Escort Caravans PSA

[cailean_556]

This isn't a bleeting session, more of a warning to those who aren't prepared.

Merchants offer Caravan Escort missions, I've never taken the time to do them before. And now I regret doing so.

Everything is set to realistic, I have 22 troops, mostly Tier 2 with some Tier 1 and Tier 3 spread amongst them. Most bandit groups tend to run from my party so I figure, this'll be a cakewalk.

IT IS NOT A CAKEWALK. There's a gripe here, which I'll get to.

The run to the first city was benign - didn't even see bandits. As mentioned, I command 22 troops, the Caravan has 24. The caravan gets to the city walls and:

A STEPPE BANDIT PARTY OF 47 BANDITS SPAWNS FROM WITHIN THE CITY AND IS ATTACKING THE CARAVAN AT THE CITY GATES.

Needless to say, between 47 mounted Steppe Bandits charging at you, the hail of arrows and my horse being taken out from under me in the first 60 seconds of battle, it didn't end well. It also costs me a bit of reputation with the quest giver... Like I can work some kind of miracle with 3 cavalry, 5 archers and a mix of infantry...

My gripe is this: I'm okay with being waylayed by bandit parties in the wilds between cities, but having them spawn - in such numbers too - from WITHIN a city is quite a large bit of BS. I was expecting an ambush in the wilds, not from within a walled city.

So I've learnt 2 things: 1 - Escort Missions are not easy, and 2 - If you're going to do escort missions have a party of around 50, emphasis on mounted cavalry and mounted archers.

I've now got to go and rebuild my shattered warband and NOT do escort missions to make some coin...

Hope this helps others.

[DarkSaber2k]

I've done 5 escort missions and bandits only attacked once on one escort with 24 troops vs my 20+caravan troops. Didn't even get attacked when the caravan went from literally one edge of the map to the other. Made a nice 3k from that.

[cailean_556]

Originally posted by DarkSaber2k:

I've done 5 escort missions and bandits only attacked once on one escort with 24 troops vs my 20+caravan troops. Didn't even get attacked when the caravan went from literally one edge of the map to the other. Made a nice 3k from that.

What!? If that's the case, my RNG was not kind... 3k would have been nice.

[Ard Feainn]

The bandit type obviously differs based on your own location, but you'll see about 40+ enemies. You can always choose to not get involved in the battle and fail the quest.

You can see caravans in the game usually have at least 30 soldiers, so if you're protecting one, you should assume the enemies attacking them will outnumber the usual escort.

[Vyrex]

Originally posted by cailean_556:

Originally posted by DarkSaber2k:

I've done 5 escort missions and bandits only attacked once on one escort with 24 troops vs my 20+caravan troops. Didn't even get attacked when the caravan went from literally one edge of the map to the other. Made a nice 3k from that.

What!? If that's the case, my RNG was not kind... 3k would have been nice.

I did many escort missions too and only encounterd a 40+ man once and i found out the escorts in the west are easier sind mainly looters and sea raiders spawn even in large numbers they are easy but yes the ones in the east are harder since the majority of them are horse riders and it can be a pain if you dont have enough troops.

[Mercury]

i accepted the caravan mission, but can't find out how to start the escort

[Guy]

Originally posted by Hello, Weary Traveler!:

i accepted the caravan mission, but can't find out how to start the escort

After picking up the mission the caravan will spawn outside. Give it a second or two. Will have an exclamation on it.

I'd like to add to this PSA:

The type of bandits that spawn seem to be random. I've gotten mountain, sea, and forest bandits.

Successfully fighting off the bandits gives huge relation with all of the merchants in the caravans spawn city not just the one who gave you the job. Also if some of them flee battle they will again automatically attack the caravan without fleeing away from any superior forces and you can again get the relation bonus a second time.

I've gotten to 20+ relation with all a cities merchants with one mission.

[Bookhead]

I want to be able to merge with a caravan like we do with armies. Just saying this quest is more tedious than anything.

[Magic Cuboid]

Just chiming in that I've done a bunch of caravan escorts. I did once get attacked by a large group of Mountain Bandits, but not so large that we couldn't handle them (the caravan itself has 25 extra soldiers).

[Sir Walken]

After walking a caravan halfway across the map and most of the way back I just had a party of 115 bandits with like 20 cav spawn as soon as I left the 3rd city and just wreck everyone. I just wish there was something like right-clicking and saying "follow party" so you don't have to micro keeping the caravan in sight when you're troops are too fast.

[Doombringer]

I did caravan escort solo (no party/army), and just stabbed people in the back as they were fighting the caravan... Caravan troops did 90% of the work for me though.

[Ihateeverybody]

My Caravan (Kunzite Khans) spent several days going up and down the road to Tyral (sp?) until I quit in disgust. I don't recall being told I would be paid by the hour.....In fact I am pretty sure I wouldn't get paid until after it entered 2 settlements.

[Skald]

I just tried doing an escort mission and it completely bankrupted me. I had 30 guys in my squad and 4k saved up, i'd spent it all in wages before the caravan even reached it's first location.

Never bothering with them again, it's bad enough that there's no option to just follow the damn thing, but to haemorage all of your money at the same time...it's utterly pointless, never doing it again.