Farming means getting an income by regularly attacking a (set of) target(s). This income must logically be higher than its cost (like troops lost).
Playing Travian on sim-city mode grants you a steady growth, but surely leaves little to no space for tunning results and rapid growth. That's why you start farming: 'cuase there's no other way to exponentially increase your income, and therefore no other way to get bigger or stronger (or both).
Said that, and before moving over to "how" farming should be done, let me underline a number of key points related to this topic:
• Professional farming surely requires a high degree of activity ingame. However, it is mostly a matter of method rather than time: if you have one, you can profitably farm, no matter what proficiency level you're playing at.
• Although the main principles of farming are good for everyone, a different implementation can and should be done depending on which tribe you're using.
The following guide was written by an experinced player on another server.. The player that ended server in top off-rank positons. Enjoy the reading.
--> The economics of farming
Resource fields pay themselves off more quickly at lower levels than at higher levels, but even at relatively low level fields, raiding military can give you a much faster return on your investment. Consider a level 5 iron field improvement vs. a TT or two:
Current production: 22 per hour
Production at level 5: 33 per hour
Costs for upgrading to level 5:
780 | 620 | 235 | 465 |
Total resources to upgrade to level 5 would be 2100. At 11 an hour, you'll get 2100 iron from that field in 191 hours, just under 8 days.
In contrast, if you invested in TT (admittedly one of the best raiding units in the game), it would pay itself off in 14.53 full capacity raids.
Of course, that assumes full capacity raids ... no losses ... but with very active raiding, losses matter much less.
--> Finding and controlling farms
The least active players are the most attractive farms. Since they don't put a whole lot of effort into the game, you can assume that they are generally lazy and/or disinterested, and will often have resources well beyond whatever cranny size they have.
You can make yourself a map of your surrounding area and keep track of population increases to give yourself an impression of this. No population growth is generally inactive, and low is generally semi-inactive. Be careful though, crop field improvements and military growth don't show up as population increases.
(Use gettertools to find inactives and check groth of ppl)
Inactives should of course be scouted and likely hit (if nobody from the alliance is already doing so).
The best farms, however, are often slightly active ones. If you pay close attention (check daily), you can even see if they have grown or not in the last day. If they haven't, it probably means their warehouses and granaries are overflowing, and you may be able to recoup any military losses simply with the bounty you get on the first hit (if your military is large enough). These are often the best farms because other people are not already raiding them -- so you have no farming competition -- and even more so because they often don't give up completely for quite some time (logging in from time to time to build something), and so don't appear as grey on the tool, or otherwise make themselves more obvious farming targets for other players.
For these farms, however, you must control them. The key here is brutality and merciless persistence. The player already showed you a tendency to be lazy by their slow growth. Hit them again and again. Kill whatever military they build. Raid several times a day.
--> Scouting and checking allies
You need to know more than inactivity for your target though. You need to know what's waiting for you in their village, and you need to assess the likelihood that farming them could cause you problems.
Always scout before raiding. Even if you have attacked a target a dozen times, it is a good idea to scout before every raid. Players may surprise you with reinforcements, or may have built significant military and hidden it from you.
(Do not underestimate this part of the process: sending 1 scout out costs you nothing but might eventually save you thousands of raiding units, which are not just expensive to rebuild, but also, and above all, represent and income for you in terms of bounties. Having them killed could mean you lose tons of res per day.)
Look at the map. Center the map on your target, and look around to see if they have allies nearby. If you have plus, expand the map to 13x13 and do the same. Depending on how far your target is from you, and the speed of your raiding troops, you can figure out whether it is possible or not (or how likely it is), that a player will be reinforced by an ally. If they can't be reinforced, and the losses look acceptable, hit them.
Also check the map of their entire alliance:
(Agian gettertools)
Do they have members near you or our other members that might retaliate? Are they a strong alliance? Do their members seem to occupy an area of the map in force, or do they have members scattered randomly all over the map? In the latter case, you can guess that the alliance is disorganized, and reinforcements or retaliation is unlikely.
--> Dealing with reinforcements
Usually adopt an approach of "kill everything" ... kill all the reins that showed up, look around the area on the map to see who might be most likely to have reinforced (allies, personal allies, members of the same nationality) and hit them too. Think of yourself as a kind of mob boss: "U want them DEAD, U want their family DEAD, U want their house BURNED TO THE GROUND"
Of course you need to have made large investments in military to allow this, but a truly active farmer will have other farms that are constantly feeding an ever-growing military, so even temporary losses can be worthwhile.
-->Dealing with farming competition
One of your farms being hit? Depriving you of resources? Look around the map, check the players, guess who might be hitting the farm ... if you take them out, you might create yourself a new farm, and you'll also get more resources from the farms of yours they were hitting.
Teutons are especially worth keeping an eye on ... they tend to be raiders, and the cranny bonus hurts (even if you are much more active, they can get the majority of the resources from shared farms if the crannies are big). Teutons often also have weak defenses, especially when they are relatively small ... they think they will not be attacked (and usually they aren't). If they are stupid enough to have no spears (or not enough), clubs are easily wiped out by even small forces of cavalry.
(If the competion comes from within the Clan than you must settle it. Get in touch with the one who's farming you same target and find an agreement. Many rules can apply here ...who farmed first, who's closer etc... but no matter what you decide to do, there is only one thing that matters: the Clan must be better off).
--> Keeping record
I have a target list on a sheet of paper. I update it every few days. It tells me the player, their location, their population, their estimated cranny size (based on scouting and bounties), their status (active, inactive, demi-active, etc.), and the last scouting report.
This is immensely valuable. If you work hard, you see patterns. You know what times are the best times to hit particular farms. You can guess the nationality (time zone) of players that might be also hitting the same farm (and you can look around and consider likely candidates to take out).
(Keeping records might come to hand in case of disputes. If for examples a player from a friendly ally claims a target as his farm, you could well present some evidence that you've been hitting there before and for longer).
--> Always build more military
This is the hardest part. You have to be very active to allow this, and you have to have lots of farming resources. In time though, you can get to the point where you are constantly building military, 24 hours a day. When the queue of troops gets long enough (maybe 15 hours), you upgrade the level of your stable/barracks and produce troops more quickly.
Travian is a race, a race to develop. Most people think it is a race to grow in population -- they are wrong, it is a military race. If your military grows much more quickly than your neighbors, it doesn't matter whether they have a higher population than you or not. In time, you will farm them too ... or at least destroy them to take out a potential threat and potential farming competition.
Most of you will not be able to do this, it is not easy, but with enough effort and the right choices, your military can grow very quickly, and you can find yourself dominating those around you.
(Author was a purely offensive player and a hell of a good one, that's why his guide follows such an agressive pattern. So please bear in mind what farming stands for: getting an income that makes you richer than your enemies. Once you're res-rich, it's up to you to invest what you have. And while training offense surely is a first choice, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the only one. An ever-growing off army is difficult to manage, to move, to keep alive. Go for it if you're up for the challenge but don't think you're not good if you chose a different path, like being a partially defensive player too, or a crop supplier.)
Although there are other important military issues (specialization of villages, weapons and armor improvements, organization of military, capacity to rebuild quickly), your military should generally show significant growth over time. (exponential)
--> Negative crop is your friend
Lumber: 400 per hour
Clay: 762 per hour
Iron: 99 per hour
Crop: -1474 per hour
That was author's resource production in his first village in first few days ... He was plus 500 in crops in the cropper, for a total of just under -1K per hour.
It gives you an idea of what kind of resources you can generate through really active farming. I do not have crop problems at all right now, though you probably should build some more crop field improvements again soon to keep up with the military increase.
Crop is cheap on the market though. If you ever wondered why, it's because military doesn't require much crop to build, and there are other raiders out there that are constantly building military. They end up with too much crop in the early game, although later, crops can be a big problem, which is why croppers are so important for these players in particular.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Combat Mechanism
The purpose of this post is to explain how combats work in Travian. The key factors that play a role in combats are just a few, so we will focus on them and leave the others aside for now. For this reason, the following assumptions have been applied to all the examples in this chapter:
• The defender has no wall
• None of the defensive troops have been improved in the armoury
• None of the attacking troops have been improved in the blacksmith
• The attacking player and the defending player have exactly the same population
Each type of troop is described by 4 values :
• At = attack value
• Di = defense against infantry
• Dc = defense against cavalry
• Up = upkeep cost in terms of crop per hour
The result of an attack is determined by matching the Total Attacking Power (TAP) with the Total Defensive Power (TDP).
Calculating TAP is kinda straight forward since it is the sum of the At of all the troops involved in the attack.
Calculating TDP is more complex, since this is a single value that has to reflect at the same time Di and Dc. For each type of unit these two components melt together according to the composition of the attack. Hence the Defense Value (DV) of each unit is the weighted average of Di and Dc, where the weight of Di is the % of TAP proceeding from infantry and the weight of Dc is the % of TAP proceeding from cavalry.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
→ Example ←
50 Swordsman (SM) + 20 Theutates Thunder (TT)
TAP = 50 * At(SM) + 20 * At(TT) = 50 * 65 + 20 * 90 = 3250 + 1800 = 5050
% of infantry = 3250/5050 = 64%
% of cavalry = 1800/5050 = 36%
100 Spearfighters (SF)
TDP = 100 * DV(SF) = 100 * (Di * 0,64 + Dc * 0,36) = 100 * (35 * 0,64 + 60 * 0,36) = 4391
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The formula of casualties is unknown, but it can be described with relative accuracy (as you can simulate as many combats as you wish).
Let's take a simple set of examples, Imperians vs Praetorians, and let's see what happens by increasing the TAP as a multiple of TDP.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
→ Example ←
(TAP = 1 x TDP) 1000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 1000 imps dead
(TAP = 2 x TDP) 2000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 727 imps dead
(TAP = 3 x TDP) 3000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 606 imps dead
(TAP = 4 x TDP) 4000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 540 imps dead
(TAP = 5 x TDP) 5000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 494 imps dead
(TAP = 6 x TDP) 6000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 460 imps dead
[...]
(TAP = 20 x TDP) 20000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 306 imps dead
(TAP = 40 x TDP) 40000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 253 imps dead
(TAP = 80 x TDP) 80000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 217 imps dead
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The rate of decline in losses slows as the ratio of attackers to defenders gets very large.
This means it's not that really important whether you have 40 or 80k imps in this particular battle, you only lose 40 imps less with 80k imps. However, from 1k to 2k you lose 270 imps less. Having a big army --at least a couple of times bigger than the defense -- is very, very important.
It's vital in minimize your loss by having sufficient attack power against a defense. Before attacking, think about whether your army is big enough to destroy the defense without too many losses. A good rule of thumb is never split your army: attacking full forces generally delivers the best results. And let me stress a lot that "generally" doesn't mean always
Defense value works the same way, just switch TDP for TAP in those examples and we have a good illustration why more defense is always better.
Thanks to the understanding of this fundamental mechanism it has been possible to develop calculations and draw tables that can be extremely useful in many fields:
• Defending strategy
• Attacking strategy
• Reinforcement strategy
• The defender has no wall
• None of the defensive troops have been improved in the armoury
• None of the attacking troops have been improved in the blacksmith
• The attacking player and the defending player have exactly the same population
Each type of troop is described by 4 values :
• At = attack value
• Di = defense against infantry
• Dc = defense against cavalry
• Up = upkeep cost in terms of crop per hour
The result of an attack is determined by matching the Total Attacking Power (TAP) with the Total Defensive Power (TDP).
Calculating TAP is kinda straight forward since it is the sum of the At of all the troops involved in the attack.
Calculating TDP is more complex, since this is a single value that has to reflect at the same time Di and Dc. For each type of unit these two components melt together according to the composition of the attack. Hence the Defense Value (DV) of each unit is the weighted average of Di and Dc, where the weight of Di is the % of TAP proceeding from infantry and the weight of Dc is the % of TAP proceeding from cavalry.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
→ Example ←
50 Swordsman (SM) + 20 Theutates Thunder (TT)
TAP = 50 * At(SM) + 20 * At(TT) = 50 * 65 + 20 * 90 = 3250 + 1800 = 5050
% of infantry = 3250/5050 = 64%
% of cavalry = 1800/5050 = 36%
100 Spearfighters (SF)
TDP = 100 * DV(SF) = 100 * (Di * 0,64 + Dc * 0,36) = 100 * (35 * 0,64 + 60 * 0,36) = 4391
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The formula of casualties is unknown, but it can be described with relative accuracy (as you can simulate as many combats as you wish).
Let's take a simple set of examples, Imperians vs Praetorians, and let's see what happens by increasing the TAP as a multiple of TDP.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
→ Example ←
(TAP = 1 x TDP) 1000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 1000 imps dead
(TAP = 2 x TDP) 2000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 727 imps dead
(TAP = 3 x TDP) 3000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 606 imps dead
(TAP = 4 x TDP) 4000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 540 imps dead
(TAP = 5 x TDP) 5000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 494 imps dead
(TAP = 6 x TDP) 6000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 460 imps dead
[...]
