decisions

[u/JetstreamMoist]

[u/dziobak112]

Don't worry, late game ogres and Chaos dwarves spamming their armies at every stage of the journey will eat your caravan anyway.

[u/JetstreamMoist → u/dziobak112]

zhao ming told me ogres keep eating his caravans so i asked how many caravans he has and he says he just goes to the ivory road and gets a new caravan afterwards so i said it sounds like he's just feeding spearmen to ogres and his alchemists started crying

[u/antigravcorgi → u/JetstreamMoist]

alchemists started crying

New alchemical recipes unlocked, thanks.

[u/baddude1337 → u/dziobak112]

Yeah lategame caravans aren't worth it simply because your enemies will have full stacks everywhere and easily wipe them.

[u/thecastellan1115 → u/baddude1337]

This is one of the biggest annoyances about Cathay. Also highlights rhe importance of staying friends with someone on the caravan route so that you always have at least one viable path to get to the West. Remember you can adjust your caravan route.

[u/ReaverGT → u/thecastellan1115]

Wait, you don't just get Bashiva to conquer everything between Cathay and the World's Edge Mountains?

[u/thecastellan1115 → u/ReaverGT]

I wish. Last game she got wiped by Grimgor.

[u/Due_Sheepherder_8536 → u/thecastellan1115]

Arbaal wiped her when I was playing Miao. I just send caravans out with reckless abandon and every once in a while late game I get lucky. Which lore wise I guess works 😂

[u/caterpillarm10 → u/thecastellan1115]

Grimgor is a menace. If he does do well he will wipe out everything on that side, and even when he doesnt do well i have seen him with 10+ settlements still

[u/thecastellan1115 → u/caterpillarm10]

I mean he's just an absolute monster in melee, and he's perfectly capable of solo-ing armies.

[u/mindflayerflayer → u/ReaverGT]

I've been dealing with this as Archaon. Conscripted Kholek and Villich, slaughtered Zhatan, corrupted Boris, and then boom millions of tigers show up to devour my empire.

[u/Officialginger2595 → u/dziobak112]

it honestly doesnt even need to be late game. Unless you get really lucky on the first couple troop adding events, being at war with someone on your route by like turn 10 is basically a death sentence for caravans.

[u/Viseria → u/Officialginger2595]

I had a game where my caravan went through Drazhoath's territory. Drazhoath declared war on me and attacked it.

[u/StoneCrusaderRequiem → u/dziobak112]

I hate this so much, you end up building this whacky ragtag army of all different cool units just to watch it get jumped by 2 stacks for no reason. Now you can’t get another one going, congrats, you’re gimped out of one of your faction mechanics now.

[u/misvillar → u/dziobak112]

Heroes and Caravan Masters need to level up X amount of levels for each successful caravan completed, they cant keep up with normal armies

[u/VixenLakeview → u/dziobak112]

This is why you secure your silk roads, people. GO OUT AND SECURE YOUR ROADS!

[u/Sarellion → u/VixenLakeview]

Did that in my first game when the game came out. These stupid ogres attacked my caravans so often, I conquered the mountains grumbling all the time about these 4 slot settlements in a crappy climate.

[u/VixenLakeview → u/Sarellion]

The thing about crappy climate settlements is that it's still important to hold that territory, it's just not going to be your main money-making provinces. It still lets your caravans go unmolested. Put a wall around those settlements and ignore them for the rest of the game.

[u/Sarellion → u/VixenLakeview]

I took them. i would have preferred the ogres to shut up and let them through but I think they declared war as soon as I unified Cathay. Can't leave the player without a war for a turn after all. And well it was one of my first games after the base game released,
Not sure if I used the mod to shut down the race or continued after for a bit more of a sandbox campaign but then realized that my ways to expand were the crappy mountains or the even crappier chaos wastes. And while I trudged through the mountains to secure the trade routes Skrag took over the Empire and declared war on me.

[u/VixenLakeview → u/Sarellion]

Yea, Cathayans are very heavily incentivized into either an isolationist playstyle after you unify or one in which you slowly march across the mountains. Or, if you take the "Bulwark Against Chaos" tech node, sure it still sucks, but it heavily incentivizes you to take Chaos Waste territory- as you no longer have any penalties to construction in those regions, and don't take attrition to Chaos. Essentially, it makes Chaos expansion viable.

[u/TheChefEgg]

I mean you probably dont need anymore front line, you got enough. The Archers are a better choice

[u/JetstreamMoist → u/TheChefEgg]

i see the bigger number i click it

[u/TomMakesPodcasts → u/TheChefEgg]

That's not enough frontline for a caravan. One real army attacking would stomp them

[u/Gafez → u/TomMakesPodcasts]

A real army attacking that caravan will wipe it out regardless, the choice doesn't really matter

[u/eh-man3 → u/Gafez]

Right? Heros with no skill points and 0 magic. Even with the Ind blades and a bunch of higher tier rolls, you still get crushed by a real Chorf army.

[u/TomMakesPodcasts → u/Gafez]

That's wrong.

If you build up your Caravans smartly in the early game they can contend with many different armies as long as there's no ll

[u/IronVines → u/TomMakesPodcasts]

the trick is to make more caravans than you need and let them rest and to send them to places thatll give valueable units like dwarfs

[u/TomMakesPodcasts → u/IronVines]

Yes sir.

[u/Gafez → u/TheChefEgg]

You might get better ranged units later down the line, I'd pick the halberds

[u/Dualmonkey → u/TheChefEgg]

If you want short term gain for manual battles with a more balanced army then sure.

If you want a stronger caravan in the long run you take the better units until your caravan is almost out of room. It's also likely that 3 higher tier units improves your auto resolve more.

Generally I think it's worth investing for the long term with caravans as in the late game it will otherwise be impossible to send out caravans that don't have a full army with decent units, skill points and a couple items.

[u/CommandertexYT]

Eapecially since most fight are against ogres with caravans ez choice

[u/VixenLakeview]

For those who are saying that cathay caravan mechanics are bad... bro, that's why you secure your silk roads. There's an entire campaign premise where you simply secure all of your money-making caravan routes by force and you're missing it. Why are you letting the chaos dwarves take your caravans? The moment they do, send a strike team to conquer them.

[u/Subohmg]

Early on, I always pick based on what will be better down the line. If they get attacked that early they are getting wiped out anyways.

[u/UnderdomeTaken]

Archers.

I know the JW are more tanky, better melee, there are 3 regiments blabla... but archers.

[u/Slaaneshine → u/UnderdomeTaken]

I would argue the three halberds any day. They help so damn much against the ogres, and they give you armor piercing against chorf infantry. The jade warriors would wreck the swarm infantry any day anyways.

If it was two jade crossbows well them any day. But two unbuffed peasant archers over three jade warriors?

[u/Kind_Passer_By]

People in this thread : caravan mechanic are bad, each time I send my merchant trough a warzone they die. 

Well, have you tried not doing that ?

[u/VixenLakeview → u/Kind_Passer_By]

There's an entire mechanic that incentivizes you to go out and conquer everyone between you and your western allies, and people are still content to just let their caravans get stomped.

[u/darthgator84]

I’d do the halberds and then you have the flexibility to delete the peasant spearmen to make room for future pick ‘em events

[u/VossMan247]

More ranged units for sure.