Befriend or Kill the Mongol Khan?

[GorishiDan]

So about 5y away from 1200 AD i get a prompt about the mongol invasion and within a few years they went from county size to empire size and have over 60K troops, half of hose are "special soldiers" that i have no idea how strong they are or how to counter and as its stands, the Mongols could destroy my own empire...

However as their own empire grew they got within my diplomatic range so i was able to do schemes against the Khan

Befriend - would that prevent the Mongol Khan from conquering my lands? seems unlikely but i gotta know

Kill - my wife and i are intrigue focused so i could plot and kill the Khan fairly easily

Now, while i dont want to lose my lands i do wanna see the mongol invasion play out, see how far they can reach, how strong they can get.. but i wont be able to do that if i get a game over screen...

Thoughts?

[SkiRich]

From past experience (CK2) killing a khan is rather futile since he gets replaced by another one, which could be worse.
The only time in my play that killing a khan worked out was when the replacement would be very young, which buys you time to amass a larger army.

Fact is the Mongol Horde will want to dominate your lands. The only thing holding them back is superior army size and strength.

Alliance, if possible would also help some.

Prepare to fight. Thats my experience. Others may have better advice.

[GorishiDan]

This was before the update but when i first saw the mongols invade i was all the way across the map so i really couldn't find it in me to worry lol

But eventually, as years passed, the original "Greatest of Khans" died and got replaced by a 20 something year old dude and after that things got boring and their empire seized growing which was why i thought about killing the Khan..

Also on this play through i'm not all the way across the map like the one i mentioned above, i'm right below them ruling the Bengal Empire

As for alliances there are none worthy to make besides my existing ones with my kids ruling their kingdoms under me.. I do have the perk that allows one alliance without marriage sadly already in use but would it be possible to get allied with the mongol khan ? lol i could kill the person i'm allied with so i can use the perk again

[Sentient_Toaster]

If you murder the Great Khan, his heir will inherit the Great Khan trait as well as most of his titles (high partition), but this inheritance seems to be finite.

Also, toddler Great Khans will tend to have worse skills than adult Great Khans, and worse relations with vassals. Their military will also be less effective if you assassinate everybody with a high Martial skill.

Regarding their special troops, they get a lot of light horsemen, horse archers, armored horsemen, and mangonels.

Personally I'd rather try to break them up rather than ally with them, because they're a potential threat as long as their empire is cohesive and I'd rather be leading the one dominant player.