(TAP = 20 x TDP) 20000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 306 imps dead
(TAP = 40 x TDP) 40000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 253 imps dead
(TAP = 80 x TDP) 80000 imps vs 1076 praets -> 217 imps dead
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The rate of decline in losses slows as the ratio of attackers to defenders gets very large.
This means it's not that really important whether you have 40 or 80k imps in this particular battle, you only lose 40 imps less with 80k imps. However, from 1k to 2k you lose 270 imps less. Having a big army --at least a couple of times bigger than the defense -- is very, very important.
It's vital in minimize your loss by having sufficient attack power against a defense. Before attacking, think about whether your army is big enough to destroy the defense without too many losses. A good rule of thumb is never split your army: attacking full forces generally delivers the best results. And let me stress a lot that "generally" doesn't mean always
Defense value works the same way, just switch TDP for TAP in those examples and we have a good illustration why more defense is always better.
Thanks to the understanding of this fundamental mechanism it has been possible to develop calculations and draw tables that can be extremely useful in many fields:
• Defending strategy
• Attacking strategy
• Reinforcement strategy
What to give away in profile!!
The importance of profile content.
Many do not realize how important what is contained in a profile or for that matter what is not contained in a profile is.
The Dove
Tells me when you started. In knowing when you started I can size up your skill and based on sizing up your skill I can pin you as a likely raid target if I feel you should be much further ahead than you are. (Determining skill level)
Taunts threats or displays that are beyond your skill to back up.
Many players in Travian look for challenges. If your profile for example says If you attack me my alliance mates will, If you attack me I will, I'm all crannied up, If my pop isn't growing my army is. There are really a million examples of this. The point being............
If I am from a larger alliance the first two will at best amuse and at worse make me send Catas to call your bluff. The last two make me think hero exp and or Catas if you are all crannied up.
Location in profile
I'm from Kansas, England, Detroit, California are all wonderful tools you have provided for a enemy to size up when the best time to attack you might be.
Activity
I run on the school track team, I am in band, I work as a computer programmer for IT inc.
Lets take the first two, we all know that activities like these take place after school and on weekends. You have just gave me a little more insight on when might be the best time to attack.
Empty profiles
This to me says you don't care that much about your village or that you are strained for time enough that you just didn't bother with the profile because you only log in a few times a day to check on your village.
Misspelling/Age/Gender in profiles
Misspelling just reflects poorly on you but still may annoy someone into attacking you. Age is vital to keep out of your profile. If you put that you are 42 and female for example I would assume husband, kids, early mornings, early bed time. 13 I would assume you have a bed time and if school is in I know where you are between 8am and 3 pm and it's not in Travian. 45 year old male, you are getting older and need more sleep, most likely work day shift and spend mid day into the midnight hours on Travian but are not on during the early hours to mid day as much.
A good enemy will use every detail to defeat you and look from every angle to find weakness.
Many do not realize how important what is contained in a profile or for that matter what is not contained in a profile is.
The Dove
Tells me when you started. In knowing when you started I can size up your skill and based on sizing up your skill I can pin you as a likely raid target if I feel you should be much further ahead than you are. (Determining skill level)
Taunts threats or displays that are beyond your skill to back up.
Many players in Travian look for challenges. If your profile for example says If you attack me my alliance mates will, If you attack me I will, I'm all crannied up, If my pop isn't growing my army is. There are really a million examples of this. The point being............
If I am from a larger alliance the first two will at best amuse and at worse make me send Catas to call your bluff. The last two make me think hero exp and or Catas if you are all crannied up.
Location in profile
I'm from Kansas, England, Detroit, California are all wonderful tools you have provided for a enemy to size up when the best time to attack you might be.
Activity
I run on the school track team, I am in band, I work as a computer programmer for IT inc.
Lets take the first two, we all know that activities like these take place after school and on weekends. You have just gave me a little more insight on when might be the best time to attack.
Empty profiles
This to me says you don't care that much about your village or that you are strained for time enough that you just didn't bother with the profile because you only log in a few times a day to check on your village.
Misspelling/Age/Gender in profiles
Misspelling just reflects poorly on you but still may annoy someone into attacking you. Age is vital to keep out of your profile. If you put that you are 42 and female for example I would assume husband, kids, early mornings, early bed time. 13 I would assume you have a bed time and if school is in I know where you are between 8am and 3 pm and it's not in Travian. 45 year old male, you are getting older and need more sleep, most likely work day shift and spend mid day into the midnight hours on Travian but are not on during the early hours to mid day as much.
A good enemy will use every detail to defeat you and look from every angle to find weakness.
What to be build in a village
First of all, there are 3 types of villages you should have in travian:
Offensive villages
Defensive villages
Supply villages
It's easy to understand I guess what is the purpose of each of these villages. Offensive is where you base an offensive force, defensive is for making defensive troops and supply villages are there to generate resources to send to the previous 2.
--> Offensive villages
This is where you build up an army to go and attack/raid other members. Instead of building troops in every village, specialize your account so you have bigger armies in fewer cities. 2 armies of 5k will do more damage then 10 of 1k. It could be usefull to have a seperate village where you have a huge amount of scouts though.
a) Which sort of valley?
Always try to have them built in 9 or 15-croppers. If possible, make sure they have crop oasis' around them in the 7x7 map. This way the crop production will be bigger then in a normal village with only 6 cropfields. Why do you need the bigger crop production? This way you can build more troops in your village without going in negative crop. The bigger your army is, the more damage it will do.
B ) What to build?
- Barracks, Stable and Workshop: Should speak for itself I guess.
- Grain mill and Bakery: Again no explanation needed I guess.
- Blacksmith: Here you give your troops extra power. Every upgrade adds 1.5% attack for the unit that is researched. So attacking with 10k imperians with 10 levels developped at the blacksmith will count as 11500 imperians. A huge bonus at a relatively small cost. Research all your offensive troops here and your rams and cata's to lvl 20 and then destroy the building again to make room. The upgrades will not disappear.
- Granaries: 4-5 are not really an overdue. They are needed to store crop in. When you build up your army, you will go into negative crop production and with having a lot of granaries, you will be able to store a lot of crop which makes sure your troops don't starve if you can't be online due to some reasons suddenly.
- Warehouse: 3-4 is a nice amount, needed for upgrading your buildings and usefull for storing the bounty from your attacks. Nothing more frustrating then seeing part of your bounty disappear because you don't have enough space at your warehouses.
- Rally point: With RP lvl 15 you can start on building on your Tournament Square, with lvl 20, you can target 2 buildings with your cata's.
- Hero's mansion: You need this to conquer crop oasis' and this way, you will be able to send your hero along with your army on attacks. This way, he will be able to get some nice and needed experience.
- Tournament Square: Your troops can move 10% faster on every upgrade after they have travelled 30 fields. Very usefull when attacking with rams and cata's and on far away attacks.
- Academy: Used for researching all different kind of troops. After you have researched them, tear them down again to make place for a granary or warehouse as that will be more usefull.
c) What's not really needed
- Trade office: Most resources will go into building troops, upgrades at the blacksmith and buildings. The marketplace is usefull to trade of some crop but a trade office will take in a spot that isn't needed.
- Armoury: Same thing as the blacksmith, but for defensive purpose. Do not build this in an offensive village.
- Trapper: Useless, wouldn't build it in any village at all.
- Cranny: Use your resources to build troops and ship away the rest, it takes up a valueable spot and 1-2k more or less bounty won't make the difference.
- Embassy and Town Hall: see supply villages
- Saw Mill, Brickyard and Iron Foundry: Certainly not needed in a 15-cropper. Could be usefull in a 9-cropper, but takes away valueable spots for other, more needed, buildings.
--> Defensive villages
This is where you will build troops that will defend yourself, alliance mates and eventually the WW, for which we all play the game in the end.
a) which sort of valley?
Once again, try to make them in a 9 or15-cropper, this way you can hold more troops then on a normal village with only 6 cropfields. It's offcourse possible to build a defensive village in a 6-cropper when you will send most of the produced troops away as reinforcements for your alliance mates. Then the crop production isn't that important anyway.
B ) what to build?
- Barracks, Stable and Workshop: Should speak for itself I guess.
- Grain mill and Bakery: Again no explanation needed I guess.
- Armoury: The same as the blacksmith, but for defensive purpose. Research all your defensive troops and when you have reached lvl 20, destroy the armoury again. The upgrades will not go away if the building is destroyed.
- Granaries: 3-4 should be enough to keep your troops from starving and incase you get attacked with catapults, you still have 1-2 left to hold enough crop.
- Warehouses: 3-4 again. As with granaries, you can still hold a decent amount of resources in case you get attacked to rebuild and make extra troops.
- Rally point: With RP lvl 15 you can start on building on your Tournament Square. This way you can send reinforcements even faster.
- Tournament Square: Your troops can move 10% faster on every upgrade after they have travelled 30 fields. Very usefull when attacking with rams and cata's and on far away attacks.
- Academy: Used for researching all different kind of troops. After you have researched them, tear them down again to make room for warehouses/granaries. If you have space left, keep it, it gives a nice amount of culture points though.
c) what's not needed?
- Trapper: Useless, wouldn't build it in any village at all.
- Cranny: Use your resources to build troops and ship away the rest, it takes up a valueable spot and 1-2k more or less bounty won't make the difference.
- Embassy and Town Hall: see supply villages
- Blacksmith: Useless for defensive villages. You won't use your troops to attack normally, you will have your offensive villages for this. Upgrading troops will only costs resources that can be used for training more troops.
--> Supply villages
These villages will supply the previous 2 sort of villages with the much needed resources to build your armies, upgrade them in blacksmith/armoury, build RP and TS, etc etc. Try to build them as close to your offensive and defensive villages as possible.
If you will build a new supply villages, also pay attention to the oasis' around it. If there is a clay oasis for example close to your offensive village where you want to build a supply village, look for a valley with 5 clay fields in the 7x7 map of that oasis. When the supply village is set up, conquer the clay oasis. This way you will maximize the use of the oasis. The same goes for wood and iron oasis' offcourse.
a) which sort of valley?
Very easy, a village with 6 cropfields and the rest normal resources. As said before, pay attention to the oasis' around the place where you want to build and try to maximize their effect. The rest of the cropproduction (unused as you won't build troops here and only a small amount of reinforcements) can you then send to your offensive/defensive villages to help manage your negative cropproduction.
B ) what to build?
- Grain mill and Bakery: No explanation needed I guess.
- Granaries: 3 should be enough to keep your crop and not letting it overflow so you would loose it. If you have 240k of crop on supply villages, get yourself more troops.
- Warehouses: 3 again would be more then enough. I would even say 2 is enough. Letting over 160 k of resources lying around is asking for trouble sooner or later.
- Marketplace: Easy, this is needed for shifting your resources to the offensive and defensive villages.
- Trade Office: Build the stable to lvl 10 for this and build up your Trade Office. It will enable you to shift resources more effective to your other villages and is easy when you have to do it over bigger distances.
- Sawmill, Brickyard, Iron Foundry: Pretty simple, to get the extra 25% of resources.
c) what's not needed?
- Armoury and blacksmith: As you won't build any troops here, they are not needed.
- Trapper: Useless, wouldn't build it in any village at all.
- Cranny: Shift your resources away to the other villages to make troops.
d) what's usefull?
- Embassy: Very cheap to build and they give a lot of culture points. 1 lvl 20 embassy gives 153 points per day. If you build 4 of them that's more then throwing a little party every day in a townhall. You should have enough free spots in a supply village to build it anyway.
- Townhall: This way you can throw some parties to gain culture points more quickly.
- Academy: Gives a lot of culture points too. But more expensive then the embassy.
Random tips:
Scouts: Make sure every village and oasis you have, has at least 20 scouts. 20 scouts will always be enough to kill at least 1 scout, even when your scouted with a big number of scouts, which is needed to get a report about someone scouting you. No killed scouts, means no report, so you wouldn't notice it when an enemy scouts you.
Friday, March 5, 2010
All About Hero
This small guide can help you getting a good hero (level 60+) relatively fast... or at least to make you save time and reviving -resourse. I wrote the first hald, Caius Cassius the second one. Enjoy the reading.
--> Description (from travian FAQs)
Prerequisites: Hero's mansion level 1
The moment you have a hero's mansion level one you can make a normal unit a hero. This means that you need a stable or barracks before you actually can create a hero.
The hero can be send as a reinforcement to other villages like every other unit. However if the village is yours and you have built a hero's mansion there prior to sending the hero, you can use the hero from this village as if it had been created there.
When a hero is trained he has has 5 skill points that can be used to increase his 5 abilities. Ability levels can be increased up to level 100. Each time a hero gains a level he earns 5 additional ability points that can be used to increase his 5 ability levels.
