I have gone the turks in the high period to, and you could actually take Syria from Egypt if you could get an alliance with the crusaders in Antioch etc, could do some serious damage together if you could get the alliance.


However my tactic was not to harm my rivals to much, infact I try and have a kingdom like, Rum, Lesser Armenia, Armenia, Georgia and Anatolia. Which you can get most of the additional territory by small wars with Byzantium and defeating local rebels, a strong Byzantium and Egypt is a good thing, it gives the Mongols more targets and a much harder time, id pump Georgia full of mercenaries, my best general and whatever high class troops I had, lots of saracens, muwahids, soem ghazis and lots of heavy cavalry.

The horde in the high period tends to arrive in Armenia alot more often than usual so that is even worse a problem, I tried appeasing the horde by letting them take Armenia without a fight, but then Rum was under constant attack and with the horde in Khazar coming southward and taking Trebizond it was being attacked in two places at once. Rum will likely fall, but the horde overstretches alot and when it goes southwards it sends a few thousand men, but never really reinforces them enough to make permanent conquest.

Defence is all that can be done, lots of Saracens etc, decent archers, lots of heavy cavalry, and top generals will usually hold the horde back, in preperation though you should build the best defences for you castles etc that you can, its all about making life hard for the mongols as you cannot defeat them in a straight battle at this point, youll find you will be little more than a vassal of the horde for awhile, but in time their attention goes elsewhere and you can retake what they have taken from you. The horde relies on momentum, the Turks can afford to wait a few decades, and in the meantime, you can make gains against the Crusaders, Egyptians or Byzantium.

All you have to remember is that territory can be retaken, empires rebuilt, it doesnt mean it has to be retaken right away, you can afford to defend and sit back.