I've played Rome Total War in 2006. I never touched a mod for RTW. I stopped playing in late 2006 because the game broke. For various reasons, I have decided to come back to RTW instead of sticking with Medieval II. This time, I plan to mod my campaign.

I need to know the basics about RTW modding here. What are some facts that are considered common knowledge? Are there various programs that most people have to organize mods or change mods freely? In Medieval II, there was a 'mod manager', is there something similar? Don't limit your responses to that though, what else should be known?

What are some of the biggest mods? And can you give me a link to something that explains what each mod does? I went to the Rome Total Realism forums and found no information about what the mod does except some very vague things. So what other mods are big in terms of how popular they are, and what do they do? And what mods are generally considered to be a big no-no?

Where do I put mods? Where do I install them to, and extract them to? Why are there mods within mods? Is there an 'extractor' tool similar to that in Medieval II, that allows you to extract "descr_" files?

I wasn't kidding when I said I was a newb to this stuff, we all were at one point, yes?