It is very important that in you're first turn while playing WRE you start out by building the foundations that will keep you alive for the next 50 turns.

Just be aware that there are lots of variables that can and will effect the game, not only you're own characters traits but also the traits of you're enemies and their leaders. If another faction/hoard leader "admires" you're empire then this will seriously change the tone and pace of that campaign.

Get governors of the bat, put one in Briton Superior, one in Aquiline (I think it’s called) for the sake of the gold mine there, one in Caratgina (South Spain) and one in Africa. Put religion buff or Bread and Games depending on the happiness in the region, this is Vital to delay rebellions (Also you’re governors will gain XP which you can use to upgrade traits that will improve order and province happiness).

What you also will want to do is upgrade the goldmine in Aquiline as it will be a massive advantage later in game.

As for the tech tree, go for the top part of military tree and get you’re starting units upgraded, this tech will also allow you to bring down upkeep cost of your armies and since you start with a lot of troops you Will see the difference in cash-flow.

Move you’re army in Spain down into West Africa along with the Army in central Africa and start removing the other nations on that continent; you don’t have to conquer them, you can turn them into client stats to avoid having to garrison them or at worse, Raze them and destroy the settlements, be warned though as it will cost you 9000 dinars to settle them later. I realize it is an uphill battle and difficult, you should only fight them if they are besieging a settlement or you are effectively 2 armies against one, the point is not to recruit new units to your armies as you’re already in trouble with food and money.

Once you have Africa pacified, you will have you’re back to a wall and trust me. That makes mid- late game soooo much easier.

Focus on one threat at the time, pull you’re armies together to take down the hoards already in you’re territory. 2 or 3 armies pr hoard should be enough as you’re troops are usually superior to theirs and if you keep to together and manage to kill his general then there is a good chance you can rout the hoard.

Be merciless when that happens, use you’re light infantry and cavalry to kill and capture as many as possible for two reasons. One, you will be able to defeat the remnant easily next turn, second reason, you will want to “recruit” captured prisoners into you’re army from every fight to keep you’re numbers up.

This is by far the hardest continent to hold, but if you are successful (you will lose land in the east as you consolidate you’re armies) you will keep them out of the fertile farmland and prevent barbarian empires from forming in mid-game. Also if possible and like Africa, strike out at isolated boarder regions and simply raze them as a buffer, try to not abandon your own lands as this gives a negative impact on all other provinces and invites rebellion.

I actually found this by far the easiest to defend, if you play you’re cards right then the only massive threat will be the one from the Scots and Pics. Remember, all the other invasions are from the Irish or Saxons and they are seaborne, for example once you defeat the first Saxon invasion the Franks will normally finish them in Europe.

When a seaborne invasion attacks you’re settlement you will have one light ship with marines available, use that light warship to target the enemy general before he can land. If you avoid the enemies “arrow transports” you’re marines should be enough to kill him. After that the landing force, no matter how big it is will still be tier 1, this means horrible, horrible moral, break them with flanking attacks as they go for your capital flag in the battle screen.

Now I realize some of my suggestions seem unrealistic and/or extremely difficult but I have had to manually fight every battle and I have only lost the ones where they took settlements in Eastern Europe. In almost every battle I have kept my armies in tact as losing them would mean a finished game, it’s a roll of the dice but I think it’s the best way to go about it.

Abandoning too much land will give you too much public penalty which will lead to rebellions and a downwards spiral. Even worse means that mid-game barbarian empires with highly effective tier 2 and 3 troops will make the game much harder.

Agents such as spies are a godsend as the ability to "delay" enemy armies will keep them from surprising you and allow you to deal with them piece meal.

It’s a grind, but a fun one and around turn 50 I have been able to stabilize with most of my starting empire intact, winter along with the razing of boarder regions means that the hoards and barbarian factions are confined and starving in the horrible winter that has taken much of the north.