Should I create Caravans or parties with companions?

[fuze]

If I have 4 companions, should I do 4 caravans which nets me more gold or do 2 caravans and 2 parties. The issue with party is that I can't command to roam around town/castle to clear from bandits and they always get defeated by bigger armies, so it costs me a lot to constantly recreate parties donate troops and pay wages for it.

Another question is if my companion with 100 scouting has his own party or runs caravan, do I no longer get his scouting party perks?

 

[fuze]

Bump

 

[Midnitewolf]

Caravans are very nice early when your struggling to pay for your armies but at some point your going to be swimming in Denars, there just isn't enough to spend it on. (Edit: just keep in mind it takes them a bit to start making money and you have to support the Caravan's wages as well as your armies upkeep).

On the other hand, parties are kind of useless because, at least in my campaigns, they run off, get destroyed and captured faster that I can get troops to fill out their parties. I have quite frankly quit using them though others said they aren't having my issue so it might just be bad luck.....three times in a row now.

To answer your other question, I am about 99% certain that once you assign you companion to a task, they no longer offer anything to the party.

 

[luisedgm]

Caravan income is very unstable, sometimes they bring 1200 a day, sometimes they barely pay the guards wages, overall it makes profit, parties cannot be controlled directly, but if you have a fief parties will patrol near it and clear bandits, it keeps the villagers safe.

 

[R4MPZY]

You only get perks from the companions in your party.

1 or 2 caravans never hurt, they have a good "usually stable" income depending where they go.
As of yet you cannot command or give an order to parties, i do remember Armagan once saying you could give your brother a party and make him roam your city for bandits ( when he was talking about clans in an interview from the gamescom demos shown )

But you can however use your companion parties as free influence armies. If they are nearly full, you can summon them into your army free of influence cost.

 

[fuze]

I see. thanks guys. So I guess I'll have one medic and one scout in my party and rest on caravans. If I need a party I'll just let the scout companion go form a party

 

[Xratter]

Just created a thread about this very issue.

I create caravans with them. Caravans have allowed me financial security. As it stands right now, I would not have companions do anything other than lead a caravan. My caravans (I have 6 in my most recent playthrough) are making me between 2000 gold (on a **** day) and 5000 gold (on a great day). Usually I'm making 3000-3750 per day. They are ALWAYS profitable after they have been up and running for a couple weeks, so you don't need to worry about that.

I wish they would change it so you don't require a companion for a caravan. I do not see any reason to require them, and it breaks the game design of them being part of your clan.

 

[Bramborough]

Still experimenting, but my current take right now is:

Caravans - yes, worth it. Income will fluctuated day-to-day depending on where they are, what they're selling, etc. But overall, will make good money. Also, they're pretty fast and I think many AI lords just don't attack caravans often anyway. So even if involved in multiple wars, caravans seem to continue doing just fine.

Parties - not worth it before reaching at least Clan Tier 3 and becoming a vassal or leading your own faction. Parties left to themselves, as far as I've seen, roam around and net you a little bit of influence, clan renown, and loot money...but will eventually get themselves wrecked. Not worth the effort/expense of putting together the troops to establish an independent party in the first place. BUT...if you form the party and then combine with your own in an army, that seems worthwhile. I haven't really played with it enough to recognize all the pros/cons of doing so, but I think it's probably a sound choice.

In addition to the two roles above, there's also a third companion choice: settlement governor. So far in my own play, this hasn't been an attractive choice (other than for spouse). But then I have a savefile that doesn't yet have any of the new companions added, either. If you happen to have a combat-weak companion with some Governor perks and is the right culture for a given city/castle, then yeah that might be a good option for them.

As far as roles, am not sure. Note that Surgeon, QM, etc are described as "clan" roles, not "party". Also, many of the perks differentiate between, for example, "Surgeon" and "Party Member"...if Surgeon is intended never to apply outside party anyway, that distinction would be meaningless. Even if they don't currently work outside immediate party (tbh I just haven't paid attention), that may just be a bug or still-unimplemented feature.