So chadz instead of you coding the new caravan, how about making a few bandit hideouts as well ?
Unconquerable ones, battle to start on the fly or 1 hour later or so ?
Suggestion is that if u attack u can get from 10 % more ppl against you to -10 % of the army attacking it. Random weapons and random armor. Or even better player based equipment for those that apply. apply for defense with 2h/1h/archer/xbower and such. Then a 3-4 hour timer for the next attack can occur.
This wont take longer then coding the caravans
Good luck with your coding