adding horde ability to faction

Has anyone tried giving another faction the Horde capability ? Preferably in a mod folder and not by modifying the BI files (because the latter might not cause the problems I'm having).

I've tried it by all adding horde_... lines in descr_sm_factions, but that doesn't seem to be enough. I can let the horde faction start in a campaign (without settlement, they will have the horde symbol etc) but if I try to play that faction it CTDs. If I try to make them emerge at a certain date it CTD's aswell. I also made sure the BI event files are there, but that didn't help either.

Well I gave the Celts, Saxons and Alemanni the horde ability in my mod. They don't start out in a horde, but still gain the ability when they have just one city left. I haven't tried to see if they can start as a horde though. Have you made sure in the descr_sm_factions.txt file that the horde units that faction have, actually exist? I had to make new horde units for example.

yes, I've done that. Made a special unit called "horde spearmen" for them.

Well I've just added the Slavs to my game. First I gave them a settlement, then I took away the settlement and they start as a horde. So any faction that can form a horde, can start a campaign as a horde. And I've been able to add the horde ability to several factions so somewhere along the way, you've possibly done something wrong if it isn't working.

If you've copied the right bits from the descr_sm_factions file, added the horde unit (and given him the can_horde attribute) and something still isn't working, then off the top of my head I can't say why.