Will Mongols be Hordes or Settled?

[Carter938]

I dont know if this was asked before, but how will the Ilkhanate and Golden Horde be handled in regards to settlements? Will they be purely nomadic hordes, able to recruit on the move, but not able to settle into cities as they historically did? Or will they function like regular settled societies and base themselves from cities and castles rather than nomadic camps? How will their recruiting process work in regards to this?

[Carter938]

Thanks so much.

[You_Guess_Who]

Sorry for not answering right away, but that's because how the Mongol factions would be depicted in campaign is still up in discussion.

One of the option is, by making the main Chingis Khan-led Mongol Khanate be horde-only, but the sub-khanates led by his sons be able to settle as client states. The idea is so the main Mongol Horde sweeping Iran and Russia, while the Ilkhanate and Golden Horde settle behind the main horde. They would supply income to the main horde. When Chingis and Ogodei eventually dies, then the sub-khanates will be liberated and become normal factions.

[Carter938]

That actually sounds extremely cool, but how would that work with humans playing as them in campaign?

[You_Guess_Who]

It is exactly with human playability in mind. You see, for a faction to be playable, it have to exist at the start of the game. Emerging factions can either emerge by their own or triggered by script, but those factions cannot be human-controlled.
We want for the Khanates to be playable, but the polities known as the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate weren't existed yet at 1212, as they're still the part of the Great Mongolian Khanate under Chingis. Batu was still a wee kid, and Hulegu haven't been born yet. However, their fathers are already serving the Khanate as commanders. Assigning the Golden Horde and Ilkhanate to Jochi and Tolui will serve several purposes:

1. Ensuring both factions be playable
2. Ensuring Russia and Iran won't end as desolate regions, because the Golden Horde and Ilkhanate would settle in their wake. Too often Attila Campaign Map ended up too apocalyptic, because nobody fills the void the Huns left.
3. Support the main Mongolian Horde. In Attila, non-Hun horde factions never survive long, mostly whittled down and killed in the opening turns to organized settled faction's resistance. The Huns can only survives that long because its supported by an army-spawning script, making their armies seems endless (because they are). Its hard for the AI to actually manage Horde Economy, and mostly ended up bankrupt. The Mongol Horde, on the other hand, won't be continously in the 1212 map, because the subsequent Mongol conquests are done by the Ilkhanids and Golden Horde, but the first wave have to be solid enough to support themselves - this is where their client khanate steps in.

I prefer for the Mongols' expeditionary forces to the west to die organically rather than having to rely on scripts. This in turn will free the Golden Horde and Ilkhanate.
They are set as Client States, because Vassal when played by an human player is simply diplomatically broken - Player cannot make peace with the faction it previously in war, even if the Overlord already made peace with them; this ought to be automatic, but in practice its broken. Client State also have more diplomatic freedom, to bicker one another (Golden Horde and Ilkhanates ended up fighting each others)
This system might work for several factions that emerges not too far from the start date, e.g. the Marinids starting as Almohad vassal ready to rebel.

I actually wanted Osman to get this treatment as well, but the Osmans only had their fiefs at 1280s, and his ancestor weren't even near Anatolia in 1212, too far sadly.