[Keith]

Here you go Gaz:

Travian FAQ - invaluable. Read it through and refer to it often.
TravMap
Travel time calculator - useful for coordinating attacks from/to multiple towns
Travian toolbox - multiple useful tools. Travel calculator is a bit dodgy, so use the one above for that.
Travian Tool - another multi-purpose tool. Useful for finding inactives in particular.

The links may be defaulted to the server I use (server 2.com) - just choose a server as appropriate for you.

Culture Points
These are the culture points needed to get your next village:

Village 2: 2000
Village 3: 8000
Village 4: 20000
Village 5: 39000
Village 6: 65000
Village 7: 99000
Village 8: 141000
Village 9: 191000
Village 10: 251000
Village 11: 319000
Village 12: 397000
Village 13: 486000
Village 14: 584000
Village 15: 692000
Village 16: 811000
Village 17: 941000
Village 18: 1082000
Village 19: 1234000
Village 20: 1397000
Village 21: 1572000
Village 22: 1759000
Village 23: 1957000
Village 24: 2168000
Village 25: 2391000
Village 26: 2627000
Village 27: 2874000
Village 28: 3135000
Village 29: 3409000
Village 30: 3695000
Village 31: 3995000
Village 32: 4308000
Village 33: 4634000
Village 34: 4974000
Village 35: 5327000
Village 36: 5695000
Village 37: 6076000
Village 38: 6471000
Village 39: 6881000
Village 40: 7304000
Village 41: 7742000
Village 42: 8195000
Village 43: 8662000
Village 44: 9143000
Village 45: 9640000
Village 46: 10151000
Village 47: 10677000
Village 48: 11219000
Village 49: 11775000
Village 50: 12347000

Attacking

Here's how I go about planning an attack. I use the same strategy whether attacking alone, with other players, real or fake. All my attacks will look the same to the person I'm attacking... (except conquer attempts, which because the attacks come from different towns, require a different strategy).

Obviously this applies to active enemies, not to inactives - where you can be far more casual.

Cropkill, Armykill, Fakes.

1. Identify targets.

I first identify my 'prime' target, even if it's a fake attack, and then choose a number of nearby towns, usually belonging to the same player, but if allied players are nearby then sometimes I'll include them too.

I usually identify between 6-8 different targets to attack, often including any player's capitals too (but not always, because sometimes you want to draw their forces out of their capital)

2. Record the url of each town to be attacked

3. Note the time it will take you to reach each target.

I sort them and try to arrange it so they all arrive within a few minutes of each other. If you want to be a real smartarse, you can time them to arrive at the same moment, but this is really just to show off

4. Decide how many waves you're going to send.

I usually send 5-8 for a 6c cropkill/fake, 6-9 for a 9c and 8-10 for a 15c.

It's sometimes useful to send a few fakes before and after and even in between your real attacks in order to make it harder for inserts to catch them all. I usually try to send a decent number of troops with each real attack wave, rather than having them all in the initial cleaner attack, again to make it more difficult for inserts to stop the attacks.

I do points 2-4 in notepad, but however suits you is ok.

Example
http://s2.travian.co...p?d=nnnnnn&n=nn x6 Arrival in 33:55:39 hrs.
http://s2.travian.co...p?d=nnnnnn&n=nn x6 Arrival in 33:43:31 hrs.
http://s2.travian.co...p?d=nnnnnn&n=nn x6 Arrival in 33:34:23 hrs.
http://s2.travian.co...p?d=nnnnnn&n=nn x6 Arrival in 33:22:37 hrs.
http://s2.travian.co...p?d=nnnnnn&n=nn x6 Arrival in 33:11:32 hrs.
http://s2.travian.co...p?d=nnnnnn&n=nn x9 Arrival in 33:02:23 hrs.
http://s2.travian.co...p?d=nnnnnn&n=nn x9 Arrival in 32:47:01 hrs.

This tells me I'll need 48 catas if these were just fakes or whatever is needed to cropkill (for non-capitals: 120 main building/marketplace + 120 granary/granary + 30 per 2 cropfields +any other buildings I want to take down). Capitals require a lot more to take down...

