The Movement of Hordes

As a GameMaster, I have seen many hordes come rolling out of the grass lands; I've seen them rape and pillage; and I have seen them butchered and quartered by those wimpy civilized plowshare wonks. I have been disappointed as I've seen horde after horde come barreling into Europe thinking that they'll become Khan of Krakow ruling all from the Seine to the Donets. Each of these hordes find themselves opposed by a Grand European Anti-Horde Alliance who spit their entire wad of intelligence into the unwary tribe of wandering Cossacks. Always that horde is destroyed. A horde can be effective force but if not properly played will become a laughing stock of the weenies who are not true men. The intimidation that a horde poses upon the girlie-men farmers is real though, because of the potential of the horde. But the horde fails to make its potential.
In the Lords game I run, I always open a horde up for play immediately after it is hatched from the great grassy incubator. To run at horde at this stage to attack a civilized nation would put me in a position of playing against the players. I do not wish to do that so I let players do that for me. I pay a price for that though with mediocre horde play.
How can a horde become really tough? How can a horde make the decadent tapioca eaters pay for the insolence? I have a few ideas.
First, a horde must get as big as possible while still in the wild lands. Initially a Horde does not have to pay troop support. That is, so long as a horde does not conquer and garrison a cultivated region or settle a cultivated province; that mega army can support itself on grasshoppers and wild deer.
A horde can get bigger through a mysterious process called 'Horde Diplomacy'. A big horde comes into a wild, steppe region, they are parlayed by the native tribe in the region. Both sides puff themselves up claiming to have more balls per ounce than the other. Several things may happen as a result. The natives may attack. The natives may destroy you. The natives may join you either as an ally. The natives may be absorbed. Or usually, they will let you pass allowing you free passage. You can visit a region every turn, and try to recruit the natives until they join you. It is always best for a horde to travel from one end of a steppe plain to the other and this way have as much contact with possible recruits as possible.
Now you have lots of cavalry and allies. Your army is very big. You may think you can defeat those wusses down there but you're wrong. You are not prepared. Things can still happen to you. For one thing you have no intelligence service.
You have a low Siege QR. You have no gold yet. A horde can loot and plunder before reaching the really juicy lands. They can loot and plunder all the steppe and wilderness regions they can reach, raising lots of cash. They can enslave any of these regions and build up a captive army of slave NFP to whip before them. The loot they can invest in Bureaucracy to get more leaders, in the intel stats in order to combat the intel systems of the civilized folk and in Siege QR. The slaves will be useful in battles and sieges. A well prepared horde may be better equipped to deal with all the flak the civilized world will throw at you, but remember every turn that you are out there gives the civilized wops one more turn to prepare against you. You might want to diplomacize your allied hordes so they won't rebel from you later. Money might also be saved so to pay the troop support once it has to be paid upon contact with cultivation.
A horde must take risks, the more calculated the better they are. A cautious horde will lose time and will eventually be destroyed by the yellow bellied settled down types. A reckless horde can be easily manipulated and will be liable to destroy itself thinking themselves invincible. A middle path must be taken. A plan must be in action to do what you want to do with your horde. Risks must be taken but the targets must be carefully chosen. The easiest place for a horde to penetrate is the Middle East. From the Middle East, a horde can attack India, North Africa or even Europe. The next easy target for a horde is China but the horde must be swift or else the Chinese will be well prepared.
Hordes that successful plunder China can then move on to South East Asia or even India. The toughest place is Europe. It is possible to break in Europe but Europe must be caught unawares and must be in a state of disunity in order for any success to happen at all. Also a horde must be prepared to lose their khan every turn if they rush into Europe; risking dynastic strife. If you really want to take out Europe; whomp on the Middle East first.
In my estimation, the horde is a most difficult position to play because of it survivability rate. Hordes are a bunch of homeless vagabonds trying to steal land from the entrenched rich wimps. Some hordes are played fatalistically; expecting to die. All I can say to that is you'll get what you expect. If you are a horde, play to win and maybe you just will.