Quote Originally Posted by seriousbusiness View Post
The Saka, Pontos and Hayasdan factions are all very difficult.

It comes down to having such a dodgy economy. Once you defeat your immediate, threatening enemies, your #1 priority must be fixing your long-term economy. Absorbing mining provinces is the single best way of doing that, I've found.
There's a big difference between the economic issues of Pontos, Saka, and Hayasdan though. For Pontos and Hayasdan, the economy is really only difficult in the early game. As you said, mines are a great way of improving it, but when you come down to it, they are both settled, "civilized" factions, and so they can build up decent economies given the time. With the Saka, since you are a nomadic faction, your economy will most likely always be weaker than you would like, it's much harder to build a stable economy as a nomadic faction, even as you get further into the game.