In the example I've shown the same number of waves for each type of town , but sometimes I'll vary the number of waves between the same type of town, just to make them think...

5.If the times vary by a lot, sometimes I'll note down the times I should log on and send attacks so they arrive fairly close to the others. Usually this isn't necessary if the targets are relatively close to each other.

6. Open up a separate browser instance (not tabs) for each wave you're going to send.

7. Choose one town and copy the url into each window.

Using the example above I'll have the url for the first town in 6 separate windows and so on for each town in turn (9 windows for the later towns in the example).

8. Set up the troops you're going to send for each wave, but don't press ok yet...

9. Once all you need to do is press the ok button to send them, minimise each window so you can line them all up next to each other (in the order you're going to send them), with just the ok button showing.

10. As quickly as you can, press the ok button on each one in turn.

It's possible to get up to about 3-4 per second (although I usually only manage 2 coz I'm old and slow ), making it difficult for the defender to get in any inserts.

11. Repeat points 6-10 for each town you're attacking.


This kind of attention to detail isn't always necessary, but I find it's worked for me so far - better to overestimate your enemy than to underestimate him and lose your army or in the case of fakes, not do the job they were meant to do, which is make your enemy believe they're real

I apply the same strategy to big and small players - if I'm attacking someone with only 5 towns, I'll target them all and maybe a few of his mates too... if they have more towns then I'll usually target as many as I have spare catas. It isn't necessary to be a big player either - I've applied the same strategy ever since I was able to scrape together 50 catapults or so and even when attacking without catas.

Attacking to conquer an actively defending player requires a different strategy, as I said - depending on how many chiefs you have. If I have enough senators to take it in one hit then I try to time them all to arrive more or less simultaneously and try to set up identical looking fakes on a number of their other towns. It's possible to do this on your own, but it's actually such a pain to do this that it's often easier to ask for help from team-mates with spare chiefs, so you only need to arrive with the final conquering attack, just as you would if you only had one or two chiefs.

Obviously my philosophy is to do everything you need to do in one set of attacks - quite often if you need to go back again later, the defender will have time to re-organise their defence, which is something to avoid if at all possible. Being organised like this allows me to be consistent, have good timing and actually makes the whole process a lot easier.

Defending

One word. Inserts.

This is when you insert defenders in between an attacker's waves. In order to cropkill a town (rendering it completely vulnerable and effectively useless for a considerable time) an attacker will have to send multiple waves of attacks. Same with a conquer attempt (when an attacker attempts to actually steal your town from you). Usually the attacker will send a 'cleaning' wave with the first attack, to clear out any standing defence, followed by his catapults/senators, usually with far fewer support troops. This makes them vulnerable to inserting defenders behind the cleaning wave, but in front of the others and can be extremely effective, even if the other player is much bigger than you.

Obviously, another effective defence is overwhelming numbers, and is the only option if the attacker is just sending one wave in order to kill your troops, but unless you know exactly what the attacker is going to send this is quite risky, if necessary at times. Usually you'll need the combined cooperative defence of your team-mates in order to successfully mass defend against a decent attacking army. Solo play on a Travian server is simply not feasible for any length of time, for this reason.

Being Farmed

Cranny. Cranny. Cranny.

Until you get multiple towns and can hold your own in a fight, the cranny is the single best defence against getting all your resources nicked. Build lots of them initially (you can always demolish them later) - 3 at least I'd say. Spend (by constructing buildings, resources, or troops) or send away any excess resources. Ensure that every time you are raided the attacker gets nothing. Every time. (I will attack multiple times, even when I get nothing, to try to catch the tight buggers off guard...)

Against a superior player, don't even try to defend with troops unless they're using catapults. There's no need to lose either troops or resources if you're crannied up and on the ball.

Writing to the attacker can work, but usually just asking them to stop won't be sufficient, as they're probably raiding you because it's profitable. Give them a reason to stop. Threatening is usually a mistake and never get abusive. I have been farming players who have then written me an abusive mail, at which point I will usually destroy them completely. This is not unusual.