• Offense: Points put into this ability increase the attack value of the hero.
• Defense: Points put into this ability increase the defense value of the hero. (The ratio of defense against infantry/calvary stays the same.)
• Off-Bonus: Points put into this ability increase the attack value of the whole army by 0.2% per level (maximum of 20%). This bonus only applies if the hero is attacking with the army.
• Def-Bonus: Points put into this ability increase the defense value of the whole army by 0.2% per level (maximum of 20%) This bonus only applies if the hero is defending with the army. Other defending troops not under your control will remain unaffected by this bonus.
• Regeneration: Points put into this ability increase the regeneration rate of the hero.
After upgrading a Hero's mansion to level 10, you can use your hero to annex oases in your surroundings. At building level 10 one oasis can be annexed, at level 15 two and with a Hero's mansion level 20 three. The oases you want to annex have to be within the 7x7 square around your village.
--> Which unit should be my hero?
There are 3 things you should take into account while making this choice:
- 3 out of 5 attributes of your hero do not depend on what type of unit your hero is (Regen, Off & Def bonus). Only Attack and Defense do vary depending on the type of unit you pick.
- Each unit has its cost. Clubs are cheap, Teuton Knights are expensive. This doesn't change at hero level: reviving a level 50 TK is way more expensive than reviving a level 50 club.
- Speed. Your hero is often send alone on mission (against oases or poorly defended farms) or with cavalry-only armies for raids. The price of this slow-down could be high: with a TT hero you can make way more attack (get way more bounties) than with a swordman.
Said that, here you go with an overview of the most popular school-of-thought:
• Standard Choice:
Normally, you should chose the strongest unit at your disposal: Teuton Knight, Equites Caesaris or Haeduan. That will grant you the highest values in Attack, which is what most people are looking for and, in general, what helps you the most at the beginning in getting more experience points for your hero.
• Farmer's Choice:
A good farmer should use the fastest troops at his disposal: Teuton Knights, Equites Imperatoris or Theutates Thunder. If you have such raiding forces you surely need a hero that doesn't slow you down. What you lose in terms of Attack and Defense (for example, a TT won't get as high as a Haeduan in neither values), is more than compensated by the speed at which your hero will grow and get levels (a TT hero allows you to raid more farms in one day than a with Haeduan).
• Defender's Choice:
Paladins/Spears, Druidriders/Phalanx, Praetorians(Legios) can be used as well. They'll grant you a higher def/cost ratio.
• Units I suggest not to use:
Clubs, Swordsman, Imperians... I'd say don't use them as heros. Infantry heros should be def units only.
--> How to get experience points and where to spend them
To get experience points you must kill troops, no matter if you do it in attack or in defense. However, it wouldn't be that wise to get heavily and often under attack just to improve your hero's skills... that's why you'd prefer to attack . Farms a part (your hero will soon learn to love small bunches of defenders), Oases are the the place where to gain points, especially at the beginning.
Your first mission against animals will be most likely suicidal ones. Don't worry though: reviving costs are low at the beginning. Spend you first points on attack: that will make your hero stronger (and therefore more resistant), but don't forget regeneration... Suiciding missions aren't such a big deal, yet it's better if you can survive
Each time your hero moves up one level he gets 5 points. My advice is to spread them like this: 4 points in attack, 1 in regeneration. This way you should be able to grow him at a good pace without having him dead to many times.
Another good reason to manage your hero like this is that at the beginning you don't have a big army, so spending points in Off or Def bonus would do you less good than spending them in Attack or Defense. However, it shouldn't take long before the situation changes... as I assume you'll be training an army as soon as you can.
From this point onwards it's impossible to draw a universal strategy appliable to everyone... but I surely can give you some general tips:
• Regeneration: do not spend more than 20-25 points there as it'll do you no good at all.
• Attack: once you've spent 50 points there, your hero is able to face alone any amount of animals in an oase (then obviously a phalanx hero might need more than 50 points while a Equites Caesaris less). If you wonder when to switch from Attack to Off bonus, this could be the turning point.
• Defense: this skill is often (and rightly) left behind. First of all 'cause Def bonus starts to be more convenient that Defense early in the game: it's not that difficult to gather a nice def army since you can group together troops from different villages. Second reason is that many players prefer to have a second hero, purely defensive. An hero you can cheaply revive when your off hero is in purgatory (or more likely in hell ) and serve you well in delicate situations.
--> Experience point formula
Knowing how many kills you need to get your hero up of one level is simple. You just have to multiply the current level of you hero per 100. So, to go from level 3 to level 4 you need to kill 300. Please note that this number is a crop value. So you can either kill 300 infantry units, say spearfighters, or 100 Teuton Knights.
The most obvious and most important consequence of this fact is that the stronger your hero is, the more difficult it is to improve him. There are a number of practical implications, so let me just give one clear example.
You just used your big fat army against a World Wonder of an enemy clan. Your strong offensive hero, say level 55, died with honour during the mission. Now you just have def troops and want to help defending our own Wonder. The question is, do you revive your hero (who had no def bonus points) or do you make a brand new one?
Easy answer: you make a brand new one. This way, a part from saving a lot of time and resourses (your dead hero costs you little less than 1 million resourses and takes more than 3-4 days to come back to life), you make it easier for him to get def bonus points (which is what you need now that you're only reinforcing the WW):
- Level 55 hero: needs 5500 kills to go up one level and get 5 points in def bonus.
- New hero: with 5500 kills this hero goes up of 10 levels, getting 50 points.
--> Combat simulator to find out how many animals my hero can cope with on his own?
There are several ways to calculate such attack damage but I will describe you what I believe as the easiest one: using normal simulator.
According to the attack value your hero has you should try to estimate an amount of units of the same type which have equal or less attacking value than your hero. You should then simulate the raid attack against the oasis using any normal simulator but entering your hero as a # of units of the same type. Example: if your hero is a TT with 900 attack points, then he's like 10 TTs.
Once the result is visible, you can estimate which % of health of the hero will be lost according to the number of units which have died from your side. If all the units you died, then your hero would as well.
--> What´s the maximum percentage of HPs the hero can lose before he dies?
90% in one battle. More than that and he dies.
--> How to recover faster?
Hero Oasis Small Attack Value Tip:
Since attacks are calculated dividing each type of unit in a same amount of % damage ( acording to their attack / defense value ), it is adviced to send some single units along with your Hero. As long as your hero does not recieve more than 90% of damage no unit should die.
Explanation:
Unit A 50 attack value > 10% Damage
Unit B 100 attack value > 20% Damage
Unit H 350 attack value > 70% Damage ( to be healed )
Total 500 attack value > 100%
With this method you can save "healing" time. The lower the Hero attacking value the more time is saved. Moreover stronger targets can be faced: The Hero on it's own could not have faced an opponent defending for a value higher than 315 (350*0.9) and now with the escort can face up to 450 (500*0.9).
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
→ Example ←
Hero Equites Caesaris escorted by one single normal caesaris and imperatoris would increase the "Hero" damage by 180 and 120 respectively, = +300 "free" attack value. Although such technique is unnessesary once your Hero has a high attack, it is adviced to use it as long as your hero is not strong enough to sustain high % damages having no losses.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
I am not completely sure if this is exactly correct in theory, but it works in practice.
How to: time concurrent attacks down to the second
This is a little piece-mealed together, but hopefully it makes sense. In order to be effective in this game, you have to learn to coordinate your attacks with other players down to the second. Why? Because the common strategy is to send 1 initial wave that is a LARGE "cleaner" force (i.e., kills all troops in the village) with several follow-up waves that are only seconds apart from each other that contain the cats and rams that will destroy the buildings. You do this so that your first attack sustains the casualties, and that the follow-up waves don't incur any casualties, but destroy all the buildings you targeted. Normally, rams either go with the "cleaner" wave or the second wave to protect the rams from being crippled. Also, you never send cats by themselves, you send a small group of units with the cats so that the wall or residence/palace don't destroy them.
Coordinating with another player(s):
You make sure you're both have setthe same timezone in yur profiles.
Then, you do a mock send (bring up enemy village, queue up 1 troop to send, and look at the arrival time. You then tell those that you're working with, "It will take me X hrs, X min, X sec to reach village Y."
You then say, "I'm leaving at Z time and will arrive at X time." Those you are cooperating with need to make sure they CAN arrive at X time down to the SECOND. Which means they take the same steps as you, and wait on the page with the second "send" button (that has the real time clock counting for the arrival time). As soon as that time arrives (minus 1 second for browser refresh compensation) they hit their send button, and if they did it correctly, they'll arrive a second after your troops hit.
We need to do this, because the closer we are together in waves, the harder it is for the enemy to inject troops and cleaner crews between our waves that are less defended (i.e., cats and rams).
Now remember, if you are the cleaner, you may need to include a ram or a cat so that your attack wave slows down enough (you're attack group only moves as fast as your slowest unit) so that you don't outrun the ram/cat armies you're trying to coordinate with. If you have the times down correctly though, I've also seen it where everyone sends their rams and cats, the enemy sees all of these incoming, slow attacks, and then all of the sudden, hours into the waiting process, the enemy sees another attack that arrives 1 second ahead of all the rest. This happens when the "sweeper" team is closer than everyone else is and has to WAIT to send his troops so that they arrive on time..
Coordinating with another player(s):
You make sure you're both have setthe same timezone in yur profiles.
Then, you do a mock send (bring up enemy village, queue up 1 troop to send, and look at the arrival time. You then tell those that you're working with, "It will take me X hrs, X min, X sec to reach village Y."
You then say, "I'm leaving at Z time and will arrive at X time." Those you are cooperating with need to make sure they CAN arrive at X time down to the SECOND. Which means they take the same steps as you, and wait on the page with the second "send" button (that has the real time clock counting for the arrival time). As soon as that time arrives (minus 1 second for browser refresh compensation) they hit their send button, and if they did it correctly, they'll arrive a second after your troops hit.
We need to do this, because the closer we are together in waves, the harder it is for the enemy to inject troops and cleaner crews between our waves that are less defended (i.e., cats and rams).
Now remember, if you are the cleaner, you may need to include a ram or a cat so that your attack wave slows down enough (you're attack group only moves as fast as your slowest unit) so that you don't outrun the ram/cat armies you're trying to coordinate with. If you have the times down correctly though, I've also seen it where everyone sends their rams and cats, the enemy sees all of these incoming, slow attacks, and then all of the sudden, hours into the waiting process, the enemy sees another attack that arrives 1 second ahead of all the rest. This happens when the "sweeper" team is closer than everyone else is and has to WAIT to send his troops so that they arrive on time..
Cheifing Basics
I thought I would start this thread to provide all the information I know about employing Administrators (Senators, Chiefs, and Chieftains). If done properly, this operation provides a nice slingshot effect for your towns. If mistakes are made, however, a failed conquest can be costly. This is a high risk, high reward endeavor. Everything you do in planning and execution should be geared toward reducing the risk of failure (or conversely increasing the chances of success).
To my way of thinking, there are 5 steps to the process of conquest. I will list them and then discuss in depth.
I. CP generation and village expansion slot management
II. Target selection
III. Conquest preparation
IV. Execution
V. Consolidation
I. CP generation and village expansion slot management:
This is more of a passive measure, and requires careful long range planning. As most of you should grasp by now, there are two prerequisites required before you can found a new village.
-Enough CP
-Available expansion slot in palace/residence
Most people seem to be forward thinking about the CP. We construct buildings that provide us CP and we throw celebrations for nice boosts. Culture Points are a fairly straightforward concept.
Expansion slots are less clear at first. As you know, you can expand from a village with a residence 2 times (L10 and L20) and from a village with a palace 3 times (L10, L15, and L20). Most people, initially, expand in a series of L10 residences, and thus use one of their two expansion slots (for a non-capital / non-palace village). This means there is only one expansion slot available for future Administrators, and the pre-requisite is to go to L20 residence. Something else to keep in mind is that once you use an expansion slot for a village, that village will count against your expansion slot unless it is conquered or destroyed. For instance, if you conquer an enemy's village A, and he expanded from village A prior to conquest, whatever village he founded still counts against the expansion slot of village A.
Now, let me interject an important concept. You do not need the minimum CP to expand in order to produce Settlers or Administrators. All that is required to produce them is an empty expansion slot in your village. You can make as many Settlers or Administrators as there are available expansion slots. The only thing required is for the residence or palace to be a high enough level to unlock that slot.
This entire preamble leads to the real planning piece. You can expand one village to the next, by constructing an endless series of L10 residences. The consequence is that you are burning an expo slot in each village, and only leaving yourself with one slot open. Thus, you can only have one Administrator per village (or two from your capital) if you follow this course.
