Steppe aren't rewarding? ? ?
well, I spent many times as nomads, so the nomadic units are great for sticking their arrows and gigantic toothpicks into some tin canned men...

even with KH or Makedon, I still steppe areas are worth conquering, especially those Sauromatae lands... as they didn't had many peoples, and easily defendable against their previous owner, just by building filmsy stick walls, and put some local archers inside... well, usually I go out there to amass my HA army to be marched down against another civ faction... Have u seen a Makedonian / Epeiros army that was all Cav? think of Hetairoi fighting alongside many types of HA's to turn the Romans into arrow cushions! well, that's pretty beautiful!: