I was rich when the plague hit me. I had to stop production of buildings mostly when it hit me and stopped troop production completely. When the plague hit the western part of my Venetian empire, my eastern holdings were about to recover already. The plague was only 2-3 turns.

The worst part for me was that I was battling the Mongols at the time. The huge stack I had in Iconium had the plague still 4-5 turns after the plague left all my settlements. I had to watch that uberstack (all elite units) dwindle down between the Mongols and the plague. I tried separating the general but the captain got the plague, too. The feeder stack I used to replenish that huge stack all had the plague for that long. I hired mercenaries and they got the plague, too. I had to build completely new stacks to further my conquest.