Third Age: Total War is a LOTR mod to Medieval II: Total War (requires the Kingdoms expansion pack or that you (like me) have the gold edition of the game).
Quite simply, you play a faction from the Middle Earth world, with the goal of conquering the provinces and defeating the factions the faction in question is associated with. It uses the culture system from the Britannia campaign, and the cultures and factions are as follow:
Northmen (Rohan, Free Peoples of Eriador, Dale)
Elves (High Elves, Silvan Elves)
Dwarves (Dwarves)
Dunedain (Gondor, Arnor (if you play as Eriador and conquers specific settlements as well as is allied with Gondor, you get to become Arnor))
Followers of Melkor (Mordor, Isengard, Orcs of Gundabad, Orcs of the Misty Mountains, Harad, Rhûn)
There is also The Dark Lord of Mordor, which is unplayable and works as a pope for the evil factions. He resides in an unreachable part of the campaign map.
I have won a campaign with Rhûn. I'm currently playing a Dwarf campaign. I tried a Mordor campaign but it didn't work out very well. While the nazgûl are fantasically good soldiers, most of Mordor's armies are made up of orcs, and orcs are just crappy fighters. In my Dwarven campaign when faced with pure infantry armies, I defeateed orc armies four times as big as my army. The Dwarves have some of the best heavy infantry in Middle Earth but no cavalry (thought you can hire a few Dale mercenary cavalrymen) and very little ranged troops.
Crusades in the original game are replaced by Invasions. Basically, Sauron orders the evil factions to take a particular settlement. The Ring can also be found (there are occasional reports of the Ring being kept by a general in a specific city), and if an evil faction take the Ring to some location in Mordor then they willl get Sauron in person to fight for them, an extremely powerful unit. If Moria is besieged, a Balrog will appear to help defend it.
A change from the original game is that allies can't attack eacgh other. They must first break their alliance with a diplomat. I think this is a very good change as the AI will then not suddenly backstab you for no reason whatsoever.
It is very fun and addictive! If you like LOTR I encourage you to check it out!
Quite simply, you play a faction from the Middle Earth world, with the goal of conquering the provinces and defeating the factions the faction in question is associated with. It uses the culture system from the Britannia campaign, and the cultures and factions are as follow:
Northmen (Rohan, Free Peoples of Eriador, Dale)
Elves (High Elves, Silvan Elves)
Dwarves (Dwarves)
Dunedain (Gondor, Arnor (if you play as Eriador and conquers specific settlements as well as is allied with Gondor, you get to become Arnor))
Followers of Melkor (Mordor, Isengard, Orcs of Gundabad, Orcs of the Misty Mountains, Harad, Rhûn)
There is also The Dark Lord of Mordor, which is unplayable and works as a pope for the evil factions. He resides in an unreachable part of the campaign map.
I have won a campaign with Rhûn. I'm currently playing a Dwarf campaign. I tried a Mordor campaign but it didn't work out very well. While the nazgûl are fantasically good soldiers, most of Mordor's armies are made up of orcs, and orcs are just crappy fighters. In my Dwarven campaign when faced with pure infantry armies, I defeateed orc armies four times as big as my army. The Dwarves have some of the best heavy infantry in Middle Earth but no cavalry (thought you can hire a few Dale mercenary cavalrymen) and very little ranged troops.
Crusades in the original game are replaced by Invasions. Basically, Sauron orders the evil factions to take a particular settlement. The Ring can also be found (there are occasional reports of the Ring being kept by a general in a specific city), and if an evil faction take the Ring to some location in Mordor then they willl get Sauron in person to fight for them, an extremely powerful unit. If Moria is besieged, a Balrog will appear to help defend it.
A change from the original game is that allies can't attack eacgh other. They must first break their alliance with a diplomat. I think this is a very good change as the AI will then not suddenly backstab you for no reason whatsoever.
It is very fun and addictive! If you like LOTR I encourage you to check it out!