I can't send anyone to do anything I am at the mercy of hoping the Khanganate doesn't make a mess of things as he nearly always does.Īs for the Khazars I don't care who I play they are target number 1 and any war there in I jump in just because. Perhaps you missed the part about me starting as the Subordinate Khan. I'm not saying it will always work, but there's a lot you can do to tip the odds in your favour.
There's still a chance you'll be attacked by a much stronger enemy even with diplomacy, but in that case you can often just run around in their territory (especially if you have the upgrades which increase movement speed), take a couple of primary holdings then white peace out. Eventually, the Khazars will have a revolt and you can use the opportunity to sieze a duchy, at which point they're basically done and will not give you much further trouble. Heavy cavalry are by far the most efficient use of a small population because they're much more powerful than the hordes the AI tends to build (they just cost a lot, which can be countered through raiding). Raid south and use the money to build up your primary holding and replace your existing hordes with heavy cavalry. Send your chancellor to keep the Khazars happy while you build up manpower. Originally posted by jfoytek:Alan is far harder then then Maybar as you can likely make it thru the first 10 years about 10% of the time as Maybar but as Alan your quite doomed I have stayed in the game once so far as the subordinate khan of Alan past 10 years.Īlan is okay, and long term are probably the most OP horde culture (massed heavy vanguard hordes with alan commanders = steamroller). It will usually be the Viking Age or later before you can do anything but raid and maybe, if lucky, pick off a weak Uyghur rebellion. Try to keep Bonek of the Uyghur happy until then by always agreeing to join his wars and keep your chancellor on him to improve relations. Then it's fairly easy to raid the Buddhist silk road rulers in the Tarim basin to the south and build up cash to buy mercenaries and win the inevitable war with the Uyghurs for independence and then conquest. As soon as you have 250 manpower, always buy a new 250 light cav unit or a 200 LC/50 heavy cav. It's a waiting game, slowly building up your manpower and thus horde until you can field a 1000+ stack to go raiding. Invite some debutantes and makes concubines, because you'll need them! Spend some prestige, piety and gold early to invite a couple of commanders, a better shaman and some nobles for a better chancellor and steward. There is usually one sister of a Khagan or Khan in Tobol or Tyumen you can marry and that's it. Even finding a bride who won't cost you -400 prestige is hard.
You're surrounded by Manicheans and too far from almost all of the other Tengri rulers to be able to get any good marriage alliances to help. The hardest start in 769 is arguably the poor 2 county Mongols, stuck far away to the east and as tributary to the Uyghur. The Uyghur almost always choose Zhetysu as their first conquest, either the Uyghur proper or the big clan closest to you. It's a good way to practice balancing clan issues with conquest and expansion toward the relatively weak Suomenusko tribes to the north.Īvoid Zhetysu as a beginner, since they tend to get picked apart by the Uyghur and the Muslims to the south fairly early. Khazaria is good too, but you have more clans to keep happy and it is easy to get into trouble with the Byzantines in the Crimea. Then pick off the others plus the Pechenegs, so you have the strength to go after the Uyghur and then Samarkand and Tarim to the south for riches and Khazaria for more silk road goodness to the west. Try to form marriage alliances with Yaik or Tobol or Tyumen. Don't let the Uyghur become too powerful. For 769, the easiest is probably Turkestan, although you have to be ready when the Abbasid Caliph comes for you, and he will since Dihistan is de jure part of his territories.