have more than one of them installed)

What's the MOS mod and why should I get it?

What other submods would you give good reviews for?

Once again thank you, these were exactly the kind of replies I was looking for.

[Ngugi]

Hi Snake'

There's a lot of mods that take the game in interesting directions based on what their creators wanted to experience, but I suggest you begin to play vanilla TATW to get a hang of it and feeling for the magnificent game.
Then after a or some campaigns you will have a hunch about what you might want more of or less of (unless you like it as it is, many do), and thus it will be easier to reply on what submods that may be of interest to you.

[leo.civil.uefs]

Third age totalw ar vanilla 3.2 is totally outdated.

If you want to play vanilla, download it and also download this.

But if you are tired of vanilla and want a new experience, try MOS or DAC, look for its thread in the sub-mod section.

[ElvenKind]

Vanilla 3.2 is fine, there are couple of fixes which you can apply found here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ntial-bugfixes

Reinforcement bug can be a problem for some users, apply the fix for it from that thread.


Edit: Also, if you want to play Fellowship campaign, DO NOT INSTALL ANY OTHER SUBMOD for TATW, cause the Fellowship campaign is playable only in official TATW 3.2.

Note! And, Fellowship is also playable with DAC Expanded map, thanks to Araval for the info.

[British empire]

Third age is the best mod for Medieval 2, but yeah after getting the latest version, 3.2 you should try out the submods Dac, and Mos and more

[Snakeb1te]

Whoa that's a fair bit of links. So let me get this straight:

- Medieval Total War 2 + Kingdoms installed
- TA 3.2 installer
- Bug fixes installer for 3.2 (provided by Elvenkind) OR 4.5 alternative patch (provided by leo.civil.uefs) OR delve into the sub mods, current recommendations include "DAC" and "MOS."

Do any of the above work with each other? (Apart from the submods which you've already said are mutual exclusive.)

P.S. Do any of these campaigns (especially the vanilla) have the middle earth landmarks included? Tirith, Morgul, Grey Havens, Erebor, Moria e.t.c.
If so, is there somewhere I could find a list of these? If not, well then I'm not surprised as it could be difficult to balance such maps, but its worth asking.

[ElvenKind]

M2TW+Kingdoms+TATW All four Parts and Patches up to 3.2 version. That is your base to start with.

You can have more than one copy of TATW+Anything else installed, install TATW 3.2 once, test can you start a campaign.. and, make a copy of whole Third_Age_3 folder somewhere so you can re-use it for any other submod. More info here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post12974652

This means that you can have vanilla TATW installed, vanilla TATW + Alternative Patch installed, vanilla TATW + any other submod etc.. all installed in each own SEPARATE folder ( you will need alot of HDD free space, at least 9 GB per separate folder).

Note: most of submods are not compatible with each other, be sure to read their instructions.

[Snakeb1te]

M2TW+Kingdoms+TATW All four Parts and Patches up to 3.2 version. That is your base to start with.

You can have more than one copy of TATW+Anything else installed, install TATW 3.2 once, test can you start a campaign.. and, make a copy of whole Third_Age_3 folder somewhere so you can re-use it for any other submod. More info here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post12974652

This means that you can have vanilla TATW installed, vanilla TATW + Alternative Patch installed, vanilla TATW + any other submod etc.. all installed in each own SEPARATE folder ( you will need alot of HDD free space, at least 9 GB per separate folder).

Note: most of submods are not compatible with each other, be sure to read their instructions.

Excellent thank you.

P.S. Do any of these campaigns (especially the vanilla) have the middle earth landmarks included? Tirith, Morgul, Grey Havens, Erebor, Moria e.t.c.
If so, is there somewhere I could find a list of these? If not, well then I'm not surprised as it could be difficult to balance such maps, but its worth asking.

[Ngugi]

Yes they have, though they are quite obviously marked on the map. For example Minas Tirith look like it does in the film on the strategy map and when you go down to fight there it look like in the film.
However I can not recall there's any list on them

[Snakeb1te]

Yes they have, though they are quite obviously marked on the map. For example Minas Tirith look like it does in the film on the strategy map and when you go down to fight there it look like in the film.
However I can not recall there's any list on them

Ah brilliant! What about if a keen soul makes one right now? ;D

[Snakeb1te]

In any case thank you all for your help. I'll keep an eye on this thread for a few more days in case some others have advice to offer.

[Araval]

Ah brilliant! What about if a keen soul makes one right now? ;D

There is a map about those in 3.1 here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-total-war-3-1
With 3.2 came Erebor, Laketown and the Argonath in addition IIRC.

[DrDragun]

The alternative patch that Leo posted has a large number of additional custom settlements and his work is outstanding
MOS has a large number of additional factions, units, and event scripts although it might be overwhelming at first (particularly turn 1 when the script chooser pops up)
DaC also adds factions and complexity and the map is absolutely huge

The custom settlements in a basic install of 3.2 include Minas Tirith, Osigiliath (E and W), The Black Gate, Moria, Rivendell (Imladris), Amon Sul, Calas Galadrion (sp? the Lorien forest), Dol Guldur, Esargoth, Erebor, Minas Morgul, Isengard, the Shire, and I'm sure a bunch more that I'm forgetting.

My personal recommendation is to play at least 1 campaign in 3.2 to get yourself oriented to the new pacing and scripts (development is slower than M2TW). Gondor is a very challenging faction. Rohan or the Silvan Elves are fitting entry level factions. Be aware that the Silvans have a unique cavalry-less playstyle (well, skirmishers...) but very strong archers. For evil, Harad is the easiest followed by Rhun and Mordor. I will say that using trolls is a great deal of fun.

[Earl Dibbles Jr]

Here's an overview of the vanilla mod if you want to see some of the features:

[Snakeb1te]

P.P.S. Is the campaign multiplayer by any chance?

[Earl Dibbles Jr]

P.P.S. Is the campaign multiplayer by any chance?

No, but there are hotseats that let you play with your friends if you're willing to send files back and forth.

[Snakeb1te]

Excellent. That is quite the list of settlements, I look forward to seeing them ingame. As for the video, I'll take a look at it soon cheers.

P.S. Calas Galadhon!