An alternative route is to break the cycle of one village expanding from the next by expanding a second time from an older village. I recommend this course of action. This means that your most recent village will maintain its 2 expansion slots, or 3 in the case of a capital. As it pertains to conquest, the more Administrators the merrier. If you plan for it, you can have a regular village or a capital provide a permanent 2 or 3 Administrator ‘welcome wagon’ wave. So long as the actual conquering is done by another village’s Administrator, you will never lose the ‘welcome wagon’ Administrators or the expansion slots they occupy.
Finally, an advanced tactic is to conquer your own villages from yourself. For instance, let's say you expanded once from your capital city, but now you want to make three Administrators there. Well, you can have a different city conquer the town that your capital founded. Now your capital has all three of its expansion slots back. Keep in mind though, the town that gets conquered will have all its buildings reduced by one level, all researches will be deleted, and all troops/units will be deleted. So consider the full circumstances before you embark on this tactic.
To my way of thinking, there are 5 steps to the process of conquest. I will list them and then discuss in depth.
I. CP generation and village expansion slot management
II. Target selection
III. Conquest preparation
IV. Execution
V. Consolidation
I. CP generation and village expansion slot management:
This is more of a passive measure, and requires careful long range planning. As most of you should grasp by now, there are two prerequisites required before you can found a new village.
-Enough CP
-Available expansion slot in palace/residence
Most people seem to be forward thinking about the CP. We construct buildings that provide us CP and we throw celebrations for nice boosts. Culture Points are a fairly straightforward concept.
Expansion slots are less clear at first. As you know, you can expand from a village with a residence 2 times (L10 and L20) and from a village with a palace 3 times (L10, L15, and L20). Most people, initially, expand in a series of L10 residences, and thus use one of their two expansion slots (for a non-capital / non-palace village). This means there is only one expansion slot available for future Administrators, and the pre-requisite is to go to L20 residence. Something else to keep in mind is that once you use an expansion slot for a village, that village will count against your expansion slot unless it is conquered or destroyed. For instance, if you conquer an enemy's village A, and he expanded from village A prior to conquest, whatever village he founded still counts against the expansion slot of village A.
Now, let me interject an important concept. You do not need the minimum CP to expand in order to produce Settlers or Administrators. All that is required to produce them is an empty expansion slot in your village. You can make as many Settlers or Administrators as there are available expansion slots. The only thing required is for the residence or palace to be a high enough level to unlock that slot.
This entire preamble leads to the real planning piece. You can expand one village to the next, by constructing an endless series of L10 residences. The consequence is that you are burning an expo slot in each village, and only leaving yourself with one slot open. Thus, you can only have one Administrator per village (or two from your capital) if you follow this course.
An alternative route is to break the cycle of one village expanding from the next by expanding a second time from an older village. I recommend this course of action. This means that your most recent village will maintain its 2 expansion slots, or 3 in the case of a capital. As it pertains to conquest, the more Administrators the merrier. If you plan for it, you can have a regular village or a capital provide a permanent 2 or 3 Administrator ‘welcome wagon’ wave. So long as the actual conquering is done by another village’s Administrator, you will never lose the ‘welcome wagon’ Administrators or the expansion slots they occupy.
Finally, an advanced tactic is to conquer your own villages from yourself. For instance, let's say you expanded once from your capital city, but now you want to make three Administrators there. Well, you can have a different city conquer the town that your capital founded. Now your capital has all three of its expansion slots back. Keep in mind though, the town that gets conquered will have all its buildings reduced by one level, all researches will be deleted, and all troops/units will be deleted. So consider the full circumstances before you embark on this tactic.
I thought I would start this thread to provide all the information I know about employing Administrators (Senators, Chiefs, and Chieftains). If done properly, this operation provides a nice slingshot effect for your towns. If mistakes are made, however, a failed conquest can be costly. This is a high risk, high reward endeavor. Everything you do in planning and execution should be geared toward reducing the risk of failure (or conversely increasing the chances of success).
To my way of thinking, there are 5 steps to the process of conquest. I will list them and then discuss in depth.
I. CP generation and village expansion slot management
II. Target selection
III. Conquest preparation
IV. Execution
V. Consolidation
I. CP generation and village expansion slot management:
This is more of a passive measure, and requires careful long range planning. As most of you should grasp by now, there are two prerequisites required before you can found a new village.
-Enough CP
-Available expansion slot in palace/residence
Most people seem to be forward thinking about the CP. We construct buildings that provide us CP and we throw celebrations for nice boosts. Culture Points are a fairly straightforward concept.
Expansion slots are less clear at first. As you know, you can expand from a village with a residence 2 times (L10 and L20) and from a village with a palace 3 times (L10, L15, and L20). Most people, initially, expand in a series of L10 residences, and thus use one of their two expansion slots (for a non-capital / non-palace village). This means there is only one expansion slot available for future Administrators, and the pre-requisite is to go to L20 residence. Something else to keep in mind is that once you use an expansion slot for a village, that village will count against your expansion slot unless it is conquered or destroyed. For instance, if you conquer an enemy's village A, and he expanded from village A prior to conquest, whatever village he founded still counts against the expansion slot of village A.
Now, let me interject an important concept. You do not need the minimum CP to expand in order to produce Settlers or Administrators. All that is required to produce them is an empty expansion slot in your village. You can make as many Settlers or Administrators as there are available expansion slots. The only thing required is for the residence or palace to be a high enough level to unlock that slot.
This entire preamble leads to the real planning piece. You can expand one village to the next, by constructing an endless series of L10 residences. The consequence is that you are burning an expo slot in each village, and only leaving yourself with one slot open. Thus, you can only have one Administrator per village (or two from your capital) if you follow this course.
An alternative route is to break the cycle of one village expanding from the next by expanding a second time from an older village. I recommend this course of action. This means that your most recent village will maintain its 2 expansion slots, or 3 in the case of a capital. As it pertains to conquest, the more Administrators the merrier. If you plan for it, you can have a regular village or a capital provide a permanent 2 or 3 Administrator ‘welcome wagon’ wave. So long as the actual conquering is done by another village’s Administrator, you will never lose the ‘welcome wagon’ Administrators or the expansion slots they occupy.
Finally, an advanced tactic is to conquer your own villages from yourself. For instance, let's say you expanded once from your capital city, but now you want to make three Administrators there. Well, you can have a different city conquer the town that your capital founded. Now your capital has all three of its expansion slots back. Keep in mind though, the town that gets conquered will have all its buildings reduced by one level, all researches will be deleted, and all troops/units will be deleted. So consider the full circumstances before you embark on this tactic.
To my way of thinking, there are 5 steps to the process of conquest. I will list them and then discuss in depth.
I. CP generation and village expansion slot management
II. Target selection
III. Conquest preparation
IV. Execution
V. Consolidation
I. CP generation and village expansion slot management:
This is more of a passive measure, and requires careful long range planning. As most of you should grasp by now, there are two prerequisites required before you can found a new village.
-Enough CP
-Available expansion slot in palace/residence
Most people seem to be forward thinking about the CP. We construct buildings that provide us CP and we throw celebrations for nice boosts. Culture Points are a fairly straightforward concept.
Expansion slots are less clear at first. As you know, you can expand from a village with a residence 2 times (L10 and L20) and from a village with a palace 3 times (L10, L15, and L20). Most people, initially, expand in a series of L10 residences, and thus use one of their two expansion slots (for a non-capital / non-palace village). This means there is only one expansion slot available for future Administrators, and the pre-requisite is to go to L20 residence. Something else to keep in mind is that once you use an expansion slot for a village, that village will count against your expansion slot unless it is conquered or destroyed. For instance, if you conquer an enemy's village A, and he expanded from village A prior to conquest, whatever village he founded still counts against the expansion slot of village A.
Now, let me interject an important concept. You do not need the minimum CP to expand in order to produce Settlers or Administrators. All that is required to produce them is an empty expansion slot in your village. You can make as many Settlers or Administrators as there are available expansion slots. The only thing required is for the residence or palace to be a high enough level to unlock that slot.
This entire preamble leads to the real planning piece. You can expand one village to the next, by constructing an endless series of L10 residences. The consequence is that you are burning an expo slot in each village, and only leaving yourself with one slot open. Thus, you can only have one Administrator per village (or two from your capital) if you follow this course.
An alternative route is to break the cycle of one village expanding from the next by expanding a second time from an older village. I recommend this course of action. This means that your most recent village will maintain its 2 expansion slots, or 3 in the case of a capital. As it pertains to conquest, the more Administrators the merrier. If you plan for it, you can have a regular village or a capital provide a permanent 2 or 3 Administrator ‘welcome wagon’ wave. So long as the actual conquering is done by another village’s Administrator, you will never lose the ‘welcome wagon’ Administrators or the expansion slots they occupy.
Finally, an advanced tactic is to conquer your own villages from yourself. For instance, let's say you expanded once from your capital city, but now you want to make three Administrators there. Well, you can have a different city conquer the town that your capital founded. Now your capital has all three of its expansion slots back. Keep in mind though, the town that gets conquered will have all its buildings reduced by one level, all researches will be deleted, and all troops/units will be deleted. So consider the full circumstances before you embark on this tactic.
IV. Execution
I may expand this section at some point in the future. Each plan is going to be unique dependent on the local circumstances, and I am not going to cover them all. There are, however, several considerations that are common to every conquest operation.
-Loyalty. The end goal of each conquest is to reduce your enemy’s village to 0 loyalty. At that juncture, you conquer the town. There are several factors to keep in mind when reducing loyalty (this is a copy / paste from the Travian forums):
The factors for loyalty are:
1. tribe of the attacker
2. a random factor
3. big party/parties of the attacker
4. big party of the defender
5. the difference of the total population between attacker and defender
at 1: It is said, that the normal percentage a senator/chief/chieftain takes is:
a) between 20-30% for romans (senator)
between 20-25% for gauls and teutons (chief, chieftain)
at 2: As you can see before, there is a random factor. This factor seems to be +/- 2.5% for gauls/teutons and +/- 5% for romans.
at 3: If the attacker has a big party in a village, you will get +5% for each senator from this village. This only works for senators from this village!
at 4: If the defender is having a big party in the attacked village, the senator(s) work -5% for each senator. Note, the big party must be in the attacked village!
at 5: This is the most unknown part. The values i said in point 1 (should) only work, when attacker and defender have the same total population (not only population of the attacking/defending villages!) or the defender has a bigger total population. If the defender is smaller, he gets something called "moral bonus". As bigger the difference is, as more bonus the defender gets (e.g., as less the senators will take down loyalty). I can't give you a exact value, but i had for example some chieftains (gaul), that took only 13% each without big parties of attacker or defender. When i remember correctly the defender had around 20% of the attackers population. As you can see, this moral bonus can influence the amount of loyalty pretty much.-Destroying the residence / palace: Plan to do so with each wave. Think of your opponent’s main building level, and how long it takes to get a residence. If he gets a residence in place, your Administrator will not have any effect on the town's Loyalty. Thus, it's a wasted trip.
-The Administrator that conquers the village will disappear and merge with the village. The expansion slot from the village that sent him will be consumed as well. Also, his escorting forces will stay in the town as reinforcements. This is tricky if you have extra attack waves still incoming after the conquest. You will be attacking yourself.
-You can have several players send Administrators at a target to lower its Loyalty. The one who’s Administrator gets the Loyalty to 0 is the player who will conquer the village.
-If you are planning on making multiple roundtrips to conquer a village, consider destroying the Main Building as well as the Residence / Palace. That way, the enemy has a harder time rebuilding his Residence / Palace.
V. Consolidation:
Like Step IV, this step varies greatly depending on the plan. Just keep in mind that you need to have a sense of urgency after you conquer a town. You should have defensive reinforcements available to be sent to the town as soon as you conquer it. You need to rebuild buildings in a logical order, and quickly. Bottom-line: plan that you will be successful in your conquest, and you will be more likely to hold onto your gain.
I may expand this section at some point in the future. Each plan is going to be unique dependent on the local circumstances, and I am not going to cover them all. There are, however, several considerations that are common to every conquest operation.
-Loyalty. The end goal of each conquest is to reduce your enemy’s village to 0 loyalty. At that juncture, you conquer the town. There are several factors to keep in mind when reducing loyalty (this is a copy / paste from the Travian forums):
The factors for loyalty are:
1. tribe of the attacker
2. a random factor
3. big party/parties of the attacker
4. big party of the defender
5. the difference of the total population between attacker and defender
at 1: It is said, that the normal percentage a senator/chief/chieftain takes is:
a) between 20-30% for romans (senator)
between 20-25% for gauls and teutons (chief, chieftain)at 2: As you can see before, there is a random factor. This factor seems to be +/- 2.5% for gauls/teutons and +/- 5% for romans.
at 3: If the attacker has a big party in a village, you will get +5% for each senator from this village. This only works for senators from this village!
at 4: If the defender is having a big party in the attacked village, the senator(s) work -5% for each senator. Note, the big party must be in the attacked village!
at 5: This is the most unknown part. The values i said in point 1 (should) only work, when attacker and defender have the same total population (not only population of the attacking/defending villages!) or the defender has a bigger total population. If the defender is smaller, he gets something called "moral bonus". As bigger the difference is, as more bonus the defender gets (e.g., as less the senators will take down loyalty). I can't give you a exact value, but i had for example some chieftains (gaul), that took only 13% each without big parties of attacker or defender. When i remember correctly the defender had around 20% of the attackers population. As you can see, this moral bonus can influence the amount of loyalty pretty much.-Destroying the residence / palace: Plan to do so with each wave. Think of your opponent’s main building level, and how long it takes to get a residence. If he gets a residence in place, your Administrator will not have any effect on the town's Loyalty. Thus, it's a wasted trip.
