Quote Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] ]I also tend to choose my enemies (when possible) based on how much it will impact my trade. IOW, choose enemies that have a higher ratio of number of provinces they own vs. number of provinces I trade to.
Very important trade strategy that took me a while to learn-- don't use your massive navy to attack every single coastal province, because you then have 0 trade and have pissed off the entire known world. When you have a very large empire, however, the AI hates you anyway and you'll still lose trading partners fast. I usually have a pattern in my campaigns now of early expansion, naval build-up, forming a trade empire, raking in the cash for a while and teching up militarily, and then picking off enemies one by one in the order you described.

Quote Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] ]Their first attack was in Kiev; where my halb stack was luckily enough. I chose to command the attack personally (saved just in case). This was a biggie. If I lost, there was practically nothing standing in their way (all my other forces were arrayed allong my border with the HRE where tensions had been rising and passing crusades had been cheesing me off).

Lucky for me, it was a bridge defense. As soon as the battle started I put the Halbs in a column formation and sent them to attack the lead group of MHC. They met on the center of the bridge and what do you know? The halbs worked A little help from the Xbows and soon I got message saying that I had killed the enemy king The Horde army routs and I win the battle. No heirs so the rest of the Horde goes rebel I beat the Horde in one battle (sort of - they would reemerge twice before it was over with)
That sounds like how I defeated the Horde as Turks, except I was preparing a long time for their arrival, and thus had Jannisary Heavy Infantry in place of halbs and mercenary longbows and catapults in place of crossbows. I find its better not to send troops onto the bridge in defense but rather to form a sort of enclosure right in front of it so that as enemies cross, they get attacked on all sides by your heavy infantry of choice and rout within seconds, while your missile troops have a clear shot at the enemies on the bridge without risking friendly fire.

Also, when and where did the Horde reemerge in your game? I left the Horde sitting in Khazar because I wanted to fight them more (but not in a 6-hour-long slug fest in Khazar-- I don't have that kind of endurance, or time), hoping that they would reemerge, but they never did... which I found extremely odd, considering that reemergences are very common in rebel provinces because of the constant 100% loyalty (as opposed to 100+ loyalty, which helps prevent reemergences). I eventually sent a Jihad there, and since the province was mostly Muslim they surrendered without a fight and I had 13,500 captured rebels to deal with.