Greetings, medievalists!
If side quests are not your thing and you’re looking for a more macro experience, maybe attacking bandit camps/ other settlements is exactly what you need. Finally, you’ll be able to bring the fight to them.
To do this, you’ll want to organize a caravan and choose the attack option (instead of the barter option). Since the roles are reversed (compared to being raided), some limitations will be introduced.
Your settlers will not look for food, entertainment, beds, etc. They won’t idle around except at the starting point. They’ll be able to attack buildings and structures, and any doors they encounter will need to be destroyed to pass through, while enemies can use them freely. Your settlers will also be able to use the enemy's resources on the map to build. If you are victorious, feel free to take all the buildings/items/resources with you - as long as you have the capacity to do so.
Now, when it comes to what to attack - there will be a few options available.
Attacking bandit camps will be a smaller event, and destroying one will remove the camp marker from the map (unless there are resources still left to collect). The settlement closest to the bandit camp will appreciate the gesture and reward you with some friendliness points.
Attacking faction settlements will usually be larger in scale, but yeah - you can essentially go on a conquering spree for fun. However, the factions you want to attack must already be hostile or permanently hostile. Yup, you’ll finally be able to attack those cannibalistic settlements on the map!
Whoever you decide to fight, attacking others will end in either victory or defeat. If you emerge victorious - congratulations! Enemies may try to run and/or surrender and you’ll be able to claim any loot they leave behind. Will you spare them or finish them off? That’s up to you. Once you leave the hostile settlement as the victor, that location will be disabled for the next 50 in-game days. You won’t be able to attack it again during that time.
If you’re defeated during your attack, then all is lost (for your raiding party). You won’t get your resources back, your caravan is gone, and who knows… enemies might even take some of your surviving settlers as prisoners. Leaving the map in the middle of the fight is also risky, and you’ll lose some resources and animals as a result. The only move that comes with no consequences is jumping into enemy territory, scouting the area, and choosing not to engage before returning to base. So… a sneak peek is a valid tactic.
That wraps up this edition of Medieval Monday Talks for Update 16. How does it all sound to you? Which event sounds the most exciting? Let us know in the comments! All of this should be hitting the experimental branch pretty soon, so keep an eye on it if you want to be among the first to try out these new features. Until then...
Stay medieval!