Modules (or mods, for short) in Field of Glory II (whether Ancients or Medieval) definitely create some new variety to the games!
I design and publish them a lot myself and apply them when fighting out the battles in the campaigns that I run, to allow for new army lists, units, and so on.
The Dark Ages Britain Mod created by Schweetness101 (all credit to him!) takes it one step further and really makes it total overhaul through implementing new rules and mechanics in order to fit the warfare of the time period and region in question. It's a masterpiece! 🙂 Unfortunately it's very large (several GB's), too large to be available for in-game download. That's why (among other things) I have condensed it in the Danelaw mod with just a selected number of armies, units, banners, and so on, albeit of course keeping all the changed rules and mechanics. Hopefully then Slitherine will agree to upload it to allow for in-game download. Otherwise, it can be installed through other means (simple, but not as simple as an in-game download... 🙂 ).
Field of Glory II: Ancients and Medieval allow for in-game download of available mods (see Ancients example below) through a straightforward procedure as follows:
1. Press the 'Download community scenarios' button:
2. Select the mod to be downloaded, and finally press the 'Download the selected campaign' button:
3. The applicable folder and its contents will be automatically copied into your game folders, available for use. Voilá!
Where within your game folders is the applicable folder and its contents then placed? Well...
... If you have a PC, you'll find folders as follows, under Documents, with single-player modules (i.e., those to be fought against AI as custom battles or similar) are placed in the CAMPAIGNS folder and multi-player modules in the MULTIPLAYER folder.
As an example below, I've got the DANELAW module in a folder (containing all relevant files) in CAMPAIGNS for single-player use:
The contents look like this (same principle applies for multi-player of course, only that the folder is then located in the MULTIPLAYER folder above, maybe but not necessarily with a different folder name (e.g., MP_DANELAW) but with the same contents):
Please note though that you have to download single-player (SP) and multi-player (MP) versions separately!
If you then want to play a single-player battle against the AI, you do as follows (step 1 applies even if not using any mods):
1. Select Battles and then Custom Battle in-game (like when setting up any single-player battle)
2. Press the 'Select another module' button:
2. Select which mod to use and press the 'Launch' button:
3. Voilá (again)! You're good to go:
In order to create a multi-player challenge using a mod, it's as follows (steps 1 and 2 apply even if not using any mods):
1. Select MULTIPLAYER, and after having entered the Multiplayer Lobby, press the 'New Challenge' button within the My Challenges tab.
2. Press the 'Create Skirmish' button.
3. Like for SP, press the 'Select another module' button, select the mod to use, and press the 'Launch' button (see pictures from SP above).
4. Voilá x 3.
5. The challenge is then automatically set up like any other challenge with the other player picking it up like any other challenge.
That other player must also have the mod downloaded of course!
Now, if the mod is too large to be available for in-game download, it can instead be manually 'installed' through e.g., downloading the folder and its contents from e.g. Google Drive in zipped format (such as 7z) where the mod creator has put it, then unzipped and extracted, with the extracted folder and its contents manually copied into the folders specified above (CAMPAIGNS for single-player and MULTIPLAYER for multi-player).
The end-result will be and look the same, like for an in-game download. 🙂
Important for all of the above (and below): never mess with or change any of the mod folders or files once downloaded and installed!
Especially in MP, that would ruin the integrity and compatibility of the mod version (corrupting it and making it differ from other players' versions) and thus prohibit any multiplayer games. If it nevertheless happens (as it can and will, by accident), then manually remove the folder messed with (and of course all of its contents) from the MULTIPLAYER folder and download a new uncorrupted version (whether manually or through in-game download).