The Best Caravan? Horses, Camels, and Cars oh my!

[ShayZ]

So I just wanted to start off this discussion about herding, what the best one is, what the most fun one is and the advantages of each.

Starting off Camels -

The slowest, but also extremely stable AND provides a very solid passive income due to being able to contain more farm animals in carts as well as needing less resources per hour than horses. This makes the Camel herder excellent at hauling large amounts of trade goods over long distances while making the largest passive profit ON THE MOVE.

The obvious drawback is that you CAN NOT outmaneuver every enemy in the game, you will have to fight unless you invest in such a large force that they all flee in terror. This is most applicable in the Qubba region but IS something that should be kept in mind.

Overall, they are extremely good at providing a mobile farm/trading balanced experience.

Then there were Horses -

12 is a very solid speed stat, it lets you catch up to and outmaneuver the vast majority of enemies, unless you want to forage or would prefer to move through the map at triple speed. The horses also provide some of the most efficiency on a per mile haul. They are able to haul the largest amount using the least resources, but notable a Horse Caravan will provide less passive income than a Camel Caravan.

That said if you want to be a bounty hunter on the side there aren't really any enemies you can't force a fight with. So overall a horse caravan provides the most balanced experience for the game as a whole, while less of a farming/passive income experience than the Camel Caravan. Of note Bounty Hunting is the most optimal way to get obscenely rich.

Finally the Vehicles -

They are THE fastest way to move around the map, which is cool but LARGELY irrelevant. They also GUZZLE resources and provide the WORST cost economy on getting from point A to point B. Vehicles NEED passive income or good trades to remain profitable.

That said, Vehicles have a couple critical things that make them potentially the best late game caravan type.

Simply put, they don't use resources when you are not moving. Horses and Camels still do, and they provide less value as farm animals than they do as transport. The value in farm animals lies in the Sheep, Goat, and Cattle, especially when paired with industries in the right places.

All motorcycles for example is the single best potential setup for bounty hunting select targets and wreaking havoc in the wasteland, but it is awful for trading or farming.

Igelkotts are surprisingly great for goat farmers that will move every so often from industry to industry. The main drawback of course being needing to pay wages for each driver beyond the free story ones as well as the high cost of obtaining the vehicles.

The Umi Alpha is probably the only way to make Cows actually worth it to be honest. That said it's just also just extremely great in general, provided you can keep providing fuel and make sure you are not constantly on the move.

In Summary -

It's down to Camels vs. Horses in the vast majority of gameplay, and I think most people will prefer Horses as it IS worse for farming, but you can still have some goats and you can still drink horse milk. I personally think I prefer the donkey into camel, into an industry focused late game vehicle caravan that moves from town to town once a week or less as I methodically buy out the industries in the wasteland and go on the occasional bounty hunt.

Sorry for the ramble and thanks for anyone the reads this or replies!

EDIT: Donkey Caravans - Early Game Default unless you are going for an on foot bounty hunter caravan

[GreenOwlHead]

Thanks for sharing your insight. I agree a lot on your words. For convenience, horse caravan is preferred. For other purposes, like farming diary, wool, Camel could be suitable as average camel can carry large carts, while only few handful horses can carry large carts (according to extensive guide from Fandom, it is based on animal's capacity). Since I am playing this game again as solo, might give a shot about camel caravan with holding goats.

p.s. bounty hunting... you mean turning those bandits into authorities or release them to a town and hiring them into your industry?

[ShayZ]

Yeah I meant remanding prisoners or otherwise looking for extra labor for industries.

[GreenOwlHead]

Originally posted by ShayZ:

Yeah I meant remanding prisoners or otherwise looking for extra labor for industries.

Thanks for reply. Currently, I managed to acquire several Camels with large carts for trying holding goats or holding a lot of prisoners. I will find out soon whether I use this approach properly since I been accustomed horse caravan. Also, been playing solo, thus things will be much different this time.

[ShayZ]

Yeah a nice benefit aside from Camels hauling metal carts easier for the big ones is definitely the ability to herd sheep and SOME cattle, where Horses are stuck with pretty much just goats. IMO making the wool and milk pay off to create industries with clothing and cheese is the best profit made from your farm animals. Mostly I like to play the way I play for RP purposes because if I was out in the wasteland I totally see myself trying to be a herder living with and off of my farm animals.

[GreenOwlHead]

Originally posted by ShayZ:

Yeah a nice benefit aside from Camels hauling metal carts easier for the big ones is definitely the ability to herd sheep and SOME cattle, where Horses are stuck with pretty much just goats. IMO making the wool and milk pay off to create industries with clothing and cheese is the best profit made from your farm animals. Mostly I like to play the way I play for RP purposes because if I was out in the wasteland I totally see myself trying to be a herder living with and off of my farm animals.

When I roll with more than several camels, I will start to buy few goats. I am also in RP or challenge as solo caravan. Currently staying on Tribal area again for selling over priced goat meats, over populating Drekar camp and training my character like AP, ranged weapons.

[Yria3000]

In story mode, I think it's pretty hard for someone not to trade all their animals for vehicles when they get to Qubba or its surroundings. It's very tempting to stop buying hay for animals, okay, here we're trading this resource for gasoline, but many see speed as a determining factor.

There's just one problem with doing this: over time, characters who spend a lot of time in vehicles start to gain a lot of calories and get fat... I had serious problems with this in one of my first playthroughs when I didn't notice it in time to the point of giving up and starting over. I'm not complaining, I thought this mechanic was great. There's no such thing as complacency without consequences in this game. Especially if the characters are eating like kings in the process.

So I'm thinking maybe, and I said maybe, not trading my horses or camels for vehicles next time I play, although towards the end of the game this might get in the way a bit. In open world mode, I'll still see how I proceed.

NOTE, yes, even when I buy carts, when I use animals I don't put the caravan members riding them, everyone walks because generally the team members I ride are faster than mules or camels... speaking of which, I've never considered making a caravan with oxen or cows... I think it might be unfeasible, right?