User:PtY/Sandbox
For steppe nomads.
- −10% Aggressive expansion impact
- −5 Years of separatism
- −20% Land attrition
- +20% Cavalry combat ability
- −5% Land maintenance modifier
- +1 Land leader shock
- −25% Core-creation cost
- +20% Manpower recovery speed
- +25% National manpower modifier
- −10% Stability cost modifier
Steppe hordes are countries that use Steppe Nomads government reform. All hordes are located in the territory of the former
Mongol Empire and are essentially successor states to it. These nations usually have a large number of low development provinces with steppe and desert terrain, which makes peacefully increasing their development costly. Steppe hordes have access to a variety of horde-specific mechanics added with Patch 1.14 along with the
Cossacks DLC, such as several unique casus belli, succession crises, horde unity, razing and significant bonuses to cavalry and warfare in general.
General information
In 1444, the steppe nomads are the preeminent military powers of Central Asia and southern Russia. Their military units have more pips than those of their sedentary neighbors and, thanks to their government type, they have a high cavalry to infantry ratio. This makes them well suited for early warfare, whether for money from looting and war reparations or for new territory. However, they will quickly lose their advantage as neighboring countries develop and build on their more valuable province and embrace institutions, which are more likely to spawn and better able to spread in provinces that aren't controlled by hordes.
Government
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Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 1.30. |
- Main article: Steppe Nomads
Most of the hordes' unique features derive from the Steppe Nomad government type, which has the following effects:
+20% National manpower modifier
+20% Land force limit modifier
−5 Years of separatism
+50% Looting speed
−15% Institution spread
+20% Movement speed
−50% Reinforce cost
+25% Cavalry to infantry ratio
- Always have Casus Belli on neighbors. See Tribal Feud and Tribal Conquest below.
- Bonus +25% or penalty −25% to damage in the shock phase of combat depending on whether the terrain is flat or not. See Steppe shock bonus below.
- With
The Cossacks DLC, use
horde unity instead of
legitimacy, and may raze non-core owned provinces for monarch power and loot.
- Can reform the government to become an a Monarchy, a Republic or a Theocracy via the governmental reform mechanics
Horde unity
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Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 1.23. |
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Available only with the The Cossacks DLC enabled. |
Horde nations have Horde unity instead of legitimacy. Like legitimacy, horde unity provides scaling bonuses when it is above 50 and penalties below:
Variable | 0% | 50% | 100% |
---|---|---|---|
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+2 | 0 | −2 |
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−5% | 0 | +5% |
Horde Unity is gained and lost as follows:
- Base −2 per year
- −0.01 per 2 total
development the country owns, limited to −3
Tribes estate
Loyalty below 30:
- Looting:
+1 per 4
ducats looted
- Razing: +1 per 2 points of province
development before razing
- +0.1 yearly per point
Revanchism (+10 at 100)
- +0.005 yearly per point of
power projection (+0.5 at 100)
Several ideas and polices increase horde unity:
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Please help with verifying or updating this table. It was last verified for version 1.30. |
With Rights of Man DLC enabled, hordes can gain horde unity in exchange for military power by strengthening the government on the Government tab. Spending 100
military power will increase
horde unity by 10.
Horde ideas
Hordes have access to the Horde idea group instead of the Aristrocratic idea group. It combines several of the bonuses from the Humanist idea group with bonuses more typical of military idea groups.
Diplomacy
Casus belli
Steppe hordes have access to two unique casus belli: Tribal Conquest and Tribal Feud. Neither requires claims on an opponent, and neither gives unjustified demands penalties for conquering unclaimed provinces.
Tribal Conquest
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Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 1.23. |
- Main article: Tribal Conquest
Steppe hordes automatically gain this casus belli on all neighboring countries other than steppe hordes.
Using this casus belli has the following effects: 75% aggressive expansion, 100% prestige and 100% warscore cost for:
- All provinces
- Monetary reparations
- Enforced vassalage
- Enforced tributary state
Ticking warscore is based on battles won; if one side gains over 10% warscore from winning battles then the wargoal will start ticking in their favor. This can be quite useful in the first few decades of the game due to the early strength of nomadic units.
