There should be a way to recover from losing a caravan

skoonting

The problem with the caravans right now is that there's something of a snowball effect to them. You send them out, and then through events you can recruit units and get buffs, and through battles your caravan masters will level up, and eventually they can get pretty powerful. However, if your caravan gets wiped out, it is very difficult to recover from it. Caravan masters cannot get the immortal trait and so are lost, and the all of the units in your caravans are obviously dead too.

The problem with this is that the new caravan you recruit to replace it will have an incredibly weak starting force (usually a half-stack at most), just like the one you recruited on turn 1, and of course your new caravan master will be level 1. If your original caravan was wiped out, then presumably there was some enemy in the way, and this new weak caravan will be even easier prey than the last one that died. From this point on it's completely pointless to send out new caravans, because they will just get destroyed no matter what, so you're essentially just throwing money away.

I think there are a few ways that could help fix this problem:

1. Newly recruited caravans should have a stronger starting army dependent on the turn you're on. Maybe base it on the tier of your capital?

2. Allow caravan masters to get the immortal trait, and allow you to re-recruit him if he dies.

3. If a caravan isn't filled to a full 20 stack, make the chance of recruitment events more frequent.

4. Allow for some limited recruitment at home. Maybe the caravan master can have a skill that allows you to recruit X amount of units every time he returns from a trip?

Xanthoon

This is an issue on legendary difficulty when enemy armies between you and the caravan destination just wipe out your caravans.

E.g.

Two full stacks of khorne attack a caravan. Its not a stack you have built, instead its comprised of whatever units your were offered so despite your best efforts you lose your caravan which took 30 or so turns to build up.

Things you can currently do:
recruit regiments of renown
fill out the caravan with mages
Conquer the land between you and the caravan destination to ensure no enemy factions will kill your caravan

These three things are not suitable answers to the problem imo.

I'd like to suggest these fixes:
Caravans can't be attacked by AI armies, only in caravan events can they be attacked.
After certain levels (Of the caravan leader) you can recruit chosen units to the caravan.
Ogre mercenaries become freely available to caravans.

Averath#4228

Xanthoon said:

I'd like to suggest these fixes:
Caravans can't be attacked by AI armies, only in caravan events can they be attacked.
After certain levels (Of the caravan leader) you can recruit chosen units to the caravan.
Ogre mercenaries become freely available to caravans.

I'm not sure how I feel about caravans not being able to be attacked by the AI. It feels like it may be challenging to implement, and would ultimately just be a bandaid. It'd also reduce risk, when it's a risk vs reward mechanic.

Also, rather than Ogre Mercenaries, I'd rather just a Dogs of War mechanic to let them recruit any mercenary. Hopefully the DoW will eventually be added and we'll get that option.

Omn#4329

@OP

point 2. is actually possible in two ways:
a) skill point
b) trinket (there is one, that equals the immortal-skill)

BUT even though the game informs you, (caravan-)Lord xyz is now returning to your roster, there is actually NO way in re-deploying them, as "new caravan" always ONLY gives you the option, to recruit a newb.

THIS is what CA should address imo. Can't imagine, it does a lot of good to have lords return to the roster, but be impossible to re-recruit calculations-wise.