-The Administrator that conquers the village will disappear and merge with the village. The expansion slot from the village that sent him will be consumed as well. Also, his escorting forces will stay in the town as reinforcements. This is tricky if you have extra attack waves still incoming after the conquest. You will be attacking yourself.
-You can have several players send Administrators at a target to lower its Loyalty. The one who’s Administrator gets the Loyalty to 0 is the player who will conquer the village.
-If you are planning on making multiple roundtrips to conquer a village, consider destroying the Main Building as well as the Residence / Palace. That way, the enemy has a harder time rebuilding his Residence / Palace.
V. Consolidation:
Like Step IV, this step varies greatly depending on the plan. Just keep in mind that you need to have a sense of urgency after you conquer a town. You should have defensive reinforcements available to be sent to the town as soon as you conquer it. You need to rebuild buildings in a logical order, and quickly. Bottom-line: plan that you will be successful in your conquest, and you will be more likely to hold onto your gain.
Travian Basics : HAMMERS
Most of you by now are beginning to see that one large army is much more useful than multiple small armies. That’s not to say multiple armies shouldn’t be built, but these smaller armies will usually be considered raiding armies and not hammers. By way of example, with a 5k hammer, you can clear 2k of defense from an idle player with ease, then go on to farm. With 5 x 1k armies, you wouldn’t be able to clear the player. In short, your hammers are for clearing large levels of defense and to be useful your hammer must be big. The question therefore arises, where do you build your hammer?
There are two answers to this question:
* The Capital Hammer
* The Non-Capital Hammer
It’s worth taking some time to consider which of these is more appropriate for you as the choice can’t be easily undone and the differences between the two are huge.
There are certain factors to take into account when making your decision:
1) Vulnerability
A non-capital hammer is vulnerable to a chiefing. A capital one isn’t. When a village gets chiefed, all the army units created from there vanish. A capital cannot be chiefed . As one who has spent a server defending a non-capital hammer as well as chiefing no small number myself, I can tell you this is a real, not purely theoretical risk.
2) Ease of Defense
When the serious wars kick off, the primary targets of your enemies will be capitals and hammer villages. For those of you with non-capital hammers, this will mean having to defend two villages and not just one. That of itself may not appear so tricky, but when one considers that your non-cap hammer will most likely be -100k / hr in crop without any defense in there, you can imagine how much fun it is to also host 100k in defenders as well. Handling a village at -200k crop/hr for any period doesn’t improve your sleep patterns any.
3) Feeding
In a capital hammer, feeding is easy. Most of the army will be fed from the capitals own crop production, with perhaps a supplement coming in from other villages. In a non-capital hammer the only word to describe the feeding process is nightmarish. For those without active sitters or duals, forget about it. Likewise if you don’t use gold and so are unable to NPC resources to crop, forget about it. The non-capital hammer is not for the part time Travian player. The concept behind feeding it is easy enough. The non-capital hammer receives constant shipments of crop from your capital, as well as all your other villages. When a non-capital army is on the march, it needs to be fed, when it’s at home, it simply reinforces your capital to make the feeding easier. It’s to allow for easier, quicker and constant feeding, that the non-capital hammer will normally be adjacent to your capital.
Those new to Travian might be considering that given the above, why would anyone build their hammer in a place other than their capital?
The answer is size. In almost all cases a non-capital hammer will be larger than a capital hammer. This is because in a non-capital hammer one can build a Great Barracks / Great Stable which effectively doubles your potential troop production (at a cost). I use the phrase “almost all cases” advisedly as there are two resources which are King in Travian: Crop and Time. It is these which will ultimately limit the size of your army.
Let us, by way of example examine Teutons. In one month a Teuton can build:
In a capital Hammer: 12970 axe 5258 TKs and 2162 Cats
In non-capital Hammer: 25939 axe 10516 TKs and 2162 Cats
If you are only producing your hammer for 6 months, then your army from a capital will be maxed at (77820axe +31548 TKs). This can rightly be considered a World wonder army, especially if it has 10k+ cats, though it won’t be the largest army that the server sees. It will be consuming close to 170k of crop per hour, excluding siege and will need some serious management. This contrasts with over 150,000 axe and 60,000 TKs that you could build in the same time from a non-capital hammer, consuming upwards of 330k /hr. For most players who are able to build unimpeded for this length of time, it will be crop which ultimately limits your army. There comes a point when you simply can’t feed any more troops. Given that the troop production is so much more expensive using a Great Barracks/Great Stable, for those who believe they can do 24/7 building for at least 6 months, you’d do well to consider a capital hammer.
This ignores one major factor however, and that’s losses due to usage. Given the slow build time, losses from a capital hammer take a longer time to recoup and then they do so slowly. A major loss 3 months in might kill off your world wonder army – the catapults being little good without an escort of >100k – but that same loss to the escorting troops in a non-capital hammer can be rebuilt within a month, and make your world wonder army usable again.
As a rule of thumb, for those who are going to be constantly aggressive, not seeking to build a monster army for world wonder time but rather, using it to bash enemies constantly then I would suggest a non-capital army. For those who want a monster army (and I mean “OMFG! – HOW DID HE BUILD THAT SIZE??”), again I’d suggest a non-capital hammer.
For the greater majority, a capital hammer is easier to manage, easier to defend and generally the safer, if smaller option. For the real pros out there, and with sufficient advance planning, there is no reason why you couldn’t host a capital army of 100k axe and 50k TKs with 15k cats providing you with both size and safety. And finally for the real pros with good duals, lots of gold, a friendly sitter pool and no RL (optional but useful), there is always the option of hosting both capital and non capital hammers.
There are two answers to this question:
* The Capital Hammer
* The Non-Capital Hammer
It’s worth taking some time to consider which of these is more appropriate for you as the choice can’t be easily undone and the differences between the two are huge.
There are certain factors to take into account when making your decision:
1) Vulnerability
A non-capital hammer is vulnerable to a chiefing. A capital one isn’t. When a village gets chiefed, all the army units created from there vanish. A capital cannot be chiefed . As one who has spent a server defending a non-capital hammer as well as chiefing no small number myself, I can tell you this is a real, not purely theoretical risk.
2) Ease of Defense
When the serious wars kick off, the primary targets of your enemies will be capitals and hammer villages. For those of you with non-capital hammers, this will mean having to defend two villages and not just one. That of itself may not appear so tricky, but when one considers that your non-cap hammer will most likely be -100k / hr in crop without any defense in there, you can imagine how much fun it is to also host 100k in defenders as well. Handling a village at -200k crop/hr for any period doesn’t improve your sleep patterns any.
3) Feeding
In a capital hammer, feeding is easy. Most of the army will be fed from the capitals own crop production, with perhaps a supplement coming in from other villages. In a non-capital hammer the only word to describe the feeding process is nightmarish. For those without active sitters or duals, forget about it. Likewise if you don’t use gold and so are unable to NPC resources to crop, forget about it. The non-capital hammer is not for the part time Travian player. The concept behind feeding it is easy enough. The non-capital hammer receives constant shipments of crop from your capital, as well as all your other villages. When a non-capital army is on the march, it needs to be fed, when it’s at home, it simply reinforces your capital to make the feeding easier. It’s to allow for easier, quicker and constant feeding, that the non-capital hammer will normally be adjacent to your capital.
Those new to Travian might be considering that given the above, why would anyone build their hammer in a place other than their capital?
The answer is size. In almost all cases a non-capital hammer will be larger than a capital hammer. This is because in a non-capital hammer one can build a Great Barracks / Great Stable which effectively doubles your potential troop production (at a cost). I use the phrase “almost all cases” advisedly as there are two resources which are King in Travian: Crop and Time. It is these which will ultimately limit the size of your army.
Let us, by way of example examine Teutons. In one month a Teuton can build:
In a capital Hammer: 12970 axe 5258 TKs and 2162 Cats
In non-capital Hammer: 25939 axe 10516 TKs and 2162 Cats
If you are only producing your hammer for 6 months, then your army from a capital will be maxed at (77820axe +31548 TKs). This can rightly be considered a World wonder army, especially if it has 10k+ cats, though it won’t be the largest army that the server sees. It will be consuming close to 170k of crop per hour, excluding siege and will need some serious management. This contrasts with over 150,000 axe and 60,000 TKs that you could build in the same time from a non-capital hammer, consuming upwards of 330k /hr. For most players who are able to build unimpeded for this length of time, it will be crop which ultimately limits your army. There comes a point when you simply can’t feed any more troops. Given that the troop production is so much more expensive using a Great Barracks/Great Stable, for those who believe they can do 24/7 building for at least 6 months, you’d do well to consider a capital hammer.
This ignores one major factor however, and that’s losses due to usage. Given the slow build time, losses from a capital hammer take a longer time to recoup and then they do so slowly. A major loss 3 months in might kill off your world wonder army – the catapults being little good without an escort of >100k – but that same loss to the escorting troops in a non-capital hammer can be rebuilt within a month, and make your world wonder army usable again.
As a rule of thumb, for those who are going to be constantly aggressive, not seeking to build a monster army for world wonder time but rather, using it to bash enemies constantly then I would suggest a non-capital army. For those who want a monster army (and I mean “OMFG! – HOW DID HE BUILD THAT SIZE??”), again I’d suggest a non-capital hammer.
For the greater majority, a capital hammer is easier to manage, easier to defend and generally the safer, if smaller option. For the real pros out there, and with sufficient advance planning, there is no reason why you couldn’t host a capital army of 100k axe and 50k TKs with 15k cats providing you with both size and safety. And finally for the real pros with good duals, lots of gold, a friendly sitter pool and no RL (optional but useful), there is always the option of hosting both capital and non capital hammers.
Travian Basics : ANVILS
So, you want to break hammers?
This guide is going to be written from a Gallic perspective, but is adaptable to the other tribes as well.
Now, you may have seen people say that defense is better than offense and it is for this reason that a good attacker uses fakes to hide his intended target. Defending is simply easier.
Defenders have the advantage of combining all defensive reins as 1 grouped army, where the attackers attack per village and 100 troops per wave for 2 waves is not equivalent to 200 attackers.
You see many references in the early game to how many troops someone has, but the real figures to know is how much attack power, or how much defensive power you can produce per hour. The other consideration is how much attack or defense you get per wheat consumed. This is what determines the real effectiveness of your military and wheat becomes a big limitation.
Now, to see the strength behind an anvil lets take a look at how a proper hammer is made.
Generally you have a 15c capital with a good wheat bonus. A village next to it, can be your hammer village. You do not make it in your capital because you cannot create a greater barracks or greater stable in a capital village, this would severely limit your troop production. You build up production infrastructure. Barracks to make Infantry, Greater Barracks to create them faster even at triple cost, Stables for Cavalry, Greater Stables to make them faster at an increased cost. Siege workshop to 20 always making cats and rams.
The math that you want to know in your hammer producing village is how much attack per hour is it producing when everything is running. To simplify I will use some created numbers and not consider all variables. Lets say your Teuton and can create 1 axe per 3 minutes 23sec in a 20 barracks. If you have a 20 Greater Barracks you can spend 3x more to match that productivity… so for total production you can make 2 troops per 3:23 but at 4x the cost of each unit. (1x for the Barracks plus 3x for the Greater). Also, I am only considering raw values, no hero bonus or armory/blacksmith upgrades.
3:23 is equal to 203 seconds
86,400 seconds in 24 hours.
86400 / 203 = 425 axes at 1x cost in a single barracks, double the troop for 3x additional cost is now 850 axes per 24 hours at 4x the total cost.
850 axes at 60 attack per is 51,000 attack power per day, divided by 24 is 2125 attack power created hourly.
490 total resources to create 1 axe…. X4 to keep a barracks and greater barracks going is 1960 per pair of axes.
For 850 axes x 980 resources per axe that’s 833,000 resources per day to keep it running for 24 hours.
So, 800k resources for 51,000 attack at the max daily. 200k if you only make 425 per day in a single barracks.
Now, lets look at the advantage of being an anvil…
The main advantage is you do not suffer the limitation of being required to produce in a single village. Also, a good cropper is not really required to be a good anvil player
Lets use the phalanx as our counter to the Teutons Axe.
