First turn is very important, you must do everything I say here to start off with a huge lead in which you need to capitalize on or you will be wiped out mid-game by the east and their 9 allied factions.

Have "The Tempests" stack SACK Gelonus first turn, yes first turn. On the same stack build a story tellers yurt for priests, and a bartering grounds for spies. These are VERY important come mid-game as you will have 2-4 enemy agents assaulting you every single turn. Once that is complete keep that stack there for the next turn.

For your general give him 1 in lightning and 1 in vanguard.

Have "The Children of Larch" raise a new army in his starting position.

Set both that stack and "The Blood Riders" to mass migration and head towards Kariskos.

(If you like you can slowly make your way by moving 3/4 of the distance, setting them into camp mode and start the building of your troops and structures but I find rushing is a lot better as the bonuses you will receive in the end are much better.)

Now that is it for your movement and building.

Now go to your faction tab and set both Charaton and Kuridak to "Dread Riders" this will help as you can now recruit horses for less.

Then have both Oktar and Optar use "Seek Wife", this is important as their wives will now give you more family to use "Secure Loyalty" and save your influence on main characters for more important things.

For research you can do what ever you like, researching the first civic tab is nice for +3 bonus. Or you can go for "Massing of Power" and get a bunch of Bosphoran Warriors which are nice.

IMPORTANT: WE ARE GOING FOR THE OVERLORD SKILL. PUT 1 AND 1 IN EACH TALENT REQUIRED UNTIL YOU ARE ABLE TO LEARN IT. DO NOT PUT ANY POINTS IN ANY OTHER TALENT NOR DO YOU PUT 2 INTO 1. WE NEED THIS SKILL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Second turn is also important as you will now see why you are not razing these two cities quickly.

Set your fresh army that you created in turn 1 to mass migration and head towards "The Tempests". Select the tempest and attack Gelonus AGAIN and SACK. Then set your armies back to regular travel and move them towards Kariskos and this time move them only 3/4 so you can camp and build a new "Artisans Yurt" in the blood riders, also recruiting 3 mounted brigands in both stacks.

Now on your third turn if you can either recruit a merc catapult or simply siege Karioskos and just build a battering ram or ladders and move your other stack into range. Make sure to keep it in camp mode to keep building and recruit another 3 horsemen.

Your fourth army should now be within range to reinforce the tempests in their next sacking. So move them and start the building of structures on them if you able. Now sack them again.

Now for your fourth turn siege Karioskos but again just sack them, and once again sack Gelonus. You no longer need to recruit any new units now just keep your units in camp mode and build new structures.

Now if possible go back into the faction tab, now have both Optar and Oktar "Become Retainer" to one of your leaders

Now I am sure you are wondering why we are not razing these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ barbarians. This is because we are farming these scum for general levels. Every battle gives exp to your general so every turn begin to resiege Karioskos and sack Gelonus. Eventually Gelonus will be razed by another faction so bring those two stacks to south of Karioskos and keep them on the other side of the border. So here is the tricky part.

Once you are able to ATTACK not just siege Karioskos move your two stacks across the border into reinforcement range and attack.

After the battle move the two stacks that were previously IN KARIOSKOS territory ACROSS THE BORDER*****. This is SUPER important because you will be able to put them into camp mode to continue building and ALSO not be totally destroyed by the bogus rivalry mechanic for having too many stacks in one province.

Now this is where the SUPER DEE DUPER farming commences (goes faster if you can recruit a merc catapult). Keep attacking and rotating units in and out making sure they all get battle exp and are able to camp (sometimes they are not). This is also why you do not build any infantry, this is will not allow you to cross the river and camp as they severely lower your campaign movement ability.

Now we are farming for the skill "Overlord" which you will need to max out ASAP as it will give us a huge bonus to horde growth as well as taxes.

IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE ONCE CHARATON AND KURIDAK REACH LEVEL 3 YOU ARE PUTTING THEM INTO THE "GLORIOUS SUBJUGATOR" OFFICE. YOU NEED THESE GROWTH BONUSES! Make sure to replace their offices with the statesmens who are being retained Grand Despoiler is more important than dread rider as it reduces upkeep!

So basically you do this until some other faction razes the city or captures it.

I would keep your army to only 4 stacks for most of the game as you will receive serious penalties for having more than 2 in once province which is very hard to accomplish while moving around the map and destroying everything else.

Make sure you recruit the max number or spies and priests and start to level them!

This is once again super important as mid-game you will have 2-4 enemy agents attacking your armies.

NEVER EVER SUBJUGATE A FACTION. THEY WILL ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS BACKSTAB YOU IN THE END OR SEND AGENTS FOR YOU. It is FAR too much trouble for an extra 200 income a turn to risk leaving them around.

Once you max out Overlord you can do what ever you wish now. But I don't recommend staying in one area too long, you should be trying your best to raze as many barbarians as you can and get rid them.

Also NEVER call your allies to your aid if you are declared war upon. They will 95% of the time say now and will declare war on you in a few turns because well, now they can.

That is all for now I will add a few things if I can think of anything or any idea pop up. If anything is unclear go ahead and let me know. Good luck!