Napoleon Total War "Total factions-mod"

I'm a big fan of Napoleon Total War, the game is everything Empire Total War failed to be, and it is set in one of my favorite eras. Besides Medieval 2 total war this is the TW game I've played the most. And after beating it with all faction I found out that there is a mod that unlocks all nations in the game. Both major nations that can be played outside of the campaign (such as Sweden) but also all emergent nations like Poland. The difficulty is set pretty damn high for these unlocked factions as they often start out with 1 single region surrounded by enemies.

You can download the mod here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=357320

Installation and activation of the mod is simple. It has a self installer, just make sure you mark the Napoleon Total War folder as the install destination (you might need to "browse" and click on it to make it work even if it is the default install destination). After the installation you don't have to move any files around or edit any ini. files as the mod has its own launcher and self extracts all the necessary files every time you play it - and removes all such files (except for saves) when you quit so you can play the vanilla NTW without interference.

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So I fired up a Polish campaign to see how things would work out. Started with a single region - "Greater Poland" with Warsaw as its capital and no troops or generals. As such the campaign could be interpreted as one of the many uprisings after the 3rd partition in 1795. The situation was less than ideal with neighbors such as Austria, Prussia, Russia and Hungary. Hungary started out friendly but soon got sour as they allied themselves with Austria which was being marked as "hostile". I made sure to build a small army fast as hell and was pleasantly surprised that the mod makers had included famous Polish generals such as Kosciuszko and Dabrowski.
Recruited Kosciuszko and imagined this would be his second uprising attempt following the failed one in 1794. I attacked Prussia with my small army and took Danzig and Königsberg. Prussia was joined by Russia, Austria and soon Hungary in a war against me. So I did my best to blitz the Prussian armies with my small and reduced strength army and only managed to beat the Prussians by having four 6pdr foot artillery batteries at my disposal (though this made movement on the campaign map slow). Asked Prussia for peace which was agree upon I had to turn back from the Danzig area and race towards Königsberg where the Russians were knocking at its door with a fresh army - beat that one as well which left my only army in a very poor state but still undefeated.

I thought I would get some rest as my lands were clear of enemies, one month later Hungary and Austria march in one full army each into my territory from the south and move towards Warsaw. God damn!

Thus began the battle of Warsaw which would be 4 battles. The Warsaw garrison was too weak to break the siege of its own, but also a bit too good to allow for a automatic victory for the Hungarian army laying siege to it. The Austrians were camped nearby as well making any attack on one army result in having the other come to its aid. My own army was still in awful condition. I figured I would have to afford to make battle with the Austrians, this way not risking any of the Warsaw garrison coming to my aid, try to beat them up and withdraw before the Hungarians arrived.

The plan worked, camped on high ground with a adequate but weak line of infantry and  a couple of weak hussar regiments and saw both armies march towards my position. The Hungarians were still far away when the Austrians hit my lines. Cavalry tried to storm before I reached positions with all infantry so I formed squares and fought them off, sent out my hussars to destroy their long range riflemen and withdraw behind my lines as the Austrian line infantry closed in. Welcomed them with canister shots from my artillery and tied them up with line infantry along the frontline. Austrian general was killed which reduced the morale of his army so I sallied forth and broke it in close combat. The Hungarians were now very close , their skirmishers firing at my infantry chasing the Austrians so I started to withdraw what remained of my army. My hussars left last, and before leaving chased down 2 units of Hungarian riflemen.

The battle ended a Polish defeat but the Austrian army was destroyed. My own army pretty much as well but managed to retreat to a free Polish region where it started replenish its ranks. Waited 2 turns to at least get above half strength with all units before I went back and attacked the Hungarians which were 1 turn away from winning the siege of Warsaw. Not too hard a victory now that they were alone but I still only had one single half strength army so I could not risk any unnecessary casualties. Finally beaten, the siege of Warsaw was lifted. Finaly I thought. Winter came just 1 turn after that, the freezing cold inflicted attrition casualties to all troops in the field so I moved my army into the city. Of course the Austrians had one last army in reserve which they threw at me which resulted in the 4th and final battle for the capital. This time my army was reinforced by the units that had been in the garrison so the forces were even strength. I had not to worry as much. The Austrian army was defeated and my hussar regiments chased down as many fleeing troops as they could. The money spent on artillery and hussars early in the campaign was a sound investment as I had better chances of winning in defense and managed to chase down large amounts of fleeing troops so I didn't have to fight remnants in follow up battles or have raids in my regions by shattered armies.

First year of my campaign saw the expansion of territory with 2 regions and something like 8 major battles where my single army led by Kosciuszko managed to pull it off.
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The mod is really interesting as the stakes are higher and default starting locations are very difficult for all emergent factions. Which is good, the total war games are always most fun at the early beginning of your campaign when every battle matters and could either win or lose you nation. As you get stronger and more invincible its not as much fun. I don't see that happening anytime soon in my campaign as Napoleon has yet to declare war on the coalition and Austria and Russia will be a problem pretty soon again. Prussia is keeping their peace for now at least, they could have taken the opportunity and recaptured Danzig as it was left unprotected during my battles near Warsaw but they didn't.

If you are a fan of Napoleon Total War this Total Factions mod is really worth checking out. If you are a fan of the Napoleonic period but like me would never be able to start and collect a huge army for tabletop gaming than Napoleon Total War is a pretty damn good substitute!