A Phalanx creates in 2:56 in a 20 barracks. For an anvil we will shoot for efficiency and forgo the use of a greater barracks at all. If you had a ton of resources you certainly could, but I will do some math to show you why I never bothered.
Lets say as a Gaul you have 4 villages in which to produce troops in. (You could very very easily have far more, and every expansion can add to your production giving you a huge edge over a hammer)
2:56 is 176 seconds and is 490 phalanx per day in each village.
A phalanx is 40 infantry defense, 50 cavalry defense. For this example we will use the infantry defense only.
490 x 40 is 19600 defense or 817 defense per hour per village.
The cost per phalanx is 315 total resources.
315 x 490 is 154,350 resources per day to keep a Barracks going.
x4 to cover all villages the total comes to 617,400
So, in summary…
Hammer
Troops per Day = 850
Total Attack Power per Day = 51,000
Cost of Creation = 833,000
Anvil (4 villages)
Troops per day = 1960
Total Defense Power per Day (infantry only) = 78,400
Cost of Creation = 617,400
This does not even include the wall’s defensive bonuses.
The only real downside is that each village needs to have its barracks to 20, which most people should eventually do regardless of playstyle, and also you need to do armory upgrades in each village. Yet, this is a small price to pay and you can easily see the savings in the total cost of production can be spent here. It takes very little to match the production power of the mightiest hammers. On top of that, the defensive bonuses you can get outweigh what the attackers can get. Wall Bonuses can add huge value.
Now, lets say you get a bit further in the game…
12 villages…
5880 Phalanx per day
235,200 infantry defense per day.
Lets say you do this for a week…
That is over 41,000 phalanx.
The problem for a good anvil actually comes in the form of storage issues. 41,000 wheat per hour is not easy to come by.
Lets say your goal in life is to break hammers. You used the ideas above and you have created 20,000 troops over a few days but have run out of storage room. Life is boring, no one is currently attacking. You party in all villages and expand but you have excess resources and cant make more troops due to space.
Give troops away. (You could even take small donations for them, but overall your cost is not that high and you still have the ability to recall them if absolutely necessary)
I had a really bad cropper on s5 and got very low wheat. I would get on the forums and say… “I got lvl 20 phalanx free to a good home, I may have to recall them in defensive needs but as far as I am concerned they can be live in defenses”
I would get responses… “Hey, I can take 1000 at these coords”… 500 here, 250 there.
Thing is, over time its easily possible to own over 100,000 phalanx and only be paying for 15,000 or so.
An alliance needs good anvils, but it does not need to be a 1:1 ratio. A good anvil can supply a ton of defense and have even more standing by ready to be sent. It just takes a bit of planning and a good sense in getting others to take in your troops. There is also a sick satisfaction behind crushing an enormous hammer in a random non-allied village and the other person having no idea who did it.
The numbers can speak for themselves here. If you have a cluster of villages you will be very hard to damage, about the only way to truly hit is to send many fakes and hide the target. Nearby allies will love to have you close as its comforting to know that 20,000 troops are within an hour of you. Long range attacks with no fakes sent can be easily broken by you alone, but having many anvils means we should be very capable of breaking just about any true threat.
On S5 we had a couple of us using this same strategy within a couple of hours of each other.
Also, even if your going hammer… building defensive infrastructure in all your feeder villages will allow you to reverse into this same type of production in times of need. There is nothing to say a Gaul can’t have a few feeder villages and a huge hammer, and 12 other villages running this same strategy.
I hope this guide helps those less aware, or that the numbers raised some eyebrows on just how powerful a strong defender can truly be.
It also shows that busting up a hammer is not that hard to do, and even if you lose everything in damaging it… your recovery rate is much faster.
If you kill 19,000 axes knowing you set them back half a month, and set yourself back about 3-4 days is very satisfying and thats assuming your loss was just as great as their own. Not even considering time, your cost and rebuild cost is far less.
If you think this style of play may be boring, I suggest you try baiting people. Convince a smaller player to attack someone too big for them to handle and speak in a disrespectful tone, get sit access to watch for the attack. When the time of reckoning comes, rein in and break them. They wont even know who did it and its very hard to fight a shadow. Using diplomacy and illusion to get someone to react in a predictable manner makes this a very fun style of play.
Far better than making alot of defenses and waiting for something bad to happen while you get jealous of all the “aggressive” players getting all the attention.
This guide is going to be written from a Gallic perspective, but is adaptable to the other tribes as well.
Now, you may have seen people say that defense is better than offense and it is for this reason that a good attacker uses fakes to hide his intended target. Defending is simply easier.
Defenders have the advantage of combining all defensive reins as 1 grouped army, where the attackers attack per village and 100 troops per wave for 2 waves is not equivalent to 200 attackers.
You see many references in the early game to how many troops someone has, but the real figures to know is how much attack power, or how much defensive power you can produce per hour. The other consideration is how much attack or defense you get per wheat consumed. This is what determines the real effectiveness of your military and wheat becomes a big limitation.
Now, to see the strength behind an anvil lets take a look at how a proper hammer is made.
Generally you have a 15c capital with a good wheat bonus. A village next to it, can be your hammer village. You do not make it in your capital because you cannot create a greater barracks or greater stable in a capital village, this would severely limit your troop production. You build up production infrastructure. Barracks to make Infantry, Greater Barracks to create them faster even at triple cost, Stables for Cavalry, Greater Stables to make them faster at an increased cost. Siege workshop to 20 always making cats and rams.
The math that you want to know in your hammer producing village is how much attack per hour is it producing when everything is running. To simplify I will use some created numbers and not consider all variables. Lets say your Teuton and can create 1 axe per 3 minutes 23sec in a 20 barracks. If you have a 20 Greater Barracks you can spend 3x more to match that productivity… so for total production you can make 2 troops per 3:23 but at 4x the cost of each unit. (1x for the Barracks plus 3x for the Greater). Also, I am only considering raw values, no hero bonus or armory/blacksmith upgrades.
3:23 is equal to 203 seconds
86,400 seconds in 24 hours.
86400 / 203 = 425 axes at 1x cost in a single barracks, double the troop for 3x additional cost is now 850 axes per 24 hours at 4x the total cost.
850 axes at 60 attack per is 51,000 attack power per day, divided by 24 is 2125 attack power created hourly.
490 total resources to create 1 axe…. X4 to keep a barracks and greater barracks going is 1960 per pair of axes.
For 850 axes x 980 resources per axe that’s 833,000 resources per day to keep it running for 24 hours.
So, 800k resources for 51,000 attack at the max daily. 200k if you only make 425 per day in a single barracks.
Now, lets look at the advantage of being an anvil…
The main advantage is you do not suffer the limitation of being required to produce in a single village. Also, a good cropper is not really required to be a good anvil player
Lets use the phalanx as our counter to the Teutons Axe.
A Phalanx creates in 2:56 in a 20 barracks. For an anvil we will shoot for efficiency and forgo the use of a greater barracks at all. If you had a ton of resources you certainly could, but I will do some math to show you why I never bothered.
Lets say as a Gaul you have 4 villages in which to produce troops in. (You could very very easily have far more, and every expansion can add to your production giving you a huge edge over a hammer)
2:56 is 176 seconds and is 490 phalanx per day in each village.
A phalanx is 40 infantry defense, 50 cavalry defense. For this example we will use the infantry defense only.
490 x 40 is 19600 defense or 817 defense per hour per village.
The cost per phalanx is 315 total resources.
315 x 490 is 154,350 resources per day to keep a Barracks going.
x4 to cover all villages the total comes to 617,400
So, in summary…
Hammer
Troops per Day = 850
Total Attack Power per Day = 51,000
Cost of Creation = 833,000
Anvil (4 villages)
Troops per day = 1960
Total Defense Power per Day (infantry only) = 78,400
Cost of Creation = 617,400
This does not even include the wall’s defensive bonuses.
The only real downside is that each village needs to have its barracks to 20, which most people should eventually do regardless of playstyle, and also you need to do armory upgrades in each village. Yet, this is a small price to pay and you can easily see the savings in the total cost of production can be spent here. It takes very little to match the production power of the mightiest hammers. On top of that, the defensive bonuses you can get outweigh what the attackers can get. Wall Bonuses can add huge value.
Now, lets say you get a bit further in the game…
12 villages…
5880 Phalanx per day
235,200 infantry defense per day.
Lets say you do this for a week…
That is over 41,000 phalanx.
The problem for a good anvil actually comes in the form of storage issues. 41,000 wheat per hour is not easy to come by.
Lets say your goal in life is to break hammers. You used the ideas above and you have created 20,000 troops over a few days but have run out of storage room. Life is boring, no one is currently attacking. You party in all villages and expand but you have excess resources and cant make more troops due to space.
Give troops away. (You could even take small donations for them, but overall your cost is not that high and you still have the ability to recall them if absolutely necessary)
I had a really bad cropper on s5 and got very low wheat. I would get on the forums and say… “I got lvl 20 phalanx free to a good home, I may have to recall them in defensive needs but as far as I am concerned they can be live in defenses”
I would get responses… “Hey, I can take 1000 at these coords”… 500 here, 250 there.
Thing is, over time its easily possible to own over 100,000 phalanx and only be paying for 15,000 or so.
An alliance needs good anvils, but it does not need to be a 1:1 ratio. A good anvil can supply a ton of defense and have even more standing by ready to be sent. It just takes a bit of planning and a good sense in getting others to take in your troops. There is also a sick satisfaction behind crushing an enormous hammer in a random non-allied village and the other person having no idea who did it.
The numbers can speak for themselves here. If you have a cluster of villages you will be very hard to damage, about the only way to truly hit is to send many fakes and hide the target. Nearby allies will love to have you close as its comforting to know that 20,000 troops are within an hour of you. Long range attacks with no fakes sent can be easily broken by you alone, but having many anvils means we should be very capable of breaking just about any true threat.
On S5 we had a couple of us using this same strategy within a couple of hours of each other.
Also, even if your going hammer… building defensive infrastructure in all your feeder villages will allow you to reverse into this same type of production in times of need. There is nothing to say a Gaul can’t have a few feeder villages and a huge hammer, and 12 other villages running this same strategy.
I hope this guide helps those less aware, or that the numbers raised some eyebrows on just how powerful a strong defender can truly be.
It also shows that busting up a hammer is not that hard to do, and even if you lose everything in damaging it… your recovery rate is much faster.
If you kill 19,000 axes knowing you set them back half a month, and set yourself back about 3-4 days is very satisfying and thats assuming your loss was just as great as their own. Not even considering time, your cost and rebuild cost is far less.
If you think this style of play may be boring, I suggest you try baiting people. Convince a smaller player to attack someone too big for them to handle and speak in a disrespectful tone, get sit access to watch for the attack. When the time of reckoning comes, rein in and break them. They wont even know who did it and its very hard to fight a shadow. Using diplomacy and illusion to get someone to react in a predictable manner makes this a very fun style of play.
Far better than making alot of defenses and waiting for something bad to happen while you get jealous of all the “aggressive” players getting all the attention.
Ghost Hammer
Hopefully this will answer any questions about TT hammers. A ghost hammer is generally for skilled players. Not every "up and learning player" can wield one efficiently, they can, but the results are sometimes ugly, if done improperly. This is mostly a strategy guide, as training a hammer is not unknown to the world.
Concept:
A hammer of TTs with a TT hero. Lightning fast. Catapults, rams, chiefs, etc. not allowed. The point is to hit them so fast, they can't reinforce in time from many other villages. The goal is to hit a few hundred defensive troops out randomly or to hit a hammer at home.
Location:
You can train a ghost hammer in just about any type of village, it really depends on your preferences, and use of hammer. I think the new 7cropper would be an excellent choice, combining extra wheat with the unexpectedness of a non-cropper. A 6wheat would be nice for a very small ghost hammer, aimed at smaller players. If your looking to make a large ghost hammer, then a cropper is needed.
Expendable: A ghost hammer is expendable. They are quickly built and cheap. Don't hesitate to use it often, just don't kill your hero.
Number: A single ghost hammer is okay. Two ghost hammers is great. Three ghost hammers? SCARY. If you can support two or even three ghost hammers, I highly recommend doing so. Since they are hammers made up of THE most efficient raiders in the game (don't throw stats at me, If you disagree, PM and Ill prove it), they can easily be self sustaining. A ghost hammer(when not being used primarily, but raiding) can support itself 24/7 in lvl 20 stable after it reaches a certain size, so in theory, you can have multiple ghost hammers with no loss to your main hammer(s). If you can't do this, then I suggest you get a gaul friend or two and agree to all do it..or nobody do it. No going at this half cocked, or failure is sure to greet you. I will explain later on why more than one is better and needed.
