• Best Rome 2 Mods 2018

Medieval 2 is a Total War game for those who love armoured knights, and the complex combination of politics and religion that gave Medieval Europe its unique flavor. But what if you’ve seen all it has to offer? Then you should check out our list of mods. Whether you’re enhancing your base game, taking the fight somewhere new, or leaving Europe entirely and heading to Middle Earth, we’ve got the mods for you.

DarthMod

Yes, it’s that man again. Modder Darth Vader has released a series of mods for the Total War games aimed at improving the in game AI and battles, each one is always one of the best mods available for the game. This one includes new formations and battle tweaks, making battles far more tactical. The Medieval edition of DarthMod is especially focused on improving castle battles, improving AI, and tweaking wall health for more satisfying sieges.
The Third Age: Total War

The biggest and best Middle Earth mod for Total War, the Third Age transforms Medieval into the Lord of the Rings strategy game you’ve always wanted. The new Middle Earth campaign map is populated by all the classic factions: Gondor, Rohan, Silvan Elves, High Elves, Dwarves, Dale, Eriador, Arnor, Isengard, Orcs of the Misty Mountains, Orcs of the Gundabad, Mordor, Harad and Rhun. It’s the best LOTR game I’ve ever played.

Nov 14, 2017  This is entirely dependent on how you are playing the game, for the purpose of this answer I will focus entirely on the Single Player Campaign and the Multiplayer Battles. Within each of those I will list the top 5 factions to use. Single Player C.

Lands to Conquer
Lands to Conquer does a little bit of everything, tweaking gameplay, improving AI, adding new units. Best of all it also offers three new regional campaigns based on historic conflicts. There’s a Hundred Years War campaign, another depicting the Spanish/Moor conflict and a third based around the wars between Italian city states.
Renaissance: Total War
Renaissance does exactly what you’d expect. It brings Medieval forwards in time to the Renaissance era. The mod starts in 1493, the ‘late’ period by Medieval’s standards, so you’ll be relying on halberds and muskets instead of bows and spears. The mod also makes the Timurids and Mongols fully playable, plus it even integrates DarthMod’s AI improvements.
Broken Crescent

Broken Crescent shifts Medieval’s focus to the middle east between 1174 and 1400 AD, depicting the conflict between Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Pagan factions at that time. It adds a whopping 250 new units, created from scratch. If you were ever a fan of Medieval’s crusades, then this is the mod for you.
Stainless Steel
Stainless Steel is one of the most comprehensive and professionally produced mods Total War has ever seen. It changes every single aspect of Medieval, expanding the map, changing the factions, adding new units, tweaking AI and battles. The list of changes is enormous, but all in keeping with the spirit of the original game. It’s the perfect mod for those who want just want an expanded and tweaked version of the European warfare Medieval is so famous for.

Crusader Kings 2 [official site] is (somehow) now five years old. Adam raised a glass to its humour and humanity last month in celebration of its half-decade anniversary, so I thought I’d delve into its modding community to mark the occasion too.

Much like the digital empires depicted in-game, many of its mods have risen and fallen since my last visit, however the following list sends the best into battle. Given how involved CK 2 can be at times, I’ve tried my best to link videos where possible so as to properly showcase each mod’s worth. Enjoy!NB – Note that some mods can only be accessed via Paradox forum accounts. You’ll have access assuming you own the game, so remember to sign in.

CK2Generator

By yemmlie

Let’s start with a wild card. A wild card, not in the sense that the CK2 Generator mod is temperamental, but that it’s intentionally unpredictable. Last year, Adam rightly compared yemmlie’s work to Dwarf Fortress in that instead of portraying the world as we know it against what the history books might tell us, CK2 Generator spawns an entirely new history of humankind from scratch.

In turn, this lets you grow your own entirely fictitious societies and landmasses and watch them procedurally generate before your eyes. Like Dwarf Fortress, you’re free to transfer your new creations over into Crusader Kings 2 and watch them take flight further still.

