Crusader Kings II

[Ishmael]

Wow, what? That can't all be doomstacks... how big are the hordes in your world? Show us a screenshot!

edit: As far as I know, once the horde converts they can still use their doomstacks (and yes they are attrition proof) but they lose the ability to call their powerful invasions. They are forced to use the claim system or fight holy wars for single duchies at a time.

Fortunately, if they are powerful and have large areas of land, those numbers you are seeing might be coming from more traditional levy and retinue caps which do suffer attrition.

This is my first game that's lasted until the hordes arrived, and it's proved to be pretty interesting:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I started as Castille, and managed to unite Spain (except for a chunk on the east coast owned by Pisa). In the process, I managed to put a ruler of my dynasty on the throne of Sicily and Greece, both of which were won in crusades. Sicily started out strong, taking most of the land in North Africa that Greece currently owns, but lost the majority of it's territory to Greece through inter-realm inheritance and a few wars. Greece went surprisingly well considering that their founding ruler was an imbecile, but with only a little support from Spain they managed to carve out a fair chunk of territory. I don't think they've ever been allied to the Byzantine Empire, but together they managed to break the backs of the Muslim powers before the Hordes arrived (which contributed greatly to the success of the Ilkhanate). Islam is now practically extinct in Europe.

Nothing particularly exciting had been happening in the rest of the world. France had been a powerhouse for about one hundred years (being a very helpful ally of Castille when it was first growing), but now is a patchwork of independent states. The HRE has stood strong throughout, expanding into Norway and Finland. Unfortunately they were struck by their first major civil war just as their allies the Cumans (who had united all of Russia and fielded about 80000 levies) were attacked by the Golden Horde, which ended poorly for them. The Pope launched a crusade to retake Poland, but as the HRE did not deign to take part it failed miserably. However, somewhat miraculously both the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate converted nigh-simultaneously to Nestorianism about 30 years ago, and since then their borders have been frozen pretty much in their current locations.

Current plans are to finish up with unifying Britain, then I'll swap over to Greece, take out the Byzantine Empire and defeat the Ilkhanate somehow. Easy, right?