General

The size of your army is ALL important. It should be at least double your population. At least.

However, don't let anyone tell you that population and number of villages isn't important. If I have the same army size as another player, but my towns are more developed and/or I have more of them, I can recover much quicker from any casualties/damage than they can. I've fought players with massive armies (much bigger than mine), but with an under-developed infrastructure and although I had a lot of losses in the short term, my ability to recover those losses quicker allowed me to eventually destroy the attacker over a more prolonged campaign.

Right now Gaz, some of this will be of limited use to you. But as soon as you start building catas/go to war, you might find some of it useful.

If you have any questions feel free

[Gaz]

Thanks for the great advice Keith

As you said, it doesn't really apply to me yet. I'm still building my village and working on my resource production. I haven't even got any troops yet

My plan at the minute is to continue building up my village, resources, amount of traps and Cranny. This should help protect me against any raids for now - particularly the traps and Cranny. Soon, I should hopefully be in a position where I can start training troops and "expanding my empire"

I can see in the coming weeks though that I'll be coming back to this thread, fantastic advice

[fids]

Not this fucking game again

[Keith]

I did warn him fids... he's at the stage where he thinks it's 'fun'

Of the 30 or so of us from the Hut who started Gaz way back in February last year, only 3 of us are left... it becomes a major time consumer, if you hope to compete.

[Q2thaZ]

Now I'm at the initial addiction stage

[JP]

I had a quick look a while back. Decided it was just an overly complicated/time-consuming version of Civilisation-cum-Settlers (think that was its name) and left it well alone.

[Q2thaZ]

Quote

I had a quick look a while back. Decided it was just an overly complicated/time-consuming version of Civilisation-cum-Settlers (think that was its name) and left it well alone.

I signed up thinking I'll click a couple of buttons and then forget about it, Now I'm like let's produce more stuff

[Keith]

1 year and counting on the same server.

My stats:
Elrawkum Alliance: MN-DH* Pop: 26694 Villages: 30
Player ranking: 106.
Offensive ranking: 82. Points: 269734
Defensive ranking: 284** Points: 50445

*Ranked 4th on the server. We were ranked 28th when I joined. The LLaMas managed to reach 98th before the 'serious' players transferred to the Premier league
**most people don't survive to attack me twice

Our team is one of the two competing for the World Wonder. It looks like we'll finish second though - our leading WW, which was at level 94, just got knocked back to 52. The opposition's is at level 98... We still have one at level 94, but his Warehouses got fucked up, so it'll take an age for him to recover. Not quitting though...

Both of us nearly completed it ages ago, but our armies kept knocking each other down, so it's been drawn out for just yonks. A lot of people have quit, because it's been such a marathon - well over 27,000 were playing when I started (about 3 months after the server did) and only 2911 active players remain.

[Keith]

Just to show what the fights are like towards the end of the server, I present a fellow LLaMa's attack against the opposition's World Wonder village:

Quote

Subject: [03] Glasgow attacks zloww
sent: on 11.02.08 at 02:31:36 o'clock

Attacker Pangaea from the village [03] Glasgow
[Legionnaire] [Praetorian] [Imperian] [Equites Legati] [Equites Imperatoris] [Equites Caesaris] [Battering Ram] [Fire Catapult] [Senator] [Settler] [Hero]
Troops 0 0 31043 0 0 3704 503 3307 0 0 1
Casualties 0 0 31043 0 0 3704 503 3307 0 0 1
Info Palisade damaged from level 18 to level 18
Info Great Warehouse damaged from level 18 to level 17
Info None of your soldiers returned.

And their recent devastating attacks against ours:

Quote

Subject: 1.03 Grand River attacks WW- In Honor of Beto
sent: on 15.02.08 at 21:12:41 o'clock

Attacker Seventje from the village 1.03 Grand River

Troops 0 30 117479 0 11266 3395 4076 11011 2 0 1
Casualties 0 30 117479 0 11266 3395 4076 11011 2 0 1
Info Earth Wall destroyed
Info Wonder Of The World damaged from level 94 to level 52
Info None of your soldiers returned.