“Basically the tool will generate, from scratch, a completely new history of humanity from its first exodus from Africa as a new mod to be playable in CK2,” explains yemmlie. “These cultures will then spread throughout Europe, mutating and changing as they spread, words and language, religions, ethnicity, cultural ideals, laws, looting, river sailing, incest, religious heads, holy sites, wives, concubines and everything, all morphing, mutating and branching off as humans spread through time and land.”

A Game of Thrones

Best Rome 2 Mods 2018

By CK2:AGOT Development Team

Sticking with fictional landscapes, CK 2’s A Game of Thrones has been going since 2012 and brings the famous book series and television show’s bounds to Paradox’s historical grand strategy. It expectedly intertwines George R.R. Martin’s fantasy drama with the game, however also tweaks its base mechanics so that the realm is less likely to fragment into multiple kingdoms over time – in turn in-keeping with its inspiration, as players vie singularly for the Iron Throne.

At present, the A Game of Thrones team has designed the mod so that players can kick things off up to 300 years before Aegon’s Conquest, all the way through to the beginning of The Feast of Crows – Martin’s fourth book. The A Game of Thrones mod featured on RPS’ list of the best total conversion mods last month.

Elder Kings

By Elder Kings Dev Team

From Westeros to Morrowind: the Elder Kings total conversion mod transports the world of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series to Crusader Kings 2. Set in wider Tamriel, Elder Kings sees players take control of “one of the many fledgling countries of the Interregnum,” so reads the mod’s description.

While still in development (and probably due an update), Elder Kings boasts two playable scenarios both contained within the series lore’s Second Empire. The Interregnum takes place towards the end of this era with Cyrodiil in disrepute following the emporer’s murder. The Colovian, the Nibenese, the Bosmer, and the Argonians are but some of the races locking horns here in a bid to conquer Tamriel. The Kamal Invasion, on the other hand, follows on and sees the Kamal Snow Demons invading Tamriel for the first time, and the fallout this incurs from the Akaviris, the Nords, and the rest of the realm. A Fourth Empire scenario – Skyrim’s The Stormcloak Rebellion – has been in the works for some time.

NB – as this is a work in progress, its creators warn bugs may be present. It’s perhaps worth bearing this in mind before installing.

Middle Earth Project

By CK2: MEP Team

I swear we’ll get back to the real world soon. But if Game of Thrones and the Elder Scrolls are a shoe-in for Crusader Kings 2 total conversions, then so too must be Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Featuring bookmarks throughout the Third Age, this ‘un’s map covers the main areas of Middle-earth as it’s known in the books and films.

“Will you play as the descendant of one of the noble families of Rohan or Gondor?” asks the mod’s creators. “Will you try to reforge the ancient kingdoms of Elves in Eriador? Or will you try to destroy all the Free Peoples, and claim Middle Earth for Morgoth?”

Whatever you answer above, the Middle Earth Project offers seven races – Humans, Hobbits, Dwarves, Orcs/Goblins, Elves, Nazguls/Sauron, and the Istari – and five scenarios by way of The Last Alliance, The Fall of Arnor, The Kinstrife, The War of the Ring, and The New Shadow. If you’re familiar with LotR lore, you can probably guess what some of those entail, however full details of what they’re all about can be found in this direction.

Crusader Kings Z

By Korbah

Besides being a pretty brilliant and intuitive mod, Crusader Kings Z has a fun story too. After Paradox released a teaser for the fictional Crusader Kings Z as an April Fools’ Day joke in 2013, modder Korbah (who is also involved in Elder Kings mentioned above) decided to make it A Real Thing.

The result is something similar to Paradox’s own Sunset Invasion DLC as it creates an alternate timeline for it events to unfold within. At some stage after the year 1000 AD an unexplained zombie outbreak occurs in Ethiopia which quickly spreads from Africa to Europe. Enter you, the player, and supposed world saviour as you scramble to form armies strong enough to combat the spreading infection and restore peace and, you know, humanity to the world after ridding the globe of the walking dead. If it feels like zombies are in everything these days, that’s because they are. But they’re also good fun.

