I did some nice progress as well. First I did my second war against the Karluk-tribe saving them completely from chinese imperialists. Then I went on a crusade against my former ally the Cuman-Kipchak Khaganate to the north (the guys that founded the Mgos Mameluks some 400 years later). While they brought in their pretty powerful western and also turkic but still tengrist neighbours, the Pechenegs, it was an easy fight for my side with one of my allies contributing about 10k troops to the war. In total, I saved 6 provinces from the pagans in these two wars, and greatly expanded the peaceful unity of the Steppes.
I also got like another 10 children, but my second wife seems to be very ambitious, so she is starting to kill off all of my sons with my three other wives. I am not sure what to think about this, on the one hand, its nice to have a few heirs in case stuff goes wrong, on the other hand, I have waaay too many now which will give nasty decadence modifiers later, so for now I just let her have fun.