And this next was the biggest army seen on the server:

Quote

Subject: FC. the beginning attacks 1.Fidoxora
sent: on 16.02.08 at 05:49:40 o'clock

Attacker hobo-joe from the village FC. the beginning
TEYTONS
Troops 0 0 129687 0 0 29552 5791 9146 0 0 1
Casualties 0 0 129687 0 0 29552 5791 9146 0 0 1
Info Earth Wall destroyed
Info Great Warehouse destroyed
Info Great Warehouse destroyed
Info None of your soldiers returned.

What's annoying about this last, is that we were at war with his team, and had all but won, leaving them with around 12-15 functioning players from 50+. But then instead of finishing them off (as I recommended and kept complaining about ), our leaders decided to move on to other targets, regarding them as 'finished and not important'. We had already destroyed at least 3 of hobo-joe's villages when we were asked to attack some other players miles away. If only

Final Warning: Stop now before you get sucked in.


Edit: One bit of advice good for the early game - don't build a palace in your initial village. Build it in a good 15 cropper (one with at least 2 crop oases) and make that your capital.

[Ben OBagels]

Quote

Edit: One bit of advice good for the early game - don't build a palace in your initial village. Build it in a good 15 cropper (one with at least 2 crop oases) and make that your capital.

Tipping Keith.

[Keith]

I know - it's shocking.

Because it's a live, online game, where not knowing how the game works can cost you months and possibly be the end of you, I make an exception for Travian.

[Gaz]

Quote

Edit: One bit of advice good for the early game - don't build a palace in your initial village. Build it in a good 15 cropper (one with at least 2 crop oases) and make that your capital.

How did you know I was about to build a Palace?

[Sesquipedalianist]

f**k this game, started joined a medium sized alliance realised the enormity of it all and ran. The link to an article in the Hut sums it all up really. Its all to do with numbers and eventually your left with a choice to join or die and sometimes you don't get the choice of the former .

[Keith]

Two things elevate it above just numbers - strategy and politics. Both can have a big impact on your game.

[Keith]

It's over!!!!!!!!

Final status:

Elrawkum
Alliance: MN-DH
Population: 27517 (94th)
Villages: 31
Attacking: 279915 (78th)
Defensive: 50445 (289th)

Hero: Erekose level 56 (Equites Caesaris)
Offense: 31350 (+) 100
Defense: 4555/5270 (+) 28
Off-Bonus: 20% (+) 100
Def-Bonus: 6.2% (+) 31
Regeneration: 130/Day (+) 26
Experience: 67%

We didn't win (an honourable 2nd), but it was a close run thing until the very end.

[Sesquipedalianist]

Now you might get some sleep? Or move on to another server...

[Gaz]

Could always sign up on the UK 3x speed server?

I'm close to giving up on my game on Server 5. Haven't paid much attention to it lately and it's just too slow tbh. Started a game on the fast UK server and I'm actually really enjoying it this time - I'm the farmer instead of being farmed

[Keith]

Quote

Now you might get some sleep? Or move on to another server...

Yes and not if you held a gun to my head and said my life depended on it

[Gaz]

I can now officially say I have gained my first bitch

His village is two fields away from mine. He attacked me as soon as my beginners protection ran out, and continued to attack me almost daily since then. Somehow, he lost all of his troops while I was still building up my defences (two level ten crannies etc). Today, I finally felt like it was time to start building an offensive force, which, while small, is big enough to have wiped out his basic troops that he had left. In two hours this morning, I've raided him twelve times and pretty much emptied his cranny

He shouldn't target those weaker than himself tbh. His population is higher than mine for starters, and is a member of an alliance that seems to be going nowhere

I'm only using a whopping 7 Theutates Thunders ffs

[Keith]

Quote

He shouldn't target those weaker than himself tbh. His population is higher than mine for starters, and is a member of an alliance that seems to be going nowhere

I'm only using a whopping 7 Theutates Thunders ffs

Nature of the beast. You will too before long as a matter of course.

What he should have done is attack so often that you wouldn't get a chance to build up a big enough defence to stop him. Now you should do just that to him