I've back in Battle Brothers trying out the new Blazing Deserts DLC.

My first attempt was with the Gladiator origin, but I pretty quickly got frustrated dealing with the diva gladiators that make up the core of your company in that origin. They aren't as crazy good as the Lone Wolf player character, and their upkeep cost is absurd. I quickly found that I couldn't explore any of the new stuff in the DLC because I was tied to the arena to keep the greedyguts in the manner to which they had become accustomed.

So I ditched that lot and tried an origin I've never managed to make work - the Trade Caravan origin. The original game wasn't set up for caravan simulation and it showed, which led to the trade caravan ignoring the "trading" part of the origin and just becoming a mercenary company like any other.

With this DLC? It works amazingly. The discounts make a huge difference when you're buying in bulk from the southern city states, and the existence of trade hubs means that you can actually set up a legitimate "caravan route". I got into a nice pattern quickly - complete a couple contracts to clear any bad conditions in the city states, then buy their stuff at discounted rates. Travel up through the small villages, clearing out any brigands along the way and buying their trade goods. Arrive at a big city and sell everything for an absolute fortune. Grab a caravan contract from the big city that's heading back south and repeat.

Unfortunately, my plan appears to have backfired a little bit for the Holy War crisis. Because I spend a lot of time on the road I'm selective with my contracts, which means that nobody has strong feelings of loyalty to me. The noble contracts in particular are higher risk and lower reward than just buying and selling stuff, so I'm a virtual unknown to the nobility. As a result, nobody wants me to help with the Holy War! I'm a month into the crisis and haven't been offered any contracts. If I do insert myself into a combat I risk angering the towns where I do all my trading.

I can't believe I actually miss the hordes of Undead.