How to run mods for Medieval 2

This guide is somewhat self explanatory, since I see there appears to be a lot of confusion of this particular aspect of medieval 2, I thought I'd make a guide on it. On this guide, I will cover several ways to launch mods for Medieval 2.

Method 1: Making your own "kingdoms.exe"

As you've probably noticed (if you've tried to launch a mod from it's application) most mods will give you an error that says it could not find a valid kingdoms.exe application (or something along those lines). Easily one of the simplest solutions to this issue is to make your own "kingdoms.exe" application. Here's how:

1. Find your medieval 2 application. If you've downloaded it from steam, it should be located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War. In this folder, you should see an application that looks like this: https://gyazo.com/01210a3ec8bfe438bce37f56bd8fa493

2. Right click on "medieval2" (it might be labeled as "medieval2.exe"). Hit "copy" and create a duplicate of the file in the same folder.

3. Take your duplicate file and rename it to "kingdoms" (don't change the .exe if it's present) once you're done, you should see two applications, like this: https://gyazo.com/011fe552c370f6a2ebf154a8803f2a7e

4. Launch your mod.
Important note: For mods that require a Large Address Aware (Divide and Conquer, Third Age Reforged, etc. You should run the LAA on this application as well as the original medieval2 application

Method 2: Nerd Strategy

Of all of the methods for launching mods, this is probably the trickiest. Here's how it's done:

1. Go to your steam library, find "Medieval 2" right click on it and select properties. Like this[gyazo.com]

2. On the "Properties" tab select "SET LAUNCH OPTIONS"[gyazo.com]. When you do, it'll bring up a menu, type this into it:
--features.mod=mods/Third_Age_Reforged. (Change the "Third_Age_Reforged" to the name of the folder of whatever mod you're trying to launch.

4. Click "OK" then exit the tab.

5. The next time you launch medieval 2 normally, it should launch your mod with it. You will have to get rid of the launch options if you want to play normal medieval 2 again.

Method 3: Trickery Strategy

This is a simpler and more well-known strategy for getting mods to work. The steps are quite simple:

1. Find your mod folder, you should be able to find it under "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War\mods".

2. Find one of the kingdoms expansions mod folders, these are "americas", "teutonic", "crusades" and "british_isles".

3. Rename one of the kingdoms expansions folders, as an example, get the "americas" folder and rename it to "realamericas" or "thisisamericas". It doesn't matter what you rename it to, as long as you can remember that that's the "americas" folder.

4. Find your mod folder. If you're launching Third Age Reforged it should look something like this[gyazo.com].

5. Rename your mod folder to "americas" (or whichever kingdoms folder you changed the name of).

6. Now, when you click "PLAY" on medieval 2, select the kingdoms expansion[gyazo.com] that your mod is now called. E.g: if I renamed "Third_Age_Reforged" to "americas" I would select the americas campaign. If I renamed it to "teutonic" I would select the teutonic campaign etc.

7. Now you can play your mod.

If you want to play the original kingdoms expansion again, you have to rename the mod that your currently using to what it was originally called (it doesn't matter if it's the exact name but just call it something you can keep track of), then take the renamed kingdoms expansion folder and rename it to it's original name. As an example, "realamericas" would become "americas".

[Voxhales]

Also make sure the executable is placed in the right place - should be in the same location as med2 executable

[Voxhales]

Might still be named incorrectly - executable should just be named "kingdoms" (the .exe should stay hidden for most people)

[advancedcapital]

Tried all three for the GoT Final Mod version. It still can't find the kingdoms.exe file :(

[Voxhales]

To add on to my previous comment about Large Address Aware, it's basically a tool that lets the M2 application use more RAM. Most mods don't need it and for those that do it'll be included so unless your running one of those mods you don't need to worry about it.

[Voxhales]

LAA - Large Address Aware

Once you've created a kingdoms exe file, you should be able to launch the mods through launchers inside of the mod's files, if the mod has no launcher you can either make one, which is not horrendously hard and you can find a guide on how to do it in total war forums (unfortunately I cant remember the process off the top of my head) or you can switch to another method, such as renaming the folder. Hope this helps

[niccodigge]

also what is LAA

[niccodigge]

if i set kingdoms.exe in the main Medieval 2 folder, how do i launch the mod anyway? my mods folders only have data and packs folder idk why

[ThiccBoiThuggin]

Stainless Steal gets an actual launcher. You can still download manually but the launcher works well and has been around for a while. I've always used the launcher, hasn't caused me issues, so I can't speak on how well manual DLs of SS work.

Some other mods get a launcher too.
Third Age (Or at least the Divide and Conquer submod)
Lucium Total War does too, if I remember correctly
For most others, temporarily renaming to one of the Expansions for Kingdoms works well
Mods that get a launcher don't have to do this

[Flightless]

Tried the manual method and nothing changed, then tried the nerd strategy which opened stainless steel and closes immediately

[Voxhales]

I haven't heard of anything like that before unfortunately - could you give me a few details on how it happens? Does the game crash or just the LAA?