Bannerlord LOTR Co-op Setup: TAOM + Coop Mod Guide

I had to help my brother Gatzby and a few adventurers from the Guild set up Bannerlord LOTR co-op, so I wrote a quick guide.

The mod is Tales from the Age of Men (TAOM), a LOTR total conversion for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Add the Bannerlord Coop mod and your crew shares one campaign in Middle-earth, each of you running your own party. Steps & links down below ->

Bluntamir in the Tales from the Age of Men equipment screen: a Gondor tabard in purple with the White Tree on the chest, plate shoulders, a long purple cape and a shield on his back. — Bluntamir, suited up in Gondor colors. Yes, that’s a phone pic of my monitor.

What my game logs say

Getting here took over a month.

Late August I tried to force it. The co-op mod was built for game version 1.4.8, and the LOTR build I had only ran on 1.2.12. Aug 25, 1:18 AM: crash.

Aug 31 I thought it was crashing again. Nope, just the first launch compiling shaders. My hero back then, Bbluntagorn, made it onto the map that night wearing what the game files call bandit_envelope_dress_v1. Drip.

Then on Sept 4 the TAOM team dropped a public build that works with co-op. On Sept 11 I bailed on character creation once, started over, then spent 40 minutes in there. Walked out with Bluntamir. Yes, Bluntamir. Bbluntagorn got left behind on the old build, still in his envelope dress.

Oct 2 was the first real run, 71 minutes on the clock. Five tournaments, one of them in the Minas Morgul arena. Four bandit fights the game logged as wins. I asked a lord about signing on with his faction and backed out 12 seconds later. The run ended in an ambush, a trip to the main menu and a reload.

All of that was solo, on my PC.

The next best thing

I once wrote that if they ever make Total War: Middle Earth official, I’m quitting life and locking in. Still waiting.

Bannerlord was already a chaos sandbox, one minute you’re chasing bandits and the next you’re leading an army. TAOM drops all of it in Middle-earth, and Coop puts your crew in there with you. Same energy as when we got Kenshi co-op running.

Armored Dol Amroth knights on horseback with blue shields, forming up between pine trees on a hillside in evening light. — Dol Amroth knights forming up. Custom battle, Gondor vs Isengard, Oct 4.

I’m not new here either. Rhagyd, my 2025 Calradia knight, hit level 15 with 3 fiefs and 114 troops by day 163. Bannerlord’s on the Co-op shelf in my Vault.

Over-the-shoulder view of an armored knight hitting a Pillager in a muddy field. On-screen text shows 97 next to the Pillager's name, and the combat log reads: Delivered 97 Blunt damage. Body part hit: Chest. — Rhagyd putting 97 blunt into a Pillager’s chest. Calradia, June 2025.

Real talk

This combo isn’t officially supported by either team. Coop says to switch off every other mod, and it’s a nightly build. The TAOM team built co-op load order support into their mod anyway, and YouTubers have run co-op campaigns on it, one of them for 100 in-game days. Expect a bug or two.

Gondor soldiers under blue banners clash with a crowd of Uruk-hai on a forested slope. — Gondor’s line hits the Uruk-hai. Banners up.

How to set it up (everyone does this)

Update the game. In Steam, right-click Bannerlord -> Properties -> Game Versions & Betas and set it to None. You want v1.4.8. Steam version only, Game Pass isn’t supported.
Grab Tales from the Age of Men 2.0.29.5 on ModDB. It’s the full version, about 18 GB, so start it early. Everyone in the party needs the EXACT same TAOM version.
Delete any old TAOM folders from your Modules folder, then extract the zip into Mount & Blade II Bannerlord\Modules (usually under Steam\steamapps\common). It already includes Harmony, ButterLib, UIExtenderEx and MCM, so you don’t need to download those separately.
Subscribe to Bannerlord Coop on the Steam Workshop. Steam keeps it updated for you.
Unblock the DLLs for both mods. Right-click each DLL -> Properties -> tick Unblock. The TAOM download page has a one-line PowerShell command that does a whole folder at once.
Open the launcher and tick these four: TAOM.Dependencies, TAOM, TAOM_Map, LOTRLOME_Armory. The stock modules (Native, SandBoxCore, Sandbox, StoryMode, CustomBattle) stay ticked. Set the load order exactly how the TAOM download page lists it.
Tick Bannerlord Coop too and drag it to the bottom, under TAOM. Leave every other mod OFF. If you own the War Sails DLC, switch it off.
Hit Play and set Terrain Quality to Medium or higher. TAOM asks for it.
One of you hosts. The host starts a Sandbox campaign with a new character, saves once the map loads, then exits to the main menu and picks Host Coop Campaign. Everyone else joins from the lobby browser. Hosting through Steam usually needs no port forwarding.

First time modding? It looks scarier than it is. Ask questions and I’ll help you out if I can!

Not up for 18 GB tonight? The Co-op Night Picker rolls three games from my Vault for however many of you are on.

Uruk-hai scouts with axes and clubs swarm mounted Dol Amroth knights in a grassy clearing. — Uruk-hai scouts piling onto the Dol Amroth knights.

If it breaks

A few protips, most of them learned the hard way:

Window frozen on the first launch? Don’t kill it. Give it two damn minutes. It’s compiling shaders, and Windows might even call it Not Responding.
Crash on launch? Check versions first. That was my whole Aug 25.
Played TAOM before? Delete the cached shaders at C:\ProgramData\Mount and Blade II Bannerlord\Shaders\TerrainShaders\LOTR_Map.
Saves don’t carry over between TAOM updates, per their FAQ. Ask Bbluntagorn.
Relaunch before you troubleshoot anything. On Oct 2 my log stops cold two minutes into a tournament. Relaunched on the same save and finished it. Third try at that West Osgiliath tournament in two weeks.

Co-op bugs go to the Bannerlord Coop Discord, where the team asks for a ticket in #support-ticket. For TAOM it’s the TAOM Discord only. They don’t answer on ModDB.

Still open: whether Bluntamir survives the jump to 2.0.29.5. Will keep updates rolling as I find out.

Good luck out there & get lost in Middle-earth for hours :]

Hit the Guild Hall and tell me: which faction is your crew starting with?

Versions current as of Oct 4, 2026: Bannerlord v1.4.8, TAOM 2.0.29.5. A 1.5.0 beta is out; stay off it until both mods say they support it. Tales from the Age of Men and Bannerlord Coop are free fan projects made by volunteers, and Bannerlord Coop says it isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by TaleWorlds.

Got it running? Sign the book so I know it worked

From the toolbox Open the Vault · Pick tonight’s co-op game · Meet the squad · Game night checklist · All tools →

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