I've just read this. According to this article, the Golden Horde consisted of 35000 mounted archers. Far less than the 100000 varied doomstacks present in the game.
Moreover, the article clearly states that Batu Khan, leader of the Golden Horde, divided his army into smaller units.
Now, I've been told by someone on this forum that the reason hordes in CKII use doomstacks is because in real life, the Mongolians won through tactical superiority, and that the game's mechanics cannot reflect such an advantage. But the article seems to imply that one of the reasons for the horde's success was infighting among Russian princes.
Perhaps the hordes can be remade, with less troops, but with highly skilled generals with relevant combat traits (whatever works best for horse archers). Maybe they wait to invade regions, waiting for a civil war.
As it is, enormous doomstacks that often surpass the population of the province they're in (and yet are immune to attrition) kind of makes the game a lot less fun. The only way to beat the hordes is to lead them on a merry-go-round and hope they suffer losses conquering other nations (since mustering the armies necessary to defeat them- assuming you have the sheer amounts of troops required- is highly difficult since your own troops, unlike those of the Mongolians, need food). Hordes will often topple AIs and establish unbeatable monoliths that rarely implode in the face of the persistent doomstack armies of the Khans.
Hordes should be patched to turn out differently. In fact, free doomstacks above 50k troops should be removed from the game period.
Moreover, the article clearly states that Batu Khan, leader of the Golden Horde, divided his army into smaller units.
Now, I've been told by someone on this forum that the reason hordes in CKII use doomstacks is because in real life, the Mongolians won through tactical superiority, and that the game's mechanics cannot reflect such an advantage. But the article seems to imply that one of the reasons for the horde's success was infighting among Russian princes.
Perhaps the hordes can be remade, with less troops, but with highly skilled generals with relevant combat traits (whatever works best for horse archers). Maybe they wait to invade regions, waiting for a civil war.
As it is, enormous doomstacks that often surpass the population of the province they're in (and yet are immune to attrition) kind of makes the game a lot less fun. The only way to beat the hordes is to lead them on a merry-go-round and hope they suffer losses conquering other nations (since mustering the armies necessary to defeat them- assuming you have the sheer amounts of troops required- is highly difficult since your own troops, unlike those of the Mongolians, need food). Hordes will often topple AIs and establish unbeatable monoliths that rarely implode in the face of the persistent doomstack armies of the Khans.
Hordes should be patched to turn out differently. In fact, free doomstacks above 50k troops should be removed from the game period.
