Modding Portal

Welcome to Modding on the TWC Wiki

All the Total War Series games are modifiable to an extent, but the ease, scope and manner of possible modifications varies between the games. The popularity of the modifications has contributed to the Total War games' ongoing success.

This page is not the place to find modifications, please refer to each individual game portal or Category:Mods for that, here you will find links to advice on how to make your own modifications.

Modding on Total War Center

On TWC each game has its own Modding Workshop section and sections where mods can be posted and discussed, additionally;
TWC Downloads provides a categorised hosting facility for mods and tools, files up to 100mb can be hosted directly on TWC, larger files hosted off-site can be linked to from the download pages.
TWC's Mod Register is available to provide basic information about a mod together with useful links and a permission statement.
Modders can apply for Hosted Forums by contacting lolIsuck & Dismounted Feudal Knight.

Warscape Engine Modding Overview

TW Engine 3 with the graphic engine "Warscape" has been used for Total War titles from Empire: Total War onwards, there are similar tools and principles used in modding these games. Some, but not all, of the games benefit from Assembly Kit tools released by CA.

Official CA Warscape Modding Tips - at totalwar.com
Where to Start Guide - at totalwar.com

Total War: Three Kingdoms

Total War: Three Kingdoms benefits from an Assembly Kit released by CA, the kit includes Dave (for database editing), Terry (for battle map creation), BoB (for compilation of pack files), and the Variant Editor (for editing unit model collections), read more here. To find the kit go to the 'Tools' tab in your Steam account.

For further modding information see:

Total War: Three Kingdoms - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki for links to tutorials, useful answers to modding questions, tools and resources.
3K Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums to reply with questions about the tutorials etc. or add your own!
Three Kingdoms Modding Workshop - to ask modding questions.

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia has an Assembly Kit tool. Both PFM and Rusted Pack File Manager also offer Thrones of Britannia support.

For further modding information see:

Thrones of Britannia Modding Workshop - on TWC, and the Tools, Tutorials and Resources section

Total War: Warhammer I & II

Total War: Warhammer benefits from an Assembly Kit released by CA, view the quick start guide for Terry here. Please note that due to the Games Workshop licensing Warhammer has a more restrictive EULA for modding than the other titles, search "Modding Terms" here.

For further modding information see:

Total War: Warhammer - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki for links to tutorials, useful answers to modding questions, tools and resources.
Total War: Warhammer Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums
Total War: Warhammer Mod Workshop - to ask modding questions.

Total War: Attila

Total War: Attila has an Assembly Kit released by CA which incorporates Dave (for database editing), Terry (for battle map creation), BoB (for compilation of pack files) and TeD (for creation of individual battle-map tiles for land, sea and sieges). Terrain Raw Data was also released allowing tiles created with TeD to be placed on the campaign map, read more here.

For further modding information see:

Total War: Attila - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki
Total War: Attila Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums
Total War: Attila Mod Workshop - to ask modding questions

Total War: Rome II

Total War: Rome II has an Assembly Kit which includes Dave (for database editing), BoB (for compilation of pack files), and a Variant Editor (for editing the look of characters, units and ships), see the Guide to Rome II Assembly Kit.

This Modding Guide for Novices also provides a good starting point for new Rome II modders.

For further modding information see:

Total War: Rome II - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki
Total War: Rome II Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums
Total War: Rome II Mod Workshop - to ask modding questions

Total War: Shogun 2

Total War: Shogun 2 has an Assembly Kit which also allows for 'campaign map reprocessing', find more details about the kit here and see this guide for How to use the Official Modding Tools.

For further modding information see:

Total War: Shogun 2 - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki
Total War: Shogun 2 Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums
Total War: Shogun 2 Mod Workshop - to ask modding questions

Napoleon: Total War

Napoleon: Total War can be modified using user-created tools such as the Pack File Managers, there are no CA released tools for NTW.

For further modding information see:

Napoleon: Total War - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki
Napoleon: Total War Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums
Napoleon: Total War Mod Workshop - to ask modding questions

Empire: Total War

Empire: Total War can be modified using user-created tools such as the Pack File Managers. CA have not released any official tools for ETW.

For further modding information see:

Empire: Total War - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki
Empire: Total War Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums
Empire: Total War Mod Workshop - to ask modding questions

TW Engine 2 Overview

The TW Engine 2 was used for Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War, there are similar tools and principles used in modding these games. Compared to the Warscape games RTW and M2TW allow much greater modding potential including the possibility of making "Total Conversion" mods including completely new campaign maps.

Once familiar with modding one of the games you will find it relatively easy to mod the other. The methods for changing the campaign maps are almost identical and many text files such as export_descr_buildings.txt and export_descr_unit.txt which control unit recruitment are also almost identical. However, some recognisable files from RTW which still exist in the base M2TW files such as descr_daytypes.txt confusingly are not actually used by the M2TW game engine!

Medieval II: Total War

Medieval II: Total War allows easy modification of many elements by straightforward text editing. The campaign map for M2TW can be modified by altering .tga image files and text files. Battlemap unit models and settlement structures can be edited via user-created tools many of which export and import to Milkshape ms3d files.

M2TW provides a system of mod-foldering to help avoid over-writing the base files. Geomod is a recommended resource to start modding on a bare but fully functional mod-folder of your own.

The M2TW game engine provides an automated system for the generation of unit sprites, but not vegetation sprites, IWTE can be used to create vegetation sprites and amend the descr_vegetation.db which does not auto-regenerate. The descr_geography_new.db file can be made to re-generate but there are drawbacks.

For further modding information see:

Medieval II: Total War - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki
Medieval II: Total War Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums
Medieval II: Total War Mod Workshop - to ask modding questions

Rome: Total War

Rome: Total War allows easy modification by text editing for many elements such as; unit stats and recruitment, character traits and diplomacy. The campaign map for RTW can be modified by altering .tga image files and text files. Unit recruitment, character traits, diplomacy and many other aspects can be modified by changing text files. Battlemap unit models and settlement structures can be edited with the help of tools such as the CAS Importer/exporter for 3ds max (by Vercingetorix).

The RTW game engine provides an automated system for the generation of unit and vegetation sprites. The engine will also regenerate a modified descr_vegetation.db file and descr_items.db (for battle-map structures), the descr_geography.db file will not regenerate.

For further modding information see:

Rome: Total War - Modding Index - on TWC Wiki
Rome: Total War Tools, Tutorials and Resources section - on TWC Forums
Rome: Total War Mod Workshop - to ask modding questions

TW Engine 1 Overview

The TW Engine 1 was used for Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War.

Medieval: Total War

Medieval: Total War was the first readily 'moddable' Total War game.

For further modding information see:

Medieval Mod Workshop - on TWC Forums
M:TW Modification - Forum on the .org

Shogun: Total War

Shogun: Total War was the first-ever game in the Total War Series, it is widely regarded as being hard/impossible to mod. Some unit stats and other small matters can be altered if The Mongol Invasion expansion is used, but most modding efforts were concentrated on the more receptive next game in the series.

For further information see: