This short hop by boats has an upped chance of river pirates attack. These encounters sometimes have a buffed number of pirates (five-six enemies) which is irritating in early game. Sometimes there are just three or four bandits but they are equipped with longswords and have average weapons skill. Such bandits will hurt early parties clad in leather/padded armor.

SInce I make Wurzburg my base of operations and go by boat to Nurnberg to buy armor/weapons there, I have lost count of how many times I was attacked on the Bamberg-Nurnberg water route. It is as if the devs knew players would go to Nurnberg by boats to buy armor/weapons, and laid a trap. Sometimes you even get attacked both on inbound and outbound journeys.

Switching to overland travel I was attacked around Nurnberg by gargoryles.

Nurnberg is a newb trap!