Besides the whole horses > footman thing, this is what really annoys me: they spam armies like nothing!
I dont have evidence, but I remember I ragequit a save because I was trying to take Epicrotea from them.
At first Monchug came with an army of 1500, ok I said, I had a big army, so no problem. We defeated them, we captured them. Then, before the 2nd siege tower was ready, another 1500 army lead by Mesui was poking me. Fine! I can take them, we had massive casualties but somehow we manage to keep 400 or so mens. Now guess what, before we had the 3rd trebuchet ready, FREAKING MONCHUG AGAIN with another 1500 army!!
All the captured lords escaped, recruited 100~ soldiers, took an airplane from the steppes to Epicrotea in less than a week.
We got our butts handed to us, captured. We were travelling as prisioners to Diathma, and guess what!? We pass by Mesui with yet another 700 army.
Still, as I said in another post, that was pre-1.4 (1.2 iirc). In 1.4.1 they are in line with other factions. I just wanted to vent a little.