Dealing with Nomads

Dealing with Nomads is a guide about how to engage with nomads fruitfully, rather than wasting lives, time, and money repeating the mistakes of historical civilizations.

The problems of nomads will not go away until the advent of gunpowder weaponry or unless one is willing to deal such trauma to the nomads that they will literally avoid you for millennia.

First, a warning: there is no silver bullets on how to deal with them at least until the advent of gunpowder weapon and better logistics.

There are three main methods of dealing with nomad: diplomacy and trade, tributes, and warfare. The least item not recommended unless there is no choice in the matter.

Diplomacy
Diplomacy is difficult, as there is no one group of nomads to deal with, which means that it may be possible to stop a raid one group only to have another continue raiding you. However, this becomes much easier if there is a nomadic horde to deal with. If diplomacy succeed, then it should be possible to avoid a war with them.

This should mostly be considered the method of first resort. War is expensive, cost lives, and disrupt focus from other tasks for the polity.

Tributes
This can go hand-in-hand in conjunction with diplomacy, but it can also mean hiring out a group of nomads to fight for you, which could be expensive to maintain.

The greatest example of this is the Heaven's Hawks, who were originally hired to protect the northern flank of the northern provinces. After their chief, Phygriff became king, they settled down as a march, and proceeded to eventually become very wealth with their salt and gold mines.

Warfare
Finally, war is the last resort of dealing with nomads, who are difficult to destroy because of their strategic mobility and ability to run away. Sometime Marches would send our punitive expedition to trim down nomadic tribes, but for our purpose, it does not count.

Nonetheless, it should be planned for, because diplomacy and tributes don't always work, especially if nomadic heroes don't bother speaking to you before they raid.

The main primary strategy is defense-in-depth and the of one's own calvary units. Mainly, that is the construction of fortified towns and watchtowers, and in extreme case, long walls that surround a region. The Ymaryn also possessed an additional tool that historical civilizations don't have access to, mainly forestry.