Tribal Feud
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Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 1.23. |
- Main article: Tribal Feud
Steppe hordes automatically gain this casus belli on all neighboring steppe hordes. Using this casus belli has the following effects: 75% aggressive expansion, 100% prestige and 100% warscore cost for:
- All provinces
- Monetary reparations
- Enforced vassalage
- Enforced tributary state
The casus belli targets a specific province and ticking warscore is based on control of that province.
Tributaries
- Main article: Tributary
Steppe hordes have access to a special form of subject type called tributaries. Tributaries retain full diplomatic independence and may start wars and have subjects of their own. The overlord receives a call to arms if the tributary is attacked (unless if by another tributary of the same overlord), but does not have to accept.
Each year, the overlord may demand a tribute of money, manpower, or monarch points. If the tributary pays the tribute, trust increases slightly; if it refuses, trust falls significantly. Either party may renounce the tributary status at will, unless they have a truce.
Tributaries are one of the most powerful parts of a horde world conquest: They take zero aggressive expansion (so fewer coalitions), can core the land you just razed, and give you ducats, manpower or monarch points.
Hence, with your Tribal Conquest CB that gives you zero diplomatic cost for all provinces, get the target to (1) release the smallest nation, (2) take maximum cash (25% war score) and war reparations (10% war score) as your loss making horde economy will need it (3) take maximum land (4) immediately make the newly released nation a tributary, then (5) keep all provinces with trade modifiers (i.e. estuary or
center of trade) for yourself, destroy forts (for easier conquest next time) and only then raze all these non-cored provinces and hand them to the newly released tributary (they'll hate you for razing their cores, but they are already tributaries) (6) when the razing cool down is done, break tributary status and raze them again.
Economy
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Hordes are tough to play for beginners as they have little income to speak of in the beginning. All their land is low development (high development in fact causes horde unity loss up to a maximum of 3 units per year) and they get no real economic bonuses.
Therefore, in the beginning, warring is required to get maximum cash (25% war score) and war reparations (10% war score) from all your victims in order to offset your massive negative cash flows each month from maintaining a powerful army and fleet and probably from servicing huge loan interest.
With the Tributary strategy as outlined above in the Tributary section one will achieve two critical strategic foundations over a long time:
- Trade dominance: you will dominate each trade node as you will own the key trade provinces while having razed the other provinces in that node. In fact, with
Wealth of Nations or
Dharma, a country receives
+1 merchant for each trade company where your directly owned provinces make up more than 50%
trade power (ignoring bonuses).
- Powerful home economy base: you will use all the mana points razed from your enemies elsewhere to develop a high development, home culture, same religion home node. The same culture and religion will ensure no penalties to your income generated there, while the high development provinces neighbouring each other around trade provinces will spread institutions quickly once you have spawned them there through focused province development.
Once established, this home node income and the trade income will ensure any cash concessions from victims will be a bonus that can be applied to building as many manufactories in your home node as you can.
Military
Units
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Steppe hordes belong to the Nomad technology group. This technology group provides access to strong units in the early game, with their effectiveness relative to those of other tech groups decreasing later on. Steppe hordes' units will change to Eastern tech if Christian, Muslim tech if Muslim, or Chinese tech if Eastern.
Uniquely, nomads enjoy a +25% Cavalry to infantry ratio, meaning they can maintain a higher number of cavalry regiments within an army before suffering from the insufficient support penalty (provided they can afford the maintenance). Combined with an extra
+25% Cavalry to infantry ratio for being Tengri (for eastern hordes) or the additional
+10% Cavalry to infantry ratio for being Sunni (for western hordes), it makes for very cavalry-oriented nations.
Tengri hordes (with no syncretic faith) can therefore comprise 100% cavalry, requiring no infantry, and therefore no concerns about insufficient support. This makes merging units after battles very easy. Tied to bonuses for attrition, manpower, manpower recovery and cheaper reinforcement costs it makes Tengri hordes some of the most powerful in the game.
