Caravans

[americanman_4_life]

Hello peeps.
Just a question about Caravans?? HOW does one plan their travels? Meaning, how fast can a caravan go? or, How far does it travel per turn?! Is their a set formula that ALL caravans of ALL races follow? Does it depend on the race or castle calling it?

Playing a 8 player map, on Single player (a custom map actually, and I'm in a test play). Most of the players have been defeated by each other. Their are 3 AI and myself. I haven't captured one castle (not trying to, wanting to prove to my self, one can win without taking castle, using every race, by taking Tear Asha back home), but I supply my inter racial Heroes troops/creatures using spawn buildings from map, and I call them back home weekly.

My problem with the caravan?? Recently I had new wave of caravans all coming home from different directions, and I had one of my recruited heroes not of my original, planning to meet a caravan approaching my home castle, to grab the troops. Instead of having all caravans and heroes wait around at my home castle, I often have the Heroes meet/intercept the Caravans mid travel, to save turns. Also helps the interracial heroes supply their own native creatures faster, not having to go to all spawn buildings them selves. However, this particular instance, the Heroe was approaching the caravan but would of end turn about half a turns worth of travel too far from the caravan he was going to intercept, so I had him go the other direction, to get as close to the point where caravan would of stopped for that coming turn, so next turn, hero was going to catch it. UNFORTUNATELY! I mis calculated the distance of travel, and the caravan not only passed the hero the next turn, but made it to a portal, going through, but stopped just other side. The hero now can not go through portal to meet the Caravan, waiting another turn means the caravan will continue, and the hero now must back track at least 2 turns worth of travels to get those creatures it was carrying...

SO... if I'd know the distance it was going to travel, I would of more accurately predicted where the Hero would of met, and intercepted the caravan more effectively!

So brings me back to my question...
How to know the Travels of the Caravans? How far do they go per turn!?

Thanks, sorry for the descriptive explanation!! I Try to paint a good picture with my explanations.