First time playing a nomad.....

[ninoallen]

LOVE IT !!!!

it is so refreshing, after playing CK2 for almost 3000 hours (according to steam) i was getting bored of it, but always came back for some achievement i felt i had to get, it felt like a chore most of the time, but playing as a nomad the game feels completely different. started 867 as a Cuman and its been great.

with how much fun im having with this playthrough im wondering what India is like to play is...i never bothered trying it, they seem so isolated, maybe indonesia expansion is needed ?

 

[CVDE]

Glad you're still having fun at 3000+ Hours . I tried playing a custom Zoro Nomad, but I couldn't understand how to play a Nomad and gave up lol. I'm to stupid , I need a guide or something.

 

[RelVleDy]

I personally found the start frustrating, but once you get over that hump, I've heard it's easier. I kept getting ganged up on. I'll definitely have to come back to it with all the changes, lol.

 

[ninoallen]

Glad you're still having fun at 3000+ Hours . I tried playing a custom Zoro Nomad, but I couldn't understand how to play a Nomad and gave up lol. I'm to stupid , I need a guide or something.

its actually very simple, i thought it was complicated at first too but its not, basically you just have a constant army and you stomp people and take their land and your army gets bigger.

 

[CVDE]

its actually very simple, i thought it was complicated at first too but its not, basically you just have a constant army and you stomp people and take their land and your army gets bigger.

I think my problem was since I was trying to role-play a custom Zoro Nomad who happened to be pushed north of Persia from the Muslims, I was surround by NO ALLIES whatsoever. My ultimate goal was to retake Persia, form the Empire, and pretty much become the chosen one lmao.

But either way I could never understand how to take land, grow my manpower, grow population, and divide my lands so my fellow Zoro clansmen wouldn't attack me with some many enemy's around. I just need a really good guide on how to play Nomads I guess haha.

 

[ninoallen]

update:

was forced to end my game, due to the abba blob declaring war on me, even though they didnt share a border with me

 

[CaptainPolyp]

Too bad... Did you have enough trade posts to get a good income? I tend to focus on trade tech early to get a good basis of income, so that I can buy mercs for the early wars, when my horde is not big enough to resist to the big muslim empires.

 

[xxdspawnxx]

ive tried playing as them a few times but the starts are usually fairly hard only being able to field at most 1-1.5k troops for a good portion of the early game and the lack of any income or easily raidable targets makes actually fielding them rather dificult. not to mention that the other khans dont know their place and get uppity if i hold like 1 more province then them or that there is not enough clans

 

[CaptainPolyp]

I think clans are upset when you hold more than 33% of the provinces (where there is less than 2 constructed holdings).
I did not try a pure steppe start tho. Maybe starting around Khiva/Samarkand is easier due to the presence of cities mosques and castles which can be pillaged (for instance at the 1066 bookmark). Uyghurs in 768 can conquer feudal lands early on (in Qotan) and they have tributaries. Another easier start can be the Magyars as they begin with event troups to conquer Hungary (old gods start if I'm not mistaken).

For other starts, it is important to expand quickly on Silk Road locations and on tribal or feudal lands to be able to pillage (Feudal are better but harder since most are big blobs). But yea, most of the starters are quite hard since hordes are very small early on. Buying the pure light cav horde with prestige is usually a good early game strategy to build a big horde faster.

I plan to do a steppe playthrough (around the black sea) at some point.

 

[ninoallen]

Too bad... Did you have enough trade posts to get a good income? I tend to focus on trade tech early to get a good basis of income, so that I can buy mercs for the early wars, when my horde is not big enough to resist to the big muslim empires.

no i was struggling to pull in money, making .88 gold a month

 

[ninoallen]

ive tried playing as them a few times but the starts are usually fairly hard only being able to field at most 1-1.5k troops for a good portion of the early game and the lack of any income or easily raidable targets makes actually fielding them rather dificult. not to mention that the other khans dont know their place and get uppity if i hold like 1 more province then them or that there is not enough clans

i totally had the khans in my pocket, i often married them off to my daughters, sons or nieces.
i would micro manage the land also, to make sure the internal borders were pretty, my personal lands kept moving western towards Crimea so i kept making new vassals, and keeping the old ones weak and in check

 

[ninoallen]

I plan to do a steppe playthrough (around the black sea) at some point

my goal was to do a 867 Cuman game, and have my land extend all the way to east francia/bulgaria
i was gonna make poland hungary my title and settle as a tribe.

 

[CaptainPolyp]

i totally had the khans in my pocket, i often married them off to my daughters, sons or nieces.
i would micro manage the land also, to make sure the internal borders were pretty, my personal lands kept moving western towards Crimea so i kept making new vassals, and keeping the old ones weak and in check

If it works that way for you good. This is also how I do it
Sometimes, trying to have pretty borders is not the best strategy tho. 1/ You basically want to keep the provinces with 4+ holdings for you and give the 1-2 holdings provinces. 2/ splitting the duchies between a few clans is also interesting so that they don't like each other.

But if you manage to win the early game and get powerful, you don't need to play optimally at some point.

 

[RX2000]

Hmmm maybe I need to try a nomad start. It never really looked appealing to me but I guess it could be fun.

I refuse to start a game in India, just on principle.

 

[CaptainPolyp]

I refuse to start a game in India, just on principle.

This is a bit off topic but I wouldn't mind playing something like the delhi sultanate (muslim) or trying to unify india with a Jain dynasty... I dunno.

 

[Aries666]

I find hordes way too easy, I'm no where near the fastest but will complete a WC having raised all holdings in around 130 years (currently 100 years in with 25% of the world to go). The key to the early game is frequent use of the humiliate and tributary CB's. Tribute anything where you don't plan to expand during that rulers lifetime, the money isn't always great but they can't refuse a CTA from you. Humiliate some hordes, this gives you a good prestige bump and a chunk of their population. This will give you enough prestige to buy more troops and to use the duchy level subjugation CB. When fighting hordes ignore their army and head straight to their camps and assault them to instantly win wars, tribals can be assaulted with just 3-5x garrison number because they are all LI and have little/no fortification. You can pretty much gobble up the entire steppe in one generation and reach the magic 30k population that allows you to use the kingdom invasion CB. Finally you get a one shot subjugation CB that can be use to take a realm of any size, in my game I have used this to take the Abbasids, Byzantines and Ummyads in one go each.

Last thing, regarding your khan vassals, they are dumb. One khan will try to overthrow you with 50% of your power, let them revolt, assault their camp and imprison him for life rendering his tribe a non-problem for decades.

 

[CaptainPolyp]

Yup, hordes are easy... but the early game can sometimes be a bit painful, depending on the starting character. I would prefer a smoother difficulty curve.
I do not use humiliate that much but I'll try it sometime. It seems funnier than just blobbing.

 

[Aries666]

Humiliate actively makes blobbing faster and easier because you gain prestige, needed for CB's and increasing your horde, and 25% of your targets population. Once you hit 30k population you become unstoppable because you can start tearing off whole kingdoms.

 

[schondetta]

update:

was forced to end my game, due to the abba blob declaring war on me, even though they didnt share a border with me

This happens all the time. I'm convinced it's not WAD too. You can be all the way in northern Siberia corner as a minor horde and they will still declare on you

 

[CaptainPolyp]

Humiliate actively makes blobbing faster and easier because you gain prestige, needed for CB's and increasing your horde, and 25% of your targets population. Once you hit 30k population you become unstoppable because you can start tearing off whole kingdoms.

yup sure. But the way I see it: It allows you to be a warmonger while not gaining territory. If you don't want to blob, you can.