Third Age Total War

[Sp!at]

I've been on a bit of a quest over the last few months to find good fantasy strategy games while I'm waiting for Elemental to be finished. Came across an absolute gem of a mod called Third Age Total War.

Third Age: Total War - Total War Center Forums

or

Third Age - Total War mod - Mod DB

You need Medieval 2 Total War with the Kingdoms expansion, but the mod itself is totally free.

There are 12 playable factions. The map is Middle Earth and every unit has been re-made. Even some of the important locations have been made into battle maps.
When you play it each faction has its own specific strengths and weaknesses and it is a far better game than Medieval 2 ever was.

Here's a sample of some of the units in the game...