Targets: The targets you hit with a Ghost hammer vary greatly from what you want to hit with a normal hammer. You want to hit villages that wont have many defenses. A TT hammer is extremely weak compared to a normal hammer. It is meant to take out pockets of defensive troops, not anvils. Target random villages you suspect to have defensive troops. Attacking clusters is risky, and can turn out bad. Figure up the time it would take that player to reinforce that village, and see if you can beat it. The less villages can reinforce there in time, the better. And the less infantry defenses that can get there, the better. Spears, legos, and phalanx can be mass produced and can really tear up TTs. Cavalry defense on the other hand is more expensive, takes longer, and has way lower overall numbers. Your better off facing only cavalry defenders.
Fakes: It is generally a good idea to send a 1 TT fake to other villages from that player, and to villages that are owned by his allies in the area. Time them to land at close to the same second, or as close as you can get. This reduces the chances of the person finding out which attacks are fake and dodging the real attack. Also, sending fakes from other villages to targets can add another factor in their decision on defending. Esp if fakes come from a hammer and/or mini-hammer villages. Whatever you do, do not put anything but TTs in the attack. This will take the whole element of surprise out, and you will meet with heavy defense.
NOTE: The following two topic are not to be confused with the previous topic. The following two are what to do when the GH is used in conjunction with a real hammer(s).
Knowing your enemy:Knowing your enemy is essential to defeating your enemy. Blacksmiths know armor. Gunsmiths know body armor. Anvil makers know hammers, and hammers know anvils. If you don't know your enemy, then you will fail. I can't spell out every nuance of defense, but I will outline what is essential to the next portion. There are two kinds of defense. Sniping and hammer breaking. A ghost hammer can do nothing about sniping, but can seriously weaken a stacked defense. Reinforcements can arrive hours before attacks land..esp if the attacks land at an early(or noon) morning hour(meaning reins would need to be sent in the middle of the night to arrive right before or to snipe attacks). People who can't send at the late hour will send their troops early, and send wheat. But any who can send at the late hour will. Mid distance reins are usually the ones sent to arrive early, as far reins can be sent during the day, and close reins can be sent in the morning. This creates a moment of stacked defense, but not a full anvil. This is what the Ghost hammer is made to do.
Advanced use: [cont. from above] You will want to hit the enemy target when they are in this time of weakened defense. If done incorrectly, you will lose your ghost hammer AND your hammer in one bad day. If you don't do this right, you give away the village being hit, and all forces will be stacked there. This is where multiple Ghost hammers(mentioned above) come in handy. This way you can attack multiple of the targeted villages at once, and not give away the real target(s). You will need to send your hammer in a specific time slot. Sending it to early or to late is death. Too early, and you lose the element of surprise. Too late, and you hit too many reins. Try to send it at a time where it will be on the road the longest without being noticed, and the least con be done about it. You can incredibly weaken an alliances overall defense. Granted this is a good way to lose all of your Ghost hammers, this is what they are intended to do. You will severely weaken an alliance's defenses in one blow. This is extremely useful in alliance war. Overall, you lose your ghost hammer, huge raiding potential, and alot of time. None of this matters. If you save 20 or 30% of your hammer, or even just get the cats and/or chiefs through, youve done what you intended to do. Remember, expendable. Ghost hammers are self sustaining and building, and dont tax your account to much. If you lose them, its extremely preferable to losing a hammer, or even part of it.
Blacksmith: By the time you start working on a Ghost hammer, you should be able to train TT's nearly, if not, 24/7. If that is the case, then upgrade in your blacksmith as often as you can, the only thing going against you is time. If you can't support training 24/7, then here is the most efficient time to upgrade:
Level...new attack value...Number of troops trained before upgrade
0......90.0
1......91.2.......151
2......92.5.......264
3......93.7...... 368
4......95.0...... 465
5......96.2...... 560
6......97.5...... 652
7......98.8...... 742
8.....100.1...... 831
9.....101.4...... 918
10....102.7...... 1005
11....104.0...... 1091
12....105.3...... 1177
13....106.7...... 1262
14....108.0...... 1346
15....109.4...... 1430
16....110.7...... 1515
17....112.1...... 1598
18....113.5...... 1683
19....114.9...... 1766
20....116.3...... 1849
When you reach the number of troops in the third column, it becomes more cost and time efficient to upgrade than train troops. After you start the upgrade, continue training until you reach the next number. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Trailing a hammer home: A good use for a Ghost hammer is to trail another hammer home. If a village is cleared that you own, or a friend owns, and the hammer survives, than a Ghost hammer is an excellent option to take out that hammer at home. Best if over 30 fields away, and tourney kicks in. The longer the hammer sender goes without seeing a counter attack coming in, the more likely he is to send reins(waiting for the counter) back home. A Ghost can be sent so late, that he wont be expecting it at all. Time it just right, and you can hit his hammer at home just a second after it arrives. Use a traveltime calculator to see when the attackers hammer will return home, then send your Ghost to hit at that village at roughly the second after it returns home.
When NOT to trail a hammer home:
Trailing home gaul hammers is not the best idea, especially if it has alot of haeds. That in conjunction with the fact that gauls like to cluster up a little, means that phalanx and other haeds will never be far off. They will eat your TTs up. The best way to take out any gaul defenses is with a real hammer. Simple as that. They are just to strong defenders.
When to attack: Since TT hammers are not meant to take out massive defenses, they are usually used to soften up players against a real hammer attack. If you hit a couple players in an area around your intended target, you can significantly weaken their defenses in that area, and your hammer will be more likely to break through defenses, and your cats/chiefs can go to work. I find that the best time to attack with a TT hammer is to send it in the middle of the night. Usually you try to get it to land early morning, so reins have to be sent in the middle of the night, but that's when your giving plenty of notice. With a TT hammer, you want then to have as little time to respond as possible. So even if the player you attack is online that late, not all of his friends in the immediate area will be.
Tournament Square: Vital to any hammer, makes a ghost hammer. TTs are the fastest units in the game. Faster than most scouts. At 19 fields per hour, you wont be giving your enemy nearly as much time as compared to 7 field Imperians and such. When you pull catapults and chiefs out...I don't even wanna go there. With a tourney square, they get so fast, it is ridiculous. At 57 fields per hour, your enemy wont have time to get any defenses there.
Defense Distribution
Chapter 1
A general question : Can we find the best defender for each situation?
Let’s start again from the answer: YES!
It is possible, for each type of troop, to draw the curve (a line in fact) that represents its defensive performances in relation to the various compositions of the attack. While the extremes of this curve are already known (a Praetorian is worth 65 when the attack is 100% infantry and 35 when it is 100% cavalry), it is extremely interesting to check the values in different scenarios.
In order to make the performance dependent from a single variable, X, we will call:
• X = % of the TAP generated by infantry
• (1 - X) = % of the TAP generated by cavalry
The defensive performance curve of a praetorian will be therefore given by: 65 * X + 35 * (1 – X); and will look as follows
This curve alone doesn’t say much more than what we already knew: Praetorian’s performance decreases when the % of cavalry increases.
In order to get additional information, it’d be good to add to the graph the curve of the other defensive unit of the Romans: Legionnaires.
What do we have now? Well, now we see something truly important: the point where a Legionnaire starts to perform better than a Praetorian. This point where the lines cross is at 33,33%, so:
• Infantry > 33,33% → a Praetorian defends better than a Legionnaire
• Infantry = 33,33% → there’s no difference between a Praetorian and a Legionnaire
• Infantry < 33,33% → a Legionnaire is better than a Praetorian
Though this shows which troops would be best to use in each situation, it is worth to underline one thing: higher volumes are always good while defending.
If you’re under attack and your enemy is sending 100% infantry, the best would be to feed praets. However, if you have more crop than praets, any sort of reinforcement is welcome!
The same reasoning can be applied to the other tribes as well.
Compared to Romans, Teutons have something in common and something different: both tribes have 2 defensive units, but while Romans train them both in the barrack, Teutons also need a Stable for Paladins.
Though this fact has various implications, the only one that matters in here is that cavalry eats more crop than infantry.
In order to make all units comparable, we are going to measure their performances per 1 crop.
So, the curves for Teutons will be the following:
Spearfighter = 35 * X + 60 * (1 – X)
Paladin = 100/2 * X + 40/2 * (1 – X) = 50 * X + 20 * X
The point where the lines cross is at 72,73%, so:
• Infantry > 72,73% → it is better to spend crop feeding Paladins than feeding Spearfighters
• Infantry = 72,73% → there’s no difference between a spending your crop on Paladins or on Spearfighters
• Infantry < 72,73% → it is better to spend crop feeding Spearfighters than feeding Paladins
As we can see from the two graphs, Romans and Teutons are completely different tribes: the former is extremely well equipped to face mainly-infantry attacks, the latter offers excellent defensive performances against mainly-cavalry attacks.
Chapter 2
What makes Gauls different defense-wise?
Gauls have 3 defensive units instead of two. Though it’s basically offensive (and so it is used most of the times), Haeduan is a unique unit thanks to a Dc = 165.
As we've done in the previous chapter, in order to compare units we'll take into account the performances they offer per 1 crop and draw the curves:
• Druidrider = 115/2 * X + 55/2 * (1 – X) = 57,5 * X + 27,5 * (1 – X)
• Phalanx = 40 * X + 50 * (1 – X)
• Haeduan = 50/3 * X + 165/3 * (1 – X) = 16,67 * X + 55 * (1 – X)
The situation for Gauls is the following:
• Infantry > 56,25% → Crop should be used to feed Druidriders
• Infantry = 56,35% → Feeding Druidriders or Phalanxes doesn’t make difference
• 56,25% <> 17,65% → Crop should be used to feed Phalanxes
• Infantry = 17,65% → No difference between feeding Phalanxes or Haeduans
• Infantry < 17,65% → Crop should be used to feed Haeduans
It is also interesting to compare Gauls with Romans and Teutons.
As it happens elsewhere as well, Gauls are the in-between tribe. Note that the graph only shows top performing units by tribe.
A general question : Can we find the best defender for each situation?
Let’s start again from the answer: YES!
It is possible, for each type of troop, to draw the curve (a line in fact) that represents its defensive performances in relation to the various compositions of the attack. While the extremes of this curve are already known (a Praetorian is worth 65 when the attack is 100% infantry and 35 when it is 100% cavalry), it is extremely interesting to check the values in different scenarios.
In order to make the performance dependent from a single variable, X, we will call:
• X = % of the TAP generated by infantry
• (1 - X) = % of the TAP generated by cavalry
The defensive performance curve of a praetorian will be therefore given by: 65 * X + 35 * (1 – X); and will look as follows
This curve alone doesn’t say much more than what we already knew: Praetorian’s performance decreases when the % of cavalry increases.
In order to get additional information, it’d be good to add to the graph the curve of the other defensive unit of the Romans: Legionnaires.
What do we have now? Well, now we see something truly important: the point where a Legionnaire starts to perform better than a Praetorian. This point where the lines cross is at 33,33%, so:
• Infantry > 33,33% → a Praetorian defends better than a Legionnaire
• Infantry = 33,33% → there’s no difference between a Praetorian and a Legionnaire
• Infantry < 33,33% → a Legionnaire is better than a Praetorian
Though this shows which troops would be best to use in each situation, it is worth to underline one thing: higher volumes are always good while defending.
If you’re under attack and your enemy is sending 100% infantry, the best would be to feed praets. However, if you have more crop than praets, any sort of reinforcement is welcome!
The same reasoning can be applied to the other tribes as well.
Compared to Romans, Teutons have something in common and something different: both tribes have 2 defensive units, but while Romans train them both in the barrack, Teutons also need a Stable for Paladins.
Though this fact has various implications, the only one that matters in here is that cavalry eats more crop than infantry.
In order to make all units comparable, we are going to measure their performances per 1 crop.
So, the curves for Teutons will be the following:
Spearfighter = 35 * X + 60 * (1 – X)
Paladin = 100/2 * X + 40/2 * (1 – X) = 50 * X + 20 * X
The point where the lines cross is at 72,73%, so:
• Infantry > 72,73% → it is better to spend crop feeding Paladins than feeding Spearfighters
• Infantry = 72,73% → there’s no difference between a spending your crop on Paladins or on Spearfighters
• Infantry < 72,73% → it is better to spend crop feeding Spearfighters than feeding Paladins
As we can see from the two graphs, Romans and Teutons are completely different tribes: the former is extremely well equipped to face mainly-infantry attacks, the latter offers excellent defensive performances against mainly-cavalry attacks.
Chapter 2
What makes Gauls different defense-wise?
Gauls have 3 defensive units instead of two. Though it’s basically offensive (and so it is used most of the times), Haeduan is a unique unit thanks to a Dc = 165.
