Game of Thrones mania is about to start up again, given the excitement over the first trailer for the upcoming fourth season of the HBO show and the announcement of Telltale Games' episodic series.

Need more Westeros in your life right this minute? One modder has your back.

Developed by ModDB user 'Cozur,' A Clash of Kings is a massive Game of Thrones-themed mod for the 2010 medieval combat action slash tactical role playing game Mount & Blade: Warband.

It features a wealth of characters, quests, and items from the popular fantasy realm, as well as one of the largest and most detailed Warband custom maps ever made. And though it launched several years ago, the mod continues to have active development and updates, the most recent of which went live just last week.

Mount & Blade is a difficult game series to love. Originally released in 2008, with the standalone expansion Warband following in 2010, the game is neither terribly pretty to look at nor particularly easy to play. But what it lacks in visual polish and training wheels, it makes up for in a robust combat and tactical system that, though clunky and unforgiving at first, is one of the most realistic and satisfying melee battle systems to be found in any videogame.

It features several layers of gameplay. First and foremost is one-on-one melee combat, in which the system lets you swing and block in different directions. This makes encounters much more engaging than just tapping a button to hack and slash through enemies.

The next layer is that same combat system, only scaled up to allow for battles featuring up to several hundred soldiers on each side. Tactical military strategy is necessary for besting opposing armies on the field of battle, while excelling at mano a mano combat keeps your character alive. Outside of combat, army management, diplomacy, and mercantile ability are all necessary for steering your adventurer toward glory and lordship rather than the pointy end of a bandit's sword.

With all that in mind, Mount & Blade: Warband makes for a great foundation upon which to build a videogame analog of the complex world of Westeros. Taking place during the events of A Clash of Kings, the second novel in the series, the eponymous mod features a loose global story that offers some semblance of the experience of being a single individual living in Westeros while the events of the book play out around you.

I began by creating a character, customizing his appearance, abilities, and personal history before striking out on an adventure of my own. I visited villages and castles – all actual locations from Martin's fantasy world – trading with merchants, politicking with the local lords (again taken from the series), and recruiting soldiers into my band of merry men.

As I traveled around, minor happenings took place across the world — lords rose to power, or were taken prisoner after a defeat in combat. In once instance, I encountered a slave trader selling Unsullied, the bad-ass spear-wielding eunuchs that eventually make up Daenerys Targaryen's army. The Unsullied came at a steep price, but were well worth it: Just like their on-screen counterparts, they featured massive stats across the board, making them fantastic fighters. Another instance found me asking to join the army of Ser Gregor Clegane, one of the series' most ruthless killers. He wasn't interested in my lowly skills.

Meanwhile, I was occasionally notified by raven (a periodic text message) of major events relevant to the overall story. Early on, I received word of Renly Baratheon declaring his intent to claim the Iron Throne, and later his marriage to Margaery Tyrell, gaining him the wealth and forces of Highgarden — both major events from early in the show's second season.

At the time, I was halfway across Westeros, licking my wounds after a particularly unfavorable bandit encounter in the Riverlands. But I have no doubt that, had I mustered my forces and rode for The Reach, I could have found a commander and lent my army's strength to whichever side I chose.

While the setting, characters, and events like this are extremely familiar, the actual story of the mod is, admittedly, very loose. Like I said before, it's much more about witnessing the events of the book or show play out around you via Mount & Blade's mechanics, rather than experiencing them through extensive cut scenes or quest lines.

And while the combat and tactical mechanics of Mount & Blade carry a fairly steep learning curve, they are absolutely engaging and satisfying once mastered. Hone those skills, and the Clash of Kings mod is the perfect place for Game of Thrones fans to experience the world of Westeros in a way like none other.

I've had to answer this question like a hundred times here, so I thought 'man, those mods really need to just sticky a response explaining this stuff up top.'

That's when I remembered! I am a mod!

Okay, you've downloaded the mod, installed it, and booted it up, only to be horrendously murdered repeatedly. What's going wrong?

A Clash of Kings (ACOK) is based off of warband, but presents a greater challenge early on. You can't recruit levies (peasants) until you raise your renown, and commodities you may have taken for granted before, like horses, weapons, and armor, aren't just handed to you at the start.

A big difference between Warband and ACOK that actually helps in this regard, is points of interest (POI's) that you can visit, like the tower of joy for example. These locations give experience for visiting them, and can hide loot containers in the scenery. This is important, so remember it.

In order to survive early on, you'll need some arrow sponges to help you out in battles. Soloing ten looters by yourself at the start of the game isn't going to happen. Start off by selecting the 'gather companions' button when you start a new game. That gets you 11 free troops right off the bat if you recruit them from the tavern at the weeping town.

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Not all the companions can fit in there, so after you grab the first few, refresh the tavern (leave and come back) and find the rest. Then go to the howling caves nearby (its a POI) and find the weirwood branch hidden in the chest. It's to the left of the cave as you look at it. Once you have it, sell it.

You can't recruit levies from villages yet, but you can find additional troops for cheap in taverns, this should give you enough power to hit small bandit groups guerrilla style and loot their corpses. Head to the point of interest near the tower of joy, vultures roost I think? Hell, hit them both.

Chainmail boots and a bronze candlebra are for the taking there in their chests. You should be able to afford at least a cheap horse by now. Do Tyrion's quest in Kings Landing. When storming the castle nearby for the quest, you can run inside the keep and open a chest that has chainmail armor inside.

It's all self explanatory from there. Now some faqs: