THIRD AGE: TOTAL WAR is a high-quality fan-made mod for MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR and its expansion KINGDOMS (which is needed to make the mod work). It is free of charge for various copyright-related reasons.
THIRD AGE is set approximately fifty years before the events of LORD OF THE RINGS and depicts a War of the Ring that occurs somewhat differently to the one in the books. In this conflict the forces of 'Good' (Gondor, Rohan, Dale, Eriador, the Sylvan Elves, the High Elves and the Dwarves) are at war with the forces of 'Evil' (Harad, Isengard, Rhun, Mordor and the Orcs of the Misty Mountains). Each faction has a different objective, usually involving holding strategic locations and destroying one particular enemy faction.
Gameplay takes place in the traditional TOTAL WAR format. A grand strategic map of Middle-earth is shown, from which the player can upgrade cities and recruit, assemble and move armies and special agents like spies, assassins and diplomats. When armies from different factions meet, or when an army assaults an enemy-held city, the game shifts to a 3D battle-map where the player can control the battle in real-time.
THIRD AGE employs superior AI scripts to present a more challenging game than the standard MEDIEVAL II set-up (where the AI is somewhat mentally retarded), not to mention making some important changes to how alliances work. Whilst in MEDIEVAL II members of the same side can backstab one another, this is no longer possible in THIRD AGE, so Gondor can now concentrate on fending off the endless legions of Mordor without worrying if Rohan is suddenly going to start attacking it. Of course, the player has the freedom of choice, so if YOU choose to start attacking your allies, that's up to you ;-)
Overall, the quality of the mod is very high. The unit artwork is fantastic, and the modders have pushed the engine to the limit to be able to include things like Mumakil and Trolls. Seeing vast hordes of orcs charging at solidly-packed lines of Gondorian pikemen outside the walls of Osgiliath whilst thousands of arrows whistle overhead is genuinelly impressive, and recalls the epic battles from the books and movies.
Presentation is of a very high quality, with new animated movies, completely new (and often superb) voice-work and some great music, some of it original and some rather dubiously lifted from the film soundtracks (apparently the copyright-holding powers that be are aware of the project and have chosen not to shut it down, at least so far).
THIRD AGE: TOTAL WAR neither looks nor plays like an amateur-made fan-mod, but instead like a fully-authorised and professionally-made game. It is, in short, brilliant, and certainly worth a download if you own MEDIEVAL II and KINGDOMS.
The game is also still being updated, although it is fully playable at the moment. The last patch added the Balrog to Moria, making capturing that settlement considerably more challenging, whilst the next patch adds a Fellowship of the Ring mode (where you guide the Fellowship across Middle-earth in a route based on the books rather than fighting in mass wars) and will rework the weak faction of Eriador, which is currently a hodge-podge of units from Bree, the Rangers of the North and the Shire; the new version will allow for the more formidable Kingdom of Arnor to re-emerge if certain conditions are met.
Yea I played this mod some time ago, haven't had a
chance to download any new updates, but the mod is
very well done, lots of fun if you enjoy the Total War
series or Tolkien and dreamed of conquoring...errr liberating
Middle Earth.
I played as Gondor and had a fun time fending off Mordors
never ending waves of orcs. It gave a good feel of the
desperation they would have felt.
Thanks for this info. I am thinking of picking up Total War - Rome and Medieval II soon.
I'm having great fun playing the Rohirrim..Stomping Uruk-Hai flat with massed cavalry charges ..perfect
BTW it's up to V3.2 now