Steppe shock bonus
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On provinces with flat terrain, hordes get a 25% increase in damage during the shock phase. Positively affected terrain includes Plains, Steppe, Farmlands, Grasslands, Drylands, Coastal desert and Desert (surprisingly not savannah). However, on provinces with no flat terrain (Hills, Mountains, Highlands, Forest, Woods, Coastline (non-desert), Savannah and Marsh), hordes get a 25% decrease in damage during shock phase. Hordes get the bonus/penalty whether they are attacking or defending. In a battle between two hordes, they both get the bonus/penalty.
Razing
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Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 1.30. |
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Available only with the The Cossacks DLC enabled. |
Hordes can raze uncored and owned provinces for monarch points at the cost of development in that province. Razing a province:
- provides all the remaining loot in the province and increases its
devastation by 10%
- lowers the province's
development by 1 in each category and an additional 1 for every 5
development in that category before razing (rounded down)
- provides 25 monarch points in each category for every point of
development razed, reduced by 1 for every level in
military technology above 3, capped at
military technology 23 (5 monarch points per point of
development razed).
- Provides
1 horde unity for every 2 points of
development in the province before razing, regardless of the amount razed
- Decreases
opinion of former owner by -25
Once razed, a province cannot be razed again for 30 years for provinces above 30 development, 20 years for provinces above 20
development, and 10 years for the others.
Total province development cannot be brought lower than 3, meaning that provinces with 1
development in each category cannot be razed at all.
For example, razing Venezia (10/12/5), with total development 27, at
military technology 11, would lower its
development to 7/8/3, and provide
51,
68, and
34, plus
13 horde unity and any
loot remaining.
The final government reform allows an option to increase the monarch power gain by 33%; combined with the perpetually at-war nature of horde nations, it makes this a considerably more attractive option than the alternative horde unity reform.
For those who are playing a converted CKII game and the Iconoclast , Tengri players can choose Iconoclasm as their syncretic faith and receive a +20% modifier to rasing power gain.
- Note: If the tribes estate is disloyal, monarch power gained from razing is decreased by 25% ~ 100%, depending on Tribes Influence level.
List of hordes
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This is a list of hordes that appear in the game. Not all hordes appear in the start year 1444.
Achievements

Concepts | Corruption • Governing capacity • Overextension • Power projection • Rebellion • Regions • Stability • States and territories |
Court | Advisors • Consort • Monarch power • National focus • Ruler • Ruler personalities |
Estates and Factions | Base estates • Cossacks estates • Dharma estates • Estates • Factions |
Events and Missions | Decisions • Disasters • Events • List of decisions • Missions |
Goverment | Absolutism • Culture • Government • Government rank • Modifiers • Policies |
Province mechanics | Autonomy • Buildings • Canal • Capital • Core • Province |
Religions | Christian denominations • Eastern denominations • Muslim denominations • Other denominations • Pagan denominations • Religion |
Specific governments | Native council • Parliament • Steppe hordes |
Colonisation | Exploration • Colonisation • Colonial nation • Tariffs • Trade company |
Economy | Debase currency • Development • Economy • Privateering • Production • Raid coasts • Tax |
Trade | Trade • Trade company • Trade goods • Trade nodes |
Diplomacy | Diplomacy • Diplomatic feedback • Envoy • Espionage |
Other | Defender of the Faith • Great power • Hegemon • Prestige • Regions |
Political structures | Emperor of China • Holy Roman Empire • Papacy |
Relations | Personal union • Relations • Subject nation |
Ideas and Policies | Idea groups • National ideas • Policies |
Ages and Institutions | Ages • Institutions |
Innovativeness and Technology | Innovativeness • Technology |
Declaring war | Alliance • Casus belli • Claim • Peace • War exhaustion • Warfare |
Defense | Fort • Zone of control |
Land warfare | Army • Condottieri • Discipline • Drilling • Land units • Land warfare • Manpower • Militarisation • Mercenaries • Professionalism |
Naval warfare | Flagship • Naval blockade • Naval doctrine • Naval units • Naval warfare • Navy • Sailors |
Other | Force limit • Military leader • Military tradition |