Medieval II Total War: Kingdoms MOD Review...RAGE OF THE DARK GODS

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, BLOOD FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

I'm Rosco the Rock and Roll Clown, follower of Khorne AND I DO COCAINE!

Hello all! Bout time I posted another game review. Today I go back to Medieval II Total War...Call of Warhammer (Now called Rage of the Dark Gods) Mod. It's been out for awhile now it was only about 4 months ago did I play this on my room mates computer. Sure enough my love of total and war and passion of warhammer...become one...and it was glorious!

First off, I just want to add that there is a patch, 1.5 I believe where they have corrected most of the bugs. Created by SiCh Modding Team at http://www.moddb.com/mods/call-of-warhammer-total-war. They have created the best Warhammer Fantasy game in my opinion that blows away Battle March and the other shitty RTS look alike of LoTR Battle for Middle Earth. Alright, let's begin with the concept/context of the modded game.
Concept and Context

This is still Hilarious.

The game is focused on the Storm of Chaos campaign (i.e. Archeon of the End Times, chosen of all the four chaos gods marches into the Empire and fucks SHIT UP). Well not exactly, anyway mod centers around  Storm of Chaos, roughly 20 years before Archeon unifies the Chaos Wastes. The object of the game, just like all other Total War games is to win the campaign by controlling a set amount of cities and regions along with specific regions and cities. When you begin a campaign, you can either choose a short campaign, long campaign, or domination (where you have to control everything). Just like all the Total War games, you choose from multiple factions. In the case of Rage of the Dark Gods you can choose from any of the Empire principalities/baronys (ex. Reikland, Ostermark, Middenland, etc), any of the 4 chaos factions (Nurgle, Khorne, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch), Karaz Ankor (dwarves), orcs, night goblins, dark elves, high elves, border prince confederacy, beastmen, skaven, sylvania, and chaos dwarves. You begin with your faction leader and a certain amount of cities and land. Each faction has their own objectives in the game. There is a lot of in game lore, the team really committed themselves to this project and added, close to everything there is to know about Warhammer lore which is great and emerges the player in world.
The Factions:
The Grand Principality of Reikland and all other Empire provinces.

The venerable Karl Franz I, elected emperor of the Empire leads this faction. Like all the other Imperial provinces, you all start off with a faction leader, usually a Count or Baron. For the Reikland, they have the best general and warrior in the Empire. Wielding Ghal Maz, the Runefang of the Reikland, and enchanted full plate; leading veteran knights of the Reikland; Emperor Karl is a serious badass (especially if you get a mod patch that increases all generals skills and other stuff).

General Vader, Sir! The Rebel Scum have crossed the Potomac.

The Reikland's capital is Castle Reikguard, home of the knightly order of the Reiksguard. However, you also control the recognized capital of the Empire of Altdorf. Like I said before, you can play as the other counts and their lands, but for simplicity's sake I'll put my review on all of them in one category. In the campaign, the entire Empire is united. You cannot break any alliances to take cities and increase your army size and revenue (though you can allow some of your allies cities to fall and capture it for yourself >:p). You primarily will be dealing with Orcs, Beastmen, and rebels....GODDAMN REBELS. WHERE IS THE REBEL BASE!
Yeah...you go insane from all the damn rebel armies spawning in your lands along with full stacked armues Beastmen and Orcs. After about 20 or so years, Archeon will march down and all hell breaks loose. You thought full stacks of beastmen and orcs was bad...try full stacks of chaos armies...especially khorne and chaos warriors. But, the Empire is a solid force. They are a well, balanced army with large regiments of spearmen and halberdmen; lines of handgunners to mow down REBEL SCUM; powerful knights with lances; battle wizards; light cavalry outriders; and CANNONS CANNONS VOLLEYGUN. The Empire is, in my opinion the MOST balanced army complementing all sectors of a human army. Fun to play, but the campaign can get difficult, especially if your allies around you begin to fall or you suck at battles  :p.

The Divided Chaos Cults

Rape, written all over it.

Khorne begins in the Chaos Waste, along with Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch. Khorne however begins closest to the southern border, a few days march into Northern Kislev. Khorne is the most powerful army in the game, with pure, red hatred. As you conquer the petty marauder camps nearby, you step into Tzeentch's territory; beyond that (continuing west on the campaign map) is Nurgle; and finally is Slaanesh. Depending on what your difficulty and the addition of random computer movements, you can find Slaanesh or Nurgle already creeping on your borders...I played the Khorne campaign first and I was like "WHOA WHOA WHOA. Not cool bro, here's my army of CHAOS WARRIORS, KNIGHTS, AND BLOODLETTERS MUAHAHAHAHA!

