The Best Vanilla-style Mod for Medieval 2 Total War - Total Vanilla Beyond 

love this mod, its lightweight and fun. big bonus that I don't need to wait like 2 minutes when waiting for next turn

for anyone wondering about where the Teutonic faction is, it has been implemeted into the Holy Roman Empire, Templar structures give you acces to Teutonic knights,and i think that is cool

One weird thing about this mod. I played as the apache and for some reason all the European nations (plus the moors) would take armies to my land and just keep them there doing nothing. They didn't declare war, they didn't do anything they just kept several stacks near my cities doing nothing. And at some point they turn rebel, it's hilarious

Nice review. Please do Insularis Draco next! Absolutely amazing mod that I was really surprised at the level of historical detail and polish, really something else

I honestly prefer vanilla beyond to ss6.4. One thing I will say is that world conquest can be very varied in difficulty. Tbf I've only managed it twice on the mod. It's a very fun mod and the AI are certainly not always stupid like they can often be in vanilla medieval 2

Thanks mate! keen as to go crazy with this mod, after all these years this game just gets better each passing one!

You can really stretch out base game metagaming in this mod. A couple years ago I played as the Emirate of Damascsus and ended up in the 1300s owning the Middle East, Balkanizing the Balkans into a mess of constantly feuding factions I raid, and facing off the Mongols from the Zagros to the Hindu Kush with armies of musketeers. An early expedition into Central America resulted in riches beyond measure from dozens of gold merchants ... and 3-4 siege battles a turn against multiple Aztec doomstacks grinding down your expeditionary forces, limited garrison levies and local mercenaries over decades of attritional warfare. AL Kuds elite cavalry worn down from 60 men to 1. Never finished the campaign, but it's a great sandbox to play around in if not historically polished.

Great video Gudea, showing pros and cons of the mod. I had to smile tho when you mentioned being able to conquer the New World in the 11th century but got bothered by other historical inaccuracies :D I still got what you mean :) This mod is indeed a lot of fun, especially in hotseat.

I was expecting a little bit of more information about the units balance and things like pikes being actually working in this mod contrary to vanilla where pikemen drop their pikes and go into melee when they get into contact.

I played it after watching your top 10 mods video. Very fun, I played as the English and my arch nemesis was the HRE ftom early to mid-end game. The AI continuously attacked me and I was on the back foot in the beginning. There were at least 20 battles and 5-6 sieges around Bruges. It really felt as if 2 giant states were warring with each other. The French got the worst of it, they declared war while my armies were gathering around Caen for a counter offensive and caught the majority of the french armies inside their cities. In 6-7 turns I was down to Toulouse and Marseille. Very fun mod

The best campaign map after EB 2s map out there for med 2 ! The only thing that bothers me is that America is very easy reachable .

Hey Gudea. Have you tried/heard about the Asia Remake submod for vanilla beyond? It removes Ireland and adds a faction in Asia + adds/removes some settlements + few new scripts. If possible, would appreciate an installation guide video!

I love mods but I think that it is time for medieval 3! Do you have any information about it? Great videos!

All I need to know; do the Byzzies get their Firethrowers from Kingdoms?

This is my favourite m2tw mod and theres lots of role playing options. I’ve been playing as Sicily and as part of my campaign I’ve formed my own crusader states in the levant. What’s cool is that you can recruit outremer troops If you hold Jerusalem, acre, tripoli, Antioch and edessa. Meanwhile I’ve controlled all of Italy apart from Rome and have allied with the pope to hold the north against the HRE and France. In North Africa I’m dealing with several moorish stacks with templars and hospitallers. Not a very historically accurate mod but lots of fun so would recommend.

Well, I have a great sympathy for mods like that BUT...huge but as you can see... ...I really can't go back to them after the massive overhauls of Bulat Steel or Deus Lo Vult or the rising mod of Tsardoms or my all time lover Europa Barbarorum 2... Really your love for the game must me double sized than mine in order for you to can play those low key mods ...

Thank you very much

Azumi did an amazing job with these 2 mods, Total Vanilla Beyond is essentially vanilla extended, where as Total Bananas is a mash of all expansion campaigns into one

Subbed this mod is pretty interesting I'll try it out I'll be playing the abbasids i don't remember them being in vanilla kingdoms?

the link to mega on this website doesn't work, do you know how can I download it in another way?

