Gunslinger is correct on checking the borders (a nice feature of Wallachia and Moldavia is that for the Byzantines to attack from Bulgaria they have to cross the Danube to get to either one), and yes, turtling is setting up a defensive position and teching up, which I like for the roleplaying aspect of holding your own lands instead of just wildly expanding to take over the world.
The Cumans are a great faction, but limited as far as troops, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. You're not going to get much in the way of new and improved troops later in the game, but what you start with is not bad, and it's low-tech so you can spam decent troops out of newly conquered provinces to carry your horde conquest further.
I'd recommend taking out one or two other factions, especially Kiev, fast, or else you'll get boxed in and out-teched fast, because you've got limited income available from just your starting provinces. I'm not a big fan of Bashkorts, but your Cuman heavies are basically Kats with low build requirements, Steppe heavy cavalry are one of the best multi-function units in the game (good archers, long-range and ap, fast, and powerful in melee as well), Cuman warriors are very good archers and decent in melee, and steppe cav is just ridiculously fast and very cheap and easy to build. You also have Wallachian Cav (basically steppe cav on steroids, but a little more expensive) and in early you can get Varangian Inf. from a few provinces, such as Kiev, which can make defending the castle in Khazar from the horde a little easier.
I use an army of 4 Cum Warriors backed by 3 Cuman heavies and a Cuman heavy general, with 2 steppe heavies on either flank backed by 2 steppe or wallachian cav each for flanking and/or pursuit. It's a very flexible army (though best of course on the open steppes) for skirmishing, envelopment, and direct melee, and every unit in it is relatively easy to tech up to. Another very nice feature of Cuman units is they tend to be much cheaper in upkeep than similar units in other factions. So to balance your limited unit options you have decent units that are both low tech and cheap to keep, so you can produce and maintain massive armies once you get a productive homeland established.
The horde are definitely your biggest problem (and if you're playing in high era all I can say is 'may your pagan gods smile on you.' Otherwise you're on your own!), but with a large enough empire (everything Kiev, Novgorod, Volgo-Bulgaria, and Lithuania started with) and a few waiting armies, incl. Var. Inf., they're manageable and a fun challenge.
Hope some of that helps, and if you're going to do a detailed and regularly updated history a new thread would probably be best. Anyway, welcome to the org Hurachi and good luck in your coming campaign!
Ajax
Bookmarks