Apparently it can't handle mods that are too complicated. I tried Giant Multiplayer Robot, but the save it creates fails to load (Civ just crashes). However, we can't use PYDT because it requires the player civilizations to be given during setup on their website, and obviously it doesn't know about the Middle Earth civs. I can get around the Civ 5 restrictions of using mods with a multiplayer game using another mod or just creating a DLC - that's not a problem. I'm now trying to set up a roleplaying Middle Earth hot seat game. We currently play online hot seat Civ 5 using Play Your Damn Turn (PYDT). Hopefully someone with more experience of Civ 5 hot seat than me can offer options/solutions. So I expect, if I can sort it out, I will be back here looking for interested players (of any skill levels).

I posted the following on the Steam discussion board, but it's quite quiet there these days, and I know this is where the hardcore players hang out! The game under discussion wont be started for a wee while yet, but tbh there's not as much interest on our Discord server as expected.

Civ 5 hotseat mods