LOTR: Tales from the Age of Men

Tales from the Age of Men turns Bannerlord into Middle-earth near the end of the Third Age. It's a total conversion, so it replaces the map, factions and troops.

Links

• TAOM on Nexus Mods
• TAOM on ModDB (also hosts the full download)
• Official TAOM launcher (installs, patches and checks the files for you)
• TAOM Discord (the only official support channel)

Before you start

• Match the game version on the mod page. Set it in Steam under Properties > Betas. See Bannerlord Modding: Start Here.
• Steam or GOG only. The mod page says it does not work on the Xbox Game Pass version.
• Free up space. The full download is around 25 GB zipped, and more once unpacked.
• Delete any older TAOM folders from Modules first. Leftover files from an old version cause crashes.

Install

1. Download from Nexus, ModDB, or the official launcher. If the ModDB page keeps failing in your browser, use the launcher instead.
2. Unzip with 7-Zip. Inside Modules there are four folders: TAOM.Dependencies, LOTRLOME_Armory, TAOM_Map, TAOM.
3. Drop all four into your game's Modules folder.
4. Unblock the DLLs (see Start Here).
5. In the launcher, tick the four TAOM modules plus the official ones and launch.

The three things that break it

1. Doubled library mods. TAOM.Dependencies already contains Harmony, ButterLib, UIExtenderEx and MCM. If you also tick the standalone Harmony and MCM, they load twice and the game dies about 30 seconds into launch. Untick the standalone four when you play TAOM. You don't need to delete them; other mod lists can still use them.

2. War Sails. TAOM is not War Sails compatible. Untick the NavalDLC module. Any mod that requires War Sails (it says so on its page) has to go too.

3. Other total conversions. Don't tick Realm of Thrones or Empires of Europe at the same time. They can stay installed. To switch between them cleanly, see Two campaigns, one install.

Adding other mods

The TAOM team does not support third-party mods, so you're on your own here. Add them in small batches (see Start Here). Two lessons from real installs:

• DismembermentPlus can crash mid-battle when hitting TAOM's non-human races (trolls). If you keep it, turn off "AI can dismember" in Mod Options. Arrows and thrown weapons never trigger it.
• AI Influence works, but needs a small edit and new lore files. See AI Influence context packs.

How the campaign plays

Good to know before you sink hours in:

• There is no main quest. TAOM doesn't load Bannerlord's story mode. Book characters like Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli show up as companions you can recruit in taverns.
• The war is on a timer. Around day 30, Isengard and Dunland declare war on Rohan, and the wider War of the Ring follows. You can move that date in Mod Options ("Isengard Attack Timing").

Logs

TAOM writes its own log, taom_debug_<date>.log, into a bin\Win64_Shipping_Client\Logs folder. Search your game folder for taom_debug to find it.

Post that file plus the game's crash report (see crash fixing) when you ask for help in the Discord.