As we've done in the previous chapter, in order to compare units we'll take into account the performances they offer per 1 crop and draw the curves:
• Druidrider = 115/2 * X + 55/2 * (1 – X) = 57,5 * X + 27,5 * (1 – X)
• Phalanx = 40 * X + 50 * (1 – X)
• Haeduan = 50/3 * X + 165/3 * (1 – X) = 16,67 * X + 55 * (1 – X)
The situation for Gauls is the following:
• Infantry > 56,25% → Crop should be used to feed Druidriders
• Infantry = 56,35% → Feeding Druidriders or Phalanxes doesn’t make difference
• 56,25% <> 17,65% → Crop should be used to feed Phalanxes
• Infantry = 17,65% → No difference between feeding Phalanxes or Haeduans
• Infantry < 17,65% → Crop should be used to feed Haeduans
It is also interesting to compare Gauls with Romans and Teutons.
As it happens elsewhere as well, Gauls are the in-between tribe. Note that the graph only shows top performing units by tribe.
Monday, February 22, 2010
It's all about Artifacts
First the names of all the new artifacts, in the following format:
Name of the Village you will find them in
Short description of the artifacts bonus
Small: Name of Small artifact (bonus for small artifact)
Large: Name of Large artifact (bonus for large artifact)
Unique: Name of Unique artifact (bonus for unique artifact)
(Just a short note here, small effects only the village it is held in. Large effects the whole account and Unique effects the whole account but with a greater bonus)
Sanctuary of the Architect
All buildings in the area of effect are stronger. This means that you will need more catapults to damage buildings protected by this artifact's powers.
Small: Diamond Chisel (4 times stronger)
Large: Giant Marble Hammer (3 times stronger)
Unique: Hemon's Scrolls (5 times stronger)
Sanctuary of the General
All troops in the area of effect move faster.
Small: Opal Horseshoe (2 times faster)
Large: Golden Chariot (1.5 times faster)
Unique: Pheidippides' Sandals (3 times faster)
Sanctuary of the Spy
All spies (Scouts, Pathfinders, and Equites Legati) increase their spying ability. In addition, with all versions of this artifact you can see the incoming TYPE of troops but not how many there are.
Small: Tale of a Rat (Improved by a factor of 5)
Large: General's Letter (Improved by a factor of 3)
Unique: Diary of Sun Tzu (Improved by a factor of 10)
Sanctuary of the Cook
All troops in the artifact's range consume less wheat, making it possible to maintain a larger army.
Small: Silver Platter (50% reduction in crop consumption)
Large: Sacred Hunting Bow (25% reduction in crop consumption)
Unique: King Arthur's Chalice (50% reduction in crop consumption)
Sanctuary of the Instructor
Troops are built a certain percentage faster within the scope of the artifact.
Small: Scribed Soldier's Oath (50% reduction in training time)
Large: Declaration of War (25% reduction in training time)
Unique: Memoirs of Alexander the Great (50% reduction in training time)
Sanctuary of the Grand Designer
With this building plan you are able to build the Great Granary or Great Warehouse in the Village with the artifact, or the whole account depending on the artifact. As long as you posses that artifact you are able to build and enlarge those buildings.
Small: Builder's Sketch (NA)
Large: Babylonian Tablet (NA)
[No Unique Artifact exists]
Sanctuary of the Lookout
Cranny capacity is increased by a certain amount for each type of artifact. Catapults can only shoot random on villages within this artifacts power. Exceptions are the WW which can always be targeted and the treasure chamber which can always be targeted, except with the unique artifact. When aiming at a resource field only random resource fields can be hit, when aiming at a building only random buildings can be hit.
Small: Map of the Hidden Caverns (Capacity of Cranny increased by 200)
Large: Bottomless Satchel (Capacity of Cranny increased by 100)
Unique: Trojan Horse (Capacity of Cranny increased by 500)
Sanctuary of the Fool
Every 24 hours it gets a random effect, bonus, or penalty (all are possible with the exception of great warehouse, great granary and WW building plans). They change effect AND
scope every 24 hours. The unique artifact will always take positive bonuses.
Standard: Pendant of Mischief (Random)
Unique: Forbidden Manuscript (Random)
[Note: No large or small because the scope is randomly decided every 24 hours]
Some Notes About Artifacts
* Any individual player can only own one account or unique artifact
* Any individual player can only own three artifacts at a time
* Players may own more than the three artifacts / more than one account or unique artifact by conquering villages that already hold them but only the three oldest artifacts will function
* Artifacts will only start operating 24 hours after they are captured
* Moving artifacts between your own villages counts as capturing and so will reset the 24 hour timer
* All records for artifacts are shown in the Treasury
* Small artifact bonuses will overwrite the bonus of any account or unique artifact of the same type for the village it is in
* Uncaptured artifacts in Natarian villages are deactivated
* The number of troops in the Natarian village is related to the artifact that is held within it; most for a unique artifact, second most for an account artifact and the least for a village artifact
Finally an FAQ on Artifacts
Question: Does the bonus given by my "Stronger Buildings" artifact apply to my wall as well?
Answer: Yes it does.
Question: I own 2 artifacts of the same type, i.e. "Faster Troops". One has the scope village and
one has the scope account. What happens?
Answer: The effects are not added. The village containing the Village "Faster Troops" artifact will use its bonus for that village (and therefore overwrite the bonus given by the artifact with the scope account). All other villages will use the bonus of the artifact with the scope account.
Question: I own a "Less crop usage" artifact with a 50% reduction bonus. But the crop usage of my troops shown in the rally point did not change. It shows the normal usage without the 50% reduction bonus. Is this a bug?
Answer: No. This is intended. The rally point shows the normal crop usage. It does not get
modified. Neither the Wonder of the World village nor the "Less crop usage" artifact nor the Horse
Drinking Pool are modifying that view. But there is no need to worry. The crop usage for your
village is calculated correctly.
Question: My Artifact of the Fool changed its scope to account. But I own an unique/account scope
artifact already. What happens?
Answer: Only one account scope artifact remains active. The artifact with the oldest capturing
time will spread its effect to your account. The other one gets deactivated.
Question: I conquered my 4th artifact. It is an account scope artifact. My other 3 artifacts only
have a village scope. Will my new artifact work after 24 hours?
Answer: No, it will not. Only the oldest 3 artifacts will work (but only one with the scope account).
Question: I conquered two account scope artifacts and one village scope artifact. When I conquer
another village scope artifact now, what happens? Will I have 3 working artifacts (account +
village + village scope) after 24 hours?
Answer: Yes you will.
Question: I conquered 3 villages holding a unique artifact each. Will I have 3 working unique
artifacts after 24 hours?
Answer: No. A unique artifact counts as an account scope artifact. Only the oldest account scope
artifact will have an effect.
Question: Does an artifact travel with the troops that capture it?
Answer: No, artifacts teleport instantly when capture conditions are met
Leveling a hero and Boosting the economy
Want to expand the size of your economy and increase your hero's experience, all with minimal risk? Start clearing local oases. Why oases?
1. You know exactly what forces you will face. No guessing and hoping that your hero won't get overwhelmed. This allows you to use a battle sim to calculate the exact results before the battle ever happens.
2. You know that an uncleared oasis has 400/400/400/400 resources. So that's 1600 resources on the initial clear.
3. Oases have no cranny, so if a Teuton starts raiding it he has no advantage over you.
4. Non player controlled oases can not be reinforced.
5. Most players are not very vigilant of oases, so they will not know it's cleared. You can sometimes farm it for days without people jumping in to farm it as well.
6. Oases regenerate 10/hr of each resource, and 40/hr of the bonus resource. So a clay oasis regenerates 10/40/10/10 per hour (70/hr total). An iron/crop oasis regenerates 10/10/40/40 (100/hr total). On a daily basis, a 25% oasis gives you 1680 resources, or 11760 per week. A 25/25 gives you 2400/day or 16800 per week. That's quite an economic boost, especially early.
The steps required for success:
1. The first step is to find a suitable oasis. Most heroes are cavalry units, so you want to find an oasis with low anti-cavalry defense. If you have an infantry hero, just look for one with low anti-infantry defense. For the most part, if you have a level zero hero, look for oases with between 16-20 crop worth of defense, and under 700 anti-cavalry defense. I have generally found clay, iron, lumber/crop, and iron/crop oases have the lowest initial defenses. The variance between oases in defense strength can be pretty great. One clay oasis might have 16 crop of defense, and another clay oasis in the same 7x7 might have 54 crop of defense. You'll have to scout around a bit.
2. Next, put all your hero's points into offense attack power (not offensive bonus). I would also recommend getting the gold +10% attack power, as it will save your hero's hit points, which over the course of time will save you many hours.
3. Here's a bit of a trick. As long as your hero takes less than 50% health loss, it is beneficial to send another unit with him. This other unit, which will not be killed (if you calculate properly) can help reduce the health loss of your hero by 4-7% (depending on the strength of the defense you attack).
4. Calculate your results before you attack. Make sure you'll be able to clear the oases on multiple trips before trying to begin. Here is an example.
The scenario:
-TT hero, 5 points in offense attack power, full health (100 pct), and +10 pct gold attack bonus
-TT assist unit
-Target is a +25 pct clay oasis with 9 rats, 6 spiders, and 4 bats (19 crop of defense, 620 anti-cav)
Here is what the first battle looks like:
First wave---->
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M0QAyA-uc9XhkUIFAPwfxagi
You killed 10 crop worth of the defense. You took 45.8% health loss on the hero, which Travian rounds up to 46%. Take not of the remaining defense...4 rats, 3 spiders, and 2 bats.
Just for kicks, let me show you the results if you didn't send that single escort TT:
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?MwRA/upZfBCPFCoA4FdhOvgA
You only kill 9 crop worth of the defense. You take 51.5% health loss on the hero, which Travian rounds up to 52%. So that extra TT saved you 6% health and resulted in one less rat you have to kill in the subsequent attack.
Just for kicks, let's say you get impatient and decide to send more than one extra TT because you want to get the job done faster. Let's say you send 2 other TT to help. What does this look like?:
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M8QAkL-7r0fDI4UKAPhFBIVL
Here you can see that you only lose 41% health and you kill 11 crop of the defense. Great! But one of your TTs is killed. Not so great. The whole goal here was to level the hero and improve things economically, but losing a TT (especially early) is an economic setback. In truth, you would need to send 1027 additional TT to avoid losing even one single TT in this scenario. If you have that many TT, you are not concerned with farming oases!
Second wave (assuming you sent the hero and a single TT escort in the first attack)------>
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M8QAkC-ANYzBgqEBAN//lOcM
You notice I sent two TT to escort the hero this time. I did so because the simulator showed I would not lose a TT with two escorts, but if I sent three TT one would die. Thus, I sent two. The result is that the hero lost an additional 19.3% health (rounded to 20%). This means your hero is down to 34% total health if he did not regenerate health between battles. The forces remaining are one rat and one spider.
Third wave----->
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M8QhQH6goUoAgwAA/l9etR8
I sent 10 TT to escort this time, but really you can send whatever you have. With 10 TT, the hero took only 1% additional health loss, bringing him down to 33%. The oasis is now clear. There is 1600 resources to be collected, minus whatever you already pulled out of it (though some has since regenerated, depending on time). Congratulations, your hero gained 19 xp.
Important Notes, etc:
1. Those stupid animals regenerate fairly randomly. I read somewhere that if you keep clearing the oasis very regularly (like every few hours), then they don't respawn. That's not true. From what I have observed and experienced, they almost always pop back up after 1-3 days. No amount of farming keeps those rodents away. I've lost a handful of phalanx to random animal respawns after I send the attack. The lesson here is to use cheap units in small quantities, and farm regularly. It's better to collect a few hours of regenerated resources at a time rather than send a big force to collect a day's worth--only to lose that force when the animals pop up at an inopportune moment.
2. If you are a min/max type of player, and your hero is level 0, make sure you switch your hero to full regeneration between attacks. It takes about 57 minutes to get one hit point back.
3. If your hero is very low in health and level zero, and you have many attractive and nearby oasis targets, it is better to suicide your hero into the next oasis. For instance, let's just say it was the same oasis as the first example, but your hero only has 18% health (random low number). Here is what happens if you send him at that oasis:
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M8QhQH6goUoAgwAA/l9etR8
You'll notice the hero died, but he killed just as much of that defense as he would if he was at full health. Also note that the hero would have lost 52% of his health if he had enough HP to survive the battle (or 46% if you sent the TT escort). So think about this. Instead of waiting two full days to get enough HP regenerated on your hero (25/day), why not suicide him and save all that waiting? You'll clear more oases faster. It only costs 2x the cost of a TT to rez your hero, and it only takes a few hours. Ultimately, I submit that you will get more xp and more net resources in less time if you suicide the hero when he's at low xp.
1. You know exactly what forces you will face. No guessing and hoping that your hero won't get overwhelmed. This allows you to use a battle sim to calculate the exact results before the battle ever happens.
2. You know that an uncleared oasis has 400/400/400/400 resources. So that's 1600 resources on the initial clear.
3. Oases have no cranny, so if a Teