This is something that the game should have had, but doesn't: a "tweaked" version of the vanilla experience. Most of the various early "enhancement" mods for the original releases of the game ended up being collected into larger overhauls, so you end up with a pile of unrealistic or plain crazy changes along with the positive ones. The individual ones won't work on the later patches and versions of M&B, and the collections are "all or nothing". The one in particular (I think it's called something like Enhanced Gameplay III) boosts the horse speeds into the 100+ MPH NASCAR range, it has "tokens" that you have to hunt for when you die", and all sorts of other SILLY changes, which make the host of positive changes pointless because I can't stand playing it. Another mod started out my "hunter" character with heavy chainmail and a two-handed axe (clearly, the deer and small wildlife must be dangerous); the modder apparently hated ranged weapons because EVERYTHING is boosted to the extreme except for bows and thrown weapons, making them useless. MOST of the mods try to "out-uber" the others, throwing high-end equipment at you from the start, which leaves you with no room for advancement. It also makes 90% of the vanilla equipment still in the game pointless except to sell off as scrap, because there's no reason why anyone in his/her right mind would buy it instead of the 5x "better" stuff in the mods that everyone including the peasants use.
That said, I very much enjoyed "The Eagle and the Wolves" Arthurian Britain mod, and there's a sub-mod to the 1257 mod (1257: Middle Europe) which feels a little more realistic than the vanilla experience, but uses historical medieval nations. The "Sword of Damocles" mod is a fairly substantial overhaul, and adds a heap of village, castle, and town management options, but there's one drastic flaw in the mod that WILL bite you in the late game; it's not fixable without the original modder's code, and he's been missing for years. The "Custom Settlements" mod shows a lot of promise as to what it could have become, but it's seriously unfinished and abandoned. Before you add mods, I'd still recommend playing the original vanilla game first for a while until you're familiar with the workings of it; the mods are usually a lot harder.
Then there's a sticky topic on the subject of 83(?) little tweaks and changes you can make to the game with a sector editor program, to enhance various aspects more to your liking: I use 3 or 4 of those changes, and even altered a couple of mods with one or two of them if they don't already include the changes. There are also a couple of mods to expand combat options, which many of the major overhauls and conversions have incorporated.
The "Star Wars: Conquest" mod needs to be seen to be believed. It's an almost total conversion in every sense of the word (aside from a mere handful of items which were reused), going from swords and shields, and lances on horseback, to blaster rifles, light sabers, and speeder bikes. Technically, it's unfinished, with a few issues, but very playable as-is.
"The Last Days of Middle Earth" is another amazing near-total conversion, putting you in Tolkien's Middle Earth for the War of the Ring. The gameplay changes are again drastic. This mod has been ported to Warband as well, and work is still ongoing simultaneously for both the original M&B and the WB versions, but it's definitely been in a playable state for years.
Enjoy.
