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[Megaman3321]

Should I attack the elven caravan?

[NewSheoth]

It's your own decision. You can attack them and other caravans and get into a war with elves, or just to steal their stuff. Or just steal their stuff by deconstructing the depot (which still counts as stealing, and will still provoke war sooner or later, as far as I know).
Alternatively, trade with them, buy barrels, booze and lots of wood and cloth from them, as well as rare aboveground plants, in exchange for stone crafts or other junk you may have.
If you hate elves, well, the choice is obvious.

[Ten_Tacles]

Buy all their rare animals. All of them.
When they bring cloth steal everything.
They will come back with more animals.

[NewSheoth]

Buy all their rare animals. All of them.
When they bring cloth steal everything.
They will come back with more animals.

Or that.
You see, elves regard animals as low-value, and cloth as high-value. If they like you, they will bring more cloth. If not, more animals.

[NecroRebel]

Or that.
You see, elves regard animals as low-value, and cloth as high-value. If they like you, they will bring more cloth. If not, more animals.

This isn't quite as true anymore.

In 40d, pack animals' carrying capacity was quite limited, binned materials (like cloth) was always loaded first, and if there wasn't enough weight to fit everything a caravan wanted to bring, they'd simply not bring the rest. So, if elves were happy enough with you, they'd load up their bins and bins of cloth, and have no carrying capacity left for all of the animals that they wanted to bring, so they didn't. If they didn't like you, on the other hand, they'd try to bring less stuff, so they'd have room for non-binned things like animal cages.

In 31.x, however, animals' carrying capacity was massively buffed (perhaps to compensate for the missing wagons), so you will practically never see an elven caravan that is completely filled with cloth. They simply can't become happy enough with you to bring that much cloth. So, now, if the elves like you, they'll bring more of everything, including worthless cloth and wooden armor, but also including precious exotic beasts.

I've also seen some people claim, and hints from ingame behavior, that traders will tend to bring more of things that you've bought before. So, if you buy animals whenever they come, the traders will be more likely to bring more animals. This also means that if you buy-with-a-100%-discount all of traders' cloth, they'll also start bringing more of that. As a result, it's probably better anymore just to treat elves more kindly than you might treat, say, goblin lepers, as they're not completely worthless anymore.

[NewSheoth]

Or that.
You see, elves regard animals as low-value, and cloth as high-value. If they like you, they will bring more cloth. If not, more animals.

This isn't quite as true anymore.

In 40d, pack animals' carrying capacity was quite limited, binned materials (like cloth) was always loaded first, and if there wasn't enough weight to fit everything a caravan wanted to bring, they'd simply not bring the rest. So, if elves were happy enough with you, they'd load up their bins and bins of cloth, and have no carrying capacity left for all of the animals that they wanted to bring, so they didn't. If they didn't like you, on the other hand, they'd try to bring less stuff, so they'd have room for non-binned things like animal cages.

In 31.x, however, animals' carrying capacity was massively buffed (perhaps to compensate for the missing wagons), so you will practically never see an elven caravan that is completely filled with cloth. They simply can't become happy enough with you to bring that much cloth. So, now, if the elves like you, they'll bring more of everything, including worthless cloth and wooden armor, but also including precious exotic beasts.

I've also seen some people claim, and hints from ingame behavior, that traders will tend to bring more of things that you've bought before. So, if you buy animals whenever they come, the traders will be more likely to bring more animals. This also means that if you buy-with-a-100%-discount all of traders' cloth, they'll also start bringing more of that. As a result, it's probably better anymore just to treat elves more kindly than you might treat, say, goblin lepers, as they're not completely worthless anymore.

Aha. Thanks for clarification and mechanics. Heard everyone use only the 40d idea without the reasons behind it.

[Chocolatemilkgod]

Another interesting idea to think about is that the more profit caravans make, the bigger the caravan will be next year (according to the wiki), and if the dwarven caravan gets a nice profit it 'may' increase immigrants HOWEVER that part is a spectulation. So if you offer them some worthless stuff that is clogging up your stockpiles, they'll bring more stuff next time ^^

[Uzu Bash]

Dwarven immigrants depend more on the impression you make with dwarven caravans. The simple answer to whether he should attack elven caravans is:

Sure, why not. You might find something useful, and plenty of crap to foist off on other caravans.