Travian Strategy Guide

Introduction
Perhaps one of the least talked about aspects of Travian is the interaction with other players. If you spend any time playing Travian you will come across newbie’s and very experienced players. You will come across fools and idiots, people who attack before checking that your population is ten times theirs and apologise like mad before their attack comes in. I even had one player attack me, apologise and then send back all of the plundered resources by merchant plus the cost of the two troops they killed (we couldn’t work out a fair price for the rat, I figured that was a favour). You will have BIG scary players in BIG scary alliances to deal with, your immediate neighbours, allies, confederacies, non-aggression pacts, attackers, farms…it is potentially such a big part of the game and really can determine your fate.

The key here and an underutilised aspect of the game for individual players and alliances alike is communication. Send messages, make posts on you alliance forum, if you don’t ask you wont get and the worst thing that can happen is people will say no, which leaves you exactly where you were to started. Often they will say yes which can be better than a long costly war. Diplomacy, Politics and Human nature are all tied up in communication. Do consider the communications delay in game due to real world geography. It can be frustrating, we all want a reply immediately, but allow 24-48 hours for people to respond. If their response is another attack, you know their reply, if not wait and try communicating again.

Watch Your Language
Be nice in your communications. Although abuse and swearing is forbidden in the game it happens. I have been abused for attacking people in the most profane and even disturbing way. The moderators can bump you or impose % penalties for bad language. Remember that this is an international game and something considered a jibe or joke in your neighbourhood could be considered the biggest grossest insult in another. Sure you can report abusive message senders and have them kicked from the server, but I prefer to farm them into submission, take all their resources until they apologise or can no longer play. Many times a simple polite message would have stopped me attacking. Something like ‘Hey dude, I am new and trying to grow please stop attacking me’. Most people playing are nice, enjoy the game and enjoy interacting and even helping other players, be reasonable most others are.

What’s Reasonable
There are times to be unreasonable, such as when a player has attacked you ten times and then when you hit them once they cry murder and call you names. This happened to me once, the guy farmed me ten times in a couple of days with about 60 clubswingers, my troops; 300 legionaires, 60 pratorians and 120 equites imperitoris were on a long distance raid to help an ally. Once they got back I caught his army at home and farmed him stupid. His messages were all abusive, so I kept attacking. Then I received a message from a bigger player in his alliance asking me to stop. I checked the alliance and could have gone to war with all of them single handed, but I saw reason and stopped with the request that he apologise, not for attacking but for his foul language, which he did.

If All Else Fails
When dealing direct and communications don’t work, try talking to someone else in the alliance that is attacking, ask your own alliance for help or ask someone else in your alliance to message them, there is always a route to try. I’m not saying it will work, but you can try. Communicate and negotiate if you have to, offer tribute – send them pay off’s regularly, less than they were raiding or a one off payment or offer a non aggression pact and a pay off. Join their alliance or an alliance they are in confederacy with.

Bluff & Deception
Bluff and Deception are important as well. Both are different. A bluff is a threat which you cant fully back up, its a good way to stop attacks but must be played with caution because the player may call your bluff. A good bluff is a strong one, eg “Stop attacking me or I will send catapults to level your village, I am currently destroying the main building and crops of an enemy, but rest assured when I am done, you will be next, stop now.” This has worked for me many times. If you are scouted or attacked and have no cats it still works because you are saying they are deployed elsewhere. It is a monster threat as well, a threat to end their village. Don’t try it if your village has a pop below 300 though, as its unlikely to be belived.

Alternately tell them one of your bigger allies will catapult them. However be prepared for a long, bloody war if your bluff is called. Usually a conciliatory message is better. Deception is looking like you are not a threat, this is like setting a trap. I have a Teuton village with a pop of just under 200, it looks small and juicy. People attack me and find I have no resources and no troops, I then attack them with my 500 level4 axemen. Population has no relation to army size, be careful. The best thing about this is they started it and I can dictate terms of a NAP such as a tribute payment. Gauls are also great at deception though everyone is wary of those traps. A friend has 100 traps in his village, good to swallow most raiders and he ransoms them back for more resources than he could raid in a day. Deception is not really a communication strategy but it goes with bluff.

Age & Sex
A lot of the population playing travian seem to be young, compared to me at 37yo. 16 year olds have different logic than me. Some do stupid things because they think its cool, not because they believe its effective or right. Sometimes reasoning doesn’t work with these people and you have to communicate in kind. Check player profiles, if there’s info there use it, know your friends and opponents. Thus far I haven’t personally encountered any sex based tendencies or characteristics you could draw any conclusions from. There appear to be more males, but there are also pleanty of females of all ages. I do have one ally though, who is our diplomat and she can talk her way out of a wet paper bag. When our alliance was small she saved our bacon many times by messaging the attackers, a way with words. Could be nothing to do with sex though, she may just be highly literate and a convincing writer.

Negotiation & Ransom
If your troops are trapped and you don’t have the capacity to attack to get them released try offering a ransom. Never pay more ransom than the cost of building new troops but you can usually work out something beneficial. People with traps usually don’t want to get attacked. A good approach is how about X resources and a Non Aggression Pact. I’ve even had troops released with a simple ‘please’ message, just try.

Alliance Forums
An alliance can stand or fall on communication, nobody can help if they don’t know. Use the forum, start new threads. Always check it when you log on.