Tips For Stallion That Mounts the World?
I bought the game a few months ago, and I wanted to test myself by getting an achievement in the very hard category. I'd never played the nomad government, so I said to myself, "ok I'm going to try and get this one because I love painting the map and making the world weep".
Anyway, I realized very quickly the Great Defiance War to actually become Genghis Khan was pretty difficult. I tried to do it with most of the steppe conquered as Temujin, and I was hopelessly flattened on 2 fronts (China and the Middle East). After a couple of generations waiting for empires to crumble and conquering more land, I was able to get China (claim all land under heaven cassus belli came in clutch) and become Genghis Khan when my character was in their early-mid 30s. I made a save here so I could come back and try again if my heirs didn't finish the job. Well, I did two tries, and there's always a couple sections of the world I wasn't able to conquer before the generation timer ran out and I lost my mongol onslaught cassus belli, my submission or ruin interaction, and my dominance level.
First try, I was able to get everything conquered but southwest Africa and Iberia. Second try, I got all of Europe except for a chunk of north Scandinavia, India, a couple of pieces of Iberia, and again southwest Africa. So a bit worse, actually.
I heard that Temujin gets extra buffs and events for being Genghis Khan, and I did get the conqueror trait to buff him while my other heirs weren't able to trigger it, so was it a mistake to have Temujin die before I tried to conquer the world? Keeping super-large independence wars from happening was a huge problem too, as I'd be in the middle of another war and have to split the horde and usually lose one or both wars. At times I had like 4-5 wars active between conquering, claim defending, and independence wars.
If they were all in the same region, it would be simpler, but it would always be: "I'm trying to make Portugal submit, and Oh No, China Wants to Be Free, and There's So Many People That It's Impossible to Lower Discontent".
For those who have gotten the achievement, what decisions/habits helped? Did you start the conquering right away with Temujin so you could avoid the Black Plague/take advantage of weaker walls? Or is it mostly RNG?