Does anyone know if there will be a medieval 3 total war or not?

Yesterday i download both stainless steel 1.6 and also SSHIP 1.8 - tried them both out and both were too demanding on my laptop (Ryzen 7, 16 gb ram, vega 7 graphics, SSD). Scrolling the map even right at the start was sluggish and i knew it wasn't going to work out. Also the SSHIP 1.8 doesn't have a late campaign, just an early campaign and well, i like the later units so it was a non starter. Both mods very impressive however. What i really wanted was just a simple mod that added more cities. I looked around for other such mods and found the kingdoms mod and this one, the vanilla beyond (now version 3.6) mod. I havn't tried the kingdoms mod yet but i did try this one and i like it. Yes it has a bigger map but runs just fine and as a bonus has some extra factions. For me right now this is perfect.

The reason there are a few inconsistencies in names might be because the maker has English as a second language. I can't fault them for that, it's more 100% more languages than I can speak. If I can offer some criticism for this video? I don't feel like you really talked about what the mod was about. You mention that it's fast paced - okay, how? Compared to vanilla, or to other mods? You mention briefly that the Mongols have some scripted rewards; is that extensive feature of this mod, a lot more narrative guiding? How well is it integrated? Does it apply to other factions? We see new buildings, briefly, the shrines like from Rome 1; is the religion a big part of this game, how does it shake things up? Furthermore, what's the building system like, is it switched up and altered or is it just MORE? How do you think that effects the balance, does it give more choices for what your settlements do, or is it just more busywork? There's a lot of rebel settlements on that map, does it result in a long period of land grabs? You looked at the map and talked about 'hey it isn't historical, look, here's America' and said it was more vanilla styled, but you didn't actually talk about or review how the mod PLAYS. If this is a review, it's one that mentions the core components of the mod in passing; if it's a showcase, you only showed a map screen. Which makes this... what, an acknowledgement of the mod's existence and insight into it's historical accuracy or total lack thereof? What makes this the best vanilla styled mod? I don't mean to sound harsh. This video just didn't seem very informative, at least to me. I walk away from it still not really knowing why it's the best, because I don't feel like I really understand it any better.

I like this mod but somehow the financial settings dont work I always get stuck at 50k and it stops climbing although nothing changed, weird

Did you changed the channels icon???

This is the mod I was looking for, adding on vanilla mode while keeping the simplicity I enjoy. And most importantly is easy to install and hasnt crashed for me yet. I have a question however, in battle mode I noticed I cant drag a box to select units and draw formations, has anyone had this issue? Edit: Nevermind I guess it came back, needed exit game I believe

link is dead. can you give me another link to dwnld the mod?

How to download it or activate it pleas

Subbing because the way inconsistencies and historicity matter to you is exactly the same as me.

I played a "Indians" versus Indians campaign as the Apache with this mod once. I wouldn't really call the mod a Vanilla Type Experience. Particularly with the heavy scripting behind the mongol faction.

No Wales, it's a pity, I love their excellent spearman.

Do a mod overview for Lucium

This is a nice mod. I remember one time I invaded the Aztecs with an Islamic army consisting of Moorish units and Christian mercenaries as well as Native auxiliaries and Turkic horsemen. It was a really unusual match up. :)

Are the timurids an emergent faction?

a wierd thing, i played well into the 200 turns and still no gunpowder

the problem is it is only EARLY campaign, so no cannons till it is too late...

Idk why, but one of the absolute wins in this it's how it chances between factions You got medieval set with one with another You have fricking Rome 1 Total war music playing as the Bizantines

there is a 3.6 version now

No Wales :sad:

what about ai

I like everything about this mod apart from America being spitting distance from Iberia and available from turn 1 with crappy ships. I don't like the look of that feature.

First

this mod is the best one， Hope to add Russian Cossack musketeers to Mongols，this simple change will be great!!!

I learnt basically nothing in this except that you have minor grievances with a few historical inaccuracies. This tells me nothing about the mod and somehow took 10 minutes...

how do you install the mod