Scandia that is how Tacitus called this land.
First of all I would like to say that I don’t belong to the team of the modmakers. So that will be more like an independent opinion of Russian player who speaks decent English)
So here it goes)
The first thing you notice even before starting campaign is an impression. Some kind of mood that game creates from the very first seconds. Of course the lion's share of this moodcreating belongs to music. It is very authentic and peculiar but at the same time it is neither noisy nor tiring (listen to some EB barbarian soundtracks and you will understand what I mean)
The second thing you notice is game’s graphics. I can’t say that it is very impressive, there are still some imperfections but it dips you even deeper into the swampy atmosphere of “dark ages”. That peculiarity is linked with
the third thing you notice after half an hour playing this mod. A great historical rigor and scrupulosity. Follow my advice and right after the beginning of the campaign siege and assault the nearby rebel settlement. Though it will not have any fence its assault would be quite a challenge cause this settlement will be looking exactly as the real settlement should look and not like a bunch of huts put together. After that pay some attention to the units. If you meant to see picturesque warriors, knights in flaring and flashing metal armor as in Hollywood movies of Conan-style, heh, then welcome to the reality. Iron was extremely expensive that time and only the richest and the noblest of warriors could allow themselves to wear a chain mail and steel helmet while most of the soldiers managed the chaos of battle with bow or a crude axe or a flimsy spear, equipped in leather of fabrics clothes.
As I’ve said before: the ultimate goal of that mod is not only to entertain player but to make him feel like a warlord of the tribe of the “dark ages”. The ultimate goal of modmakers was to make the history of those times accessible to the players. And thought even historians know little about those times this team did and continues to do their best to achieve that goal. I’ve played this mod for only several hours and even now I’m rather impressed and I know that I’ve even more to discover. Of course there are lots of mods which can surpass that one in graphic or scale component but there are few of them whose creators payed so much attention to the historical atmosphere and to its gameplay.
Some more features of this mod
- Brand new faction balance
Lots of attention was payed to the development of brand new fraction balance. While in the vanilla game the point is to create comparatively equal fraction. So it would have been interesting for ordinary gamer to play each of them. Well it wasn’t so in real life. It is always much more cruel and unfair. Some nation always had an advantage in geographical position, natural recourses and many other factors which predetermined its future. But if you don’t have necessary recourses or enough area for development of your tribe it is not a reason to loose. It is Total War series, isn’t it? And all these modmakers tried to implement in that very mod. - Religion
Religion is vitally important both in peace and war. Especially in war, especially in times when almost every warlord was a high priest of his tribe. So praise the gods and perhaps true warriors will appear among the people or your tribe. - Brand new gameplay
The point is not to lead the player along the distinct historical route, but to let him choose the way of the development of his nation or to show him why it was so and not the other way.
And the most important ladies and gentlemen is that this mod is only a basis for a greater one Time of Changes. There are more to come. So if you always wanted to find out what had happened it those mysterious times, prepare a cup of hot coffee, turn of the light, fasten your seatbelts and plunge into the eventful and tough atmosphere of Dark Ages. The time Europe was born.
Of course feel free to ask any questions. I’ll try to answer them.