izigame.me

The Horse Lords expansion is one of the best out of all the CK2 expansions, and the addition of nomadic governments and realms is truly a blessing, but admittedly at times a curse. Playing as a nomad is a highly enjoyable experience, but is admittedly OP after what can be a slow build up (you know, unless your Khazaria or Uyghur). Additionally, this OP type of government does make for enjoyable player nomadic experiences, but be warned, the AI nomads will have many of the same power you would have if you were playing them, making playthroughs that even begin near nomads a hard and sometimes unenjoyable experience. But, let's go into more detail.
First off, the nomadic government type is well thought, where you have to manage both a population of citizens under your clan, and a horde that acts as a retinue substitute, but is directly connected to your population. This means that you want to keep getting more grazing land, building improvements to aid population growth, and so on, since this means your population will increase towards your maximum capacity, allowing you to maintain a greater horde size, which in turn makes your military improvements more worthwhile. As for vassals, you have clans which are created by splitting off a segment of your population to a county in your realm, acting as a king-tier vassal who is powerful, and will require council seats if Conclave is enabled. Also, these vassals can be appeased in a variety of ways, from giving them more grazing land, to distributing nomadic-specific honorary titles, etc. But beware, because these vassals becoming too powerful can really be a threat to your survival, whether it be usurping the khanate from your child heir (must be an adult to be head honcho), to them challenging your authority, overthrowing you, and absorbing your clan (substitute for revocation of titles, game over if it happens). As a result, everything feels interconnected, or a good mix of fragile and fair, making for some great experiences.
However, there is looming question of how powerful this government type is, and the answer is VERY! Your home camp improvements pave the way to receiving ridiculous combat modifiers your already overpowered cavalry units. Your horde that could originally take on armies 1 and a quarter times their size can eventually take on armies three to four times their size depending on the martial of your commanders and a variety of factors. The once mighty Abassids will practically be fighting you with butter knives and teddy bears a century and a half to two centuries once you get the hang of it, and for any expert of CK2 more likely sooner. And when it comes to casus bellis, nomads have the widest variety. They can establish tributaries of the bat, they have access to subjugation, they can use conquest, and then they have the subordination casus belli that subjugates a singular duchy and will vassalize anyone who is of the duke tier or lower, or there's the invasion cassus belli that allows you to take (anything occupied) or vassalize whole kingdoms in a single war. And the only thing preventing you or the AI from taking this to town is the game rule in the menu that can be turned on or off, and gives the option for clans to declare independence from a khanate if they feel it's appropriate, which can allow players and AI alike to snowball if this is kept off. There's also the mechanic of razing, which allows you to destroy feudal and tribal holdings to make solely-nomadic counties, which if done often enough, can give you tons of gold, and a large stream of tech points, making it even more powerful.
Don't get me wrong, I love this DLC. It is one of my favorites and the nomadic government is a go-to for when I want to play easier games. However, it must be known that this can also be game-breaking, even several years after its initial release, which is surprising considering other features that have been patched or fixed. Still, I'd say for the essential CK2 experience, Horse Lords is a must-have.