When The World Stopped Making Sense

By Enlil

While it could be argued 2017 fits this bill more than any other era to date, Enlil’s When The World Stopped Making Sense is a lovely mod which reinterprets the Migration Period at any date between 476 AD – which aligns with the fall of the Western Roman Empire – and 700 AD. From here, players can play through till the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire centuries later in 1453 AD.

This is definitely one for the history buffs and while other Crusader Kings 2 Dark Ages mods tend to follow a typically predictable historically-accurate arc, When The World Stopped Making Sense allows for more player autonomy as you craft yet another alternative timeline. It’s still in development, however ten multi-century-spanning bookmarks are planned in total.

CK2+

By CK2Plus Team

Perhaps the most essential Crusader Kings 2 mod available for those after a challenge – CK2+ changes host of things about the base game with the aim of “deepening the CK2 experience”. In practice, this means making the base game more challenging without straying too far from what makes it enjoyable. Historical accuracy somewhat takes a backseat along the way, but the upshot is a more involved game.

For example, one of the most obvious tweaks CK2+ brings with it is the reduction of vassal limits. In turn this means managing larger empires is significantly more difficult, and makes the decision to increase Crown Authority far more important. Retinues are also smaller, thus more difficult to maintain, and the usefulness of technologies has been capped.

Furthermore, more considerations have been applied to factions, meaning they now bore more common interests. “Do they want peace and wealth?” asks the mod’s creators. “Do they want a strong ruler with lots of prestige? Do they want a pious ruler who doesn’t change from the old ways?” These changes mean there’s less chance of players gaining wider personal power, as they become more reliant on vassals.

No Hassles Vassals

By MonteCristo

Speaking of vassals, MonteCristo’s No Hassles Vassals is a simple but very effective mod which lets players distribute both county and barony titles with just one click. This is likely one which needs to be experienced in order to appreciate its worth, however NHV uses targeted decisions which in turn means you’re no longer required to run with your rule from one county to the next.

I’m actually going to turn you over to YouTube person Arumba here, who does a fine job of talking us through exactly what this one’s all about:

After the End

By Ofaloaf

While I’ve enjoyed watching the world burn several times in Ofaloaf’s After the End mod, part of me worries it’s more prophetic than I’ve given it credit for. As depicted elsewhere on this list, Crusader Kings 2 is perfect for recreating alternate histories, fantasy or otherwise, however this one opts for an arguably more ominous alternative future. We know that didn’t happen in the past, but this could happen in the future, right?

Hopefully not, because after an Extinction Level Event of cataclysmic proportions years prior, the world as we know it in the year 2666 has apparently gone to shit. North America now attempts to rebuild its disconnected societies – which sees a host of new-age cultures on the rise, as players get to grips with over 900 provinces, 25 kingdoms, four republics, one theocracy, five tribes and 14 religions.

“The setting also allows for the introduction of salvaged modern technology in the mostly neo-medieval setting and several invasions and events that change the game-world as time goes by,” reads the mod’s description. Ominous.

Honourable Mentions

RIP – Realm Intrigue & Politics
By ManiacTehGreat

While the contents of this list so far has focused on CK 2 total conversions, ManiacTehGreat’s RIP targets some of the game’s finer details. Well worth your time.

CPRplus – Cultures and Portraits Revamped
By Silverino

Make everyone pretty.

Fantasy!
By JordanDoes

Make everyone not so pretty.

Unique Buildings
By Morrolan

Adds a host of neat historical buildings and monuments to the game.

Bloodline
By Dorimi

Inherit your own bloodlines.

Secret Society
By JordanDoes

Shhhhh.

And so concludes our battle chest of Crusader King 2 mods, fit for toppling kings, conquering nations and winning wars. But what mods were lost on the field? Herald your own favourites in the comments below.