I would not discourage to use steppe at all but one should not hope for a barbarian faction to fight six times against you only to loose. I've a general "homerule" not to play against a player in tourney anymore if one got 2 (or perhaps 3) points out of this matches.
Same thing, unless the other player loses and wants to keep trying :)

I deliberately choose non-steppe against Western barbarians. It's almost a matter of historicality to me, sort of like roleplaying when Attila the Hun and his many infantry from his Germanic allies invaded Western Europe.