Whatsup with Caravans??

1 caravan per city.  you just send it to another city and it will build a road between the two that provides a food bonus based on distance between the cities.  the roads can be used by units to decrease move speed between cities.  note that overly complex routes do not seem to work (e.g. if the caravan has to make a lot of sharp turns to go around bodies of water.)

also: caravans are food for monsters.  they travel back and forth between cities automaticly once the route is established and are constantly devoured.  its really annoying.

there is also something about the caravan upgrading roads after a certain number of trips, but i don't know what that is all about because I never care enough to replace them when they die.

 I like how in the Tech description it says you get Gold and maybe some Food

 I would be nice if you could assign troops to follow the Caravans.

There should always be a low level hero with a mounted troop patrolling any roads through woodlands.  Great source of xp and gold.

yeah, except that doesnt work.  i have a band of heros patrolling the woods around all of my cities (like you said, great way to make cash), but caravans still turn into meals on wheels.

You can't join hero to caravan making a group, just like every other unit does?

There has been some discussion in the forums about a tech level that gives you guarded caravans.  Hopefully it is a suggestion Stardock will take a look at.  There are several progressions you can make.

My suggestion

caravan

escort caravan

guarded caravan

King's caravan

each one has a different number of troops you could assign with the initial construction.  Right now I make caravans, guard them until the road is constructed, then I leave em.  Takes to much time, I have other things to do, like conquering my neighbors.

I just hate when caravans destroy my gold mines. What kind of merchants are these?! They swooped in and murdered all my miners!

 Caravans should just not be able to attack.

I want to upgrade my caravans with enchanted lightning cannons please.

Seriously though, you should be able to attach a caravan guard to them.

They are cold hard Merchants of death!

We are not suggesting they can attack, but I want to be able to assign troops to guard it.  Defensive, not offensive.

As a rule of thumb, if you can get the exact same result using micro management, then something is wrong.

In this case, your suggestion can be replaced by creating the troops and following the caravan every turn. Annoying, but possible.

A caravan should be like every other unit, meaning that you can just place defenders on the caravan. There shouldn't be a research cost for something that is supposed to be trivial.

Instead, I think your suggestions of an escorted caravan, guarded caravan and king's caravan should just have attack and defense stats of it's own. Naturally, it will be for self defense only since the caravan will not leave the route after it is established.

The game play advantage for this is that you pay less upkeep for the caravan (compared to assigning units to defend it), and though saving money for each tech upgrade.

Can you ever build more than one caravan?

Everywhere I read it says one per city, but in my games I have buildmore than one per city sometimes,

But I don't know what to do to build more....

 Or is it just a bug when you're able to build more?

Depends.  Empire has an extra Diplomacy tech that allows one additional caravan per city.  I also think I've been able to build more than one as a kingdom faction on occasion, but it was late game and I wasn't keeping close enough track to which cities' caravans were being destroyed.

It is possible, it is sort of what I am doing.  I don't think that much micro is fun.

On the tactical screen I would have one squad of archers and 1 squad of swordsman for the guarded caravan.  The caravan could still be on the screen and get destroyed.  The troops assigned to the caravan should only be able to defend the caravan if attacked.

I don't think the caravan unit itself should have an attack and defense.

I agree we should have upgradeable caravans much like settlers. Also, if a monster destroys it you have to build and send another? Does this mean you can send it to a new location or does it have to be the same. This is one of thoese "lack of info" areas that is annoying.

I still don't see why a caravan shouldn't have an attack and defense stats.

In civilization for example, non combat units like the transport still had a decent defense value. In game terms it meant that the unit could not initiate an attack, but could defend itself and even kill an enemy if attacked.

Translated to Elemental combat rules, it is the same as having both attack an defense, but still being restricted from attacking someone (or at least, an inability to change route after it is set).

In addition to that, when I look at the caravan as a unit, it looks like every other unit but with something that is called "a merchant kit", that adds the benefits and restrictions of the caravan.

So why make extra special rules for caravan? why not simply make it like any other unit except for a restriction for a single unit and the number per city limit?

This makes things simpler. You want attack and defense stats? just add them, but be aware that it will increase your cost, training time and upkeep of the caravan.

I guess I see a caravan as a couple carts with some merchants on it.  To me the attack and defense would be zero, or so small it might as well be zero.

I am remembering the old Robin Hood movies.  They would transport gold and different things and of course it would get robbed.  So then they started sending the gold with guards.  It would still get robbed but at least they put up a fight.  The driver of the caravan is just worthless in the fight.  In fact, I think he is shot by an arrow right of the bat.

The food for mobs is a GOOD THING[tm] imho... It allows you to build another caravan and send it to other/different cities to build a new road!  More roads = less troops needed to defend as the transit system improves!

The longer the route the more FOOD is grown and harvest during the transit time and delivered at each end of each one way trip, actually its a % bonus added every turn to the cities at each endpoint of each segment.   Really wonder ful for cities with 1-2 fertile lands, allows them to feed the nation!

You can also disband caravan, to regain caravan slot.

Good thing to do, if you just want to buil road between two cities, where trade route is not profitable to keep caravan around (both cities without food).

And caravans are dirt cheap.