Recently, after a long time away from the game, I returned to playing CK2 to do the monarch's challenges and chase achievements I don't have. After a little play in Africa, I've moved to India, specifically to do the White Hun challenge that starts in 769.
I used to play at that start time a lot but I don't ever remember the Great Green Blob being anywhere near as resilient as it seems to be since I started playing again. I didn't want to cheese the achievement so stayed Hindu, slowly building up my power base, but to my horror I watched as the Abassids grew and grew and grew and now most of the land I need to take is now owned by them.
I've played up to 940 so far and the Abassids have over 100K troops already, pushing up to near 120K in some cases depending on rulers. And in all that time their decadence hasn't gone above 12%. They have taken all of Arabia, all of the Caucasuses, all of North Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar, all of Central Africa, all of Eastern Africa but for their Nubian vassal, half of Anatolia and the Duchy of Thrace (so they hold Constantinople), Crete, they have a foothold in southern Italy, all of Persia and the non-nomadic parts of Central Asia and they have pushed deep into India so that my lands (half de jure Kingdom of Rajputana, plus Gujurat and Malwa) are now surrounded on three sides.
There hasn't been a hint of internal problems all game with them and their decadence barely moves. The only crusade that looked their way got crushed.
There is still a long time to get the land I need, but it doesn't seem likely unless the Caliphate somehow splinters, and there is no sign of that happening any time soon. I'm just surprised they haven't looked my way yet. If they do, if all of the other Indian factions decided to help me, combined we'd still only have half their troop numbers.
I used to play at that start time a lot but I don't ever remember the Great Green Blob being anywhere near as resilient as it seems to be since I started playing again. I didn't want to cheese the achievement so stayed Hindu, slowly building up my power base, but to my horror I watched as the Abassids grew and grew and grew and now most of the land I need to take is now owned by them.
I've played up to 940 so far and the Abassids have over 100K troops already, pushing up to near 120K in some cases depending on rulers. And in all that time their decadence hasn't gone above 12%. They have taken all of Arabia, all of the Caucasuses, all of North Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar, all of Central Africa, all of Eastern Africa but for their Nubian vassal, half of Anatolia and the Duchy of Thrace (so they hold Constantinople), Crete, they have a foothold in southern Italy, all of Persia and the non-nomadic parts of Central Asia and they have pushed deep into India so that my lands (half de jure Kingdom of Rajputana, plus Gujurat and Malwa) are now surrounded on three sides.
There hasn't been a hint of internal problems all game with them and their decadence barely moves. The only crusade that looked their way got crushed.
There is still a long time to get the land I need, but it doesn't seem likely unless the Caliphate somehow splinters, and there is no sign of that happening any time soon. I'm just surprised they haven't looked my way yet. If they do, if all of the other Indian factions decided to help me, combined we'd still only have half their troop numbers.