Has anyone ever played as the Golden Horde ?

[Whomario]

I was just looking for a new game scenario to play and was wondering if anyone has any experience with actually taking controll of the golden horde (starting the game in the 1220s or 1230s) as a player. Does it hold up over the years or is it just not really doable within the game mechanics ?

 

[Lord Finnish]

From what I understand they function exactly as any other faction, with exception of their huge horse archer bonus and reinforcements.

 

[Lorehead]

Without modding or DLC, Sartag is the only Christian ruler of the Golden Horde, starting from 2 January 1255. Teguder in 1283 is a Shia ruler of the Ilkhanate, playable with Sword of Islam. I know that CK2+ makes Tengri playable, but I haven’t actually done it, no. If you want to play as a Mongol and have a real challenge, you might try Mubarak I of Khiva, in 1253. Mongol Sunni child-ruler who doesn’t get doomstack reinforcements, but is surrounded by two much bigger infidel Mongol blobs that do. Again, haven’t actually done it.

 

[gornard]

I played as Sartag the nestorian. Its actually quite a good game, most your vassals are orthadox, sunni or tengri meaning that you will almost straight away get a massive independence faction. Just accept their demands and take the loss, theres no way you can hold on to them yet, especially since nestorianism is an orthodox heresy. After the settlement you'll be left with the Caucasus and the don/volga river valley along with the duke of moscow who is too young to revolt. Still a reasonably strong and advanced territory. Sartag will have strong claims on any of the former territories, anything you don't press will still be a weak claim for your heir. Reconquest is not a simple matter though as all the russians are the same dynasty and hate you because of your heresy, declaring war on them will bring in every one of them unless you use careful diplomacy. Similarly to the east, the new states are all of your dynasty and will likely call in the Il Khan unless you pay him off. Not so lucky are the georgians and trebizond to the south and the volga bulgarians and novogorod to the north.

Other interesting things about this game are that you get a nestorian patriarch called something like 'the patriarch of the east', you can holy war on anyone, you can marry with catholic rulers pretty freely to get alliances and if you manage to send a nestorian to marry into an orthadox court, then they can pass on their heresy to other members.

You do not get doomstacks or the tribal invasion, but those wouldn't be fun anyway.

 

[Goodfortune99]

I tried once to play as them. After giving away all my left titles, most of my non-mongol vassals revolted. I could have beaten them if i had more time, but they managed to get 100 warscore before that, and then i just became one ordinary mongol realm.

 

[Wannabemarco]

In my Rurikovitch game, the IlKhanate stood in game long enough to create a de jure Il Khanate empire. In the last few decades of the game, i managed to get rid of them and usurp the titular title of Il Khanate. So i guess, i can say i played as one of them, but i didn't get anything funny from it.

Only fun fact, i was playing gavelkind and one of my son got the title, but no land associated to it.

 

[Hastyr]

At one point during my Alania game I became a vassal of the Golden Horde and stayed under them for 100 years.
I got converted to Tengri at some point and eventually declared independence and usurped the Golden Horde title, I could still do invasions that way but the Hungarians/HRE was too strong

 

[gornard]

is the tribal invasion cb tied to being tengri then?

 

[OneiricRose]

I did and I currently own all eastern europe and have my capital in Constantinople.
Tengri mongol btw

 

[Hastyr]

is the tribal invasion cb tied to being tengri then?

from what ive heard christians cant use it.

 

[Lorehead]

from what ive heard christians cant use it.

Actually, looking it up in 00_cb_types.txt, that’s not quite true. Any mercenary captain with no other titles can use the tribal invasion CB as well, and mercenary captains are selectable from their employers’ list of vassals. I just tried it with the Varangian Guard.

 

[l3ol3o]

I've played as the GH. It was a fun game but easy. I just used the "play" cheat to switch to the GH in case anyone is curious. I picked the earliest starting date. I can't remember what it was exactly.

Anyway they get a CB that allows them to conquer entire Kingdoms. So every war you fight and win you win a Kingdom. Needless to say that makes expanding fast as hell. I pushed all the way to the Atlantic before I quit. The only difficult part of the game was the beginning when you have the Cumans and Selujks to contend with. Once their gone and your larger it cake.

Unlike the Muslim invasion CB which requires piety and atleast 6 counties, the Horde CB requires neither.


If you like constant war and huge empires then the GH is fun. But if you don't like fast expansion and large Empires then the GH isn't for you.