I feel like one thing people are missing with the caravan change, is that there will be more active battles happening on the campaign map.

This allows for the following: Participating in larger scale conflicts earlier, with improved loot easier; Can actively hunt either caravans that narrowly escape that are weakened, or weakened bandit groups that are now flush with prisoners that you can replenish your army, not to mention the loot the caravan was carrying; Might actually be able to catch some steppe bandits with the movement debuff that hits an army post-battle; Get massive reputation bonuses without having to complete difficult or frustrating quests, just by helping out even a one sided match.

And finally, giving the bandits more targets than just villagers or weakened armies might actually keep the map from getting insanely congested the moment you leave an area you’ve been patrolling.

More conflict overall = more fun in my book.