I really need this...

 Needless to say, playing as Khorne, or any of the Chaos Factions in the north is pretty fun and brutal. Sure, they are really good, but they're REALLY expensive. So taking over the Old World only makes sense to build up and maintain the upkeep for your army. Also, once you defeat the other chaos factions, it will trigger the Storm of Chaos which summons Crom the Herald of Archeon and Archeon himself with 2 massive armies. Once the Storm of Chaos comes, it's time to wreck face and chew Big Chew.
Chaos Dwarves, good dwarves, border princes confederacy, orcs, night goblines, skaven, undead, dark elves, and high elves.
I have yet to play the other factions, but I have seen gameplay of them like the elves for instance...MY GOD are they fast. But, I will say this. These factions are slightly harder to play, as you are scattered around the Old World and attacking enemy cities will instigate their allies to wage war against you, which sort of sucks, but provides money and SLAUGHTER!

Gameplay and Mechanics
The game is exactly like all Total War games. Consisting of 2 parts to a turn, the first part is a turn-based campaign map that allows the user to move armies across provinces, control agents, diplomacy, religion, and other tasks needed to run their faction, and a real-time battlefield, where the player directs the land battles and sieges that occur. In the turn-based campaign map (which of course has fog of war), this is where the bulk of the game is played as you build structures in your cities like farms, barracks etc; troops and weapon upgrades. A lot of micro-managing...like SHIT TON. If you have not played ANY Total War game, I would advise you to play a few original games before DLing mods. Continuing on, the the campaign map encompasses the entire Old World. Just like Medieval Total War and MTW II, where the campaign map was the entire medieval Europe or Shogun Total War I & II, where it was the entire country of Japan; the map is huge and very detailed and accurate. Like I said before, this is a orgy of micro-management put into digital form (You thought Sim City was micro gaga...haha I feel sorry for you). For instance, if you just build your army up and your cities, but ignore the roads. Your giant, well equipped armies will be bogged down as they are walking over a basic dirt road...and yes when it rains it gets muddy, which means horses and carriages carrying your shit will get stuck. Diplomacy is something you really don't care for in this mod. Unlike the original TW games, making alliances means TRADE PARTNERS=INCREASED REVENUE. Just like other TW games, there are agents you send around to scout the map and keep tabs on your allies and enemies Use some of these to keep the peace in cities, finding mines, and assassinate other armies' generals. Once again, most of your time will be on the campaign map, where you strategize your plan of attack or defense.
Now, as most of your time will be on the campaign map, I truly believe it is the battles that make the Total War series. Large-scale, epic scenery, detailed units, awesome weapon effects is what makes the battles the most enjoyable. It is typical face off battles, though you can fight at night which is really cool as you see hundreds holding torches as they charge into battle, and sometimes the enemy or even you can outflank at the before the battle. In MTW, the battles were great. Still based off the old Rome: Total War engine and Shogun Engine, but revamped after in the sequel, the battles were very well put together and fluid. Obviously there were some anomalies and glitches, but that is expected for this older game. In terms of combat for each factions, it's pretty straight forward. Engage the enemy to your advatage, flank, feint, kill their general(s), and rout them. Continuing the battle after the pop up saying "You are VIctorius" is always good, as it will completely destroy that army on the campaign map. Controlling units and organizing units are the same as the original MTW II where you can group companies on 1 hot key etc. Obviously if you ever played any Total War game, this should be a quick stroll in the walk depending on the difficuly of the CPU. BTW, the CPU in this game when played at Hard and up is really good. One fuck up, you're fucked unless you can micro smoothly and efficiently.
Graphics and Skins/Texture
 Not much I can really say, but damn good skins and texture. Not to mention the graphics of each unit's attack and movement.






Here's a video of a buddy I know and who I used to play Rome Total War, Empire Total War, and Medieval Total II with:

 

First episode of his Khorne playthrough, He's a pretty decent player as he utilizes simple and basic strategies to win, not to mention his Chaos army rapes :p

There are a few bugs still not corrected, the last time I played, but overall the game is solid as a stand alone. If you want to play as specifically the Dark Elves or the High Elves you can in another mod, created by the same team (The Sundering: Rise of the Witch King). For Ty, Kile, Rob, and Luke you guys should def give a try I know you guys would love it.

My Ratings:

Context/Concept: 10/10

Gameplay/Mechanics: 8/10

Graphics/Skins: 9/10

Replay Value: 9/10

Community Help: 7/10

Overall Rating: 8/10

It's fucking awesome, especially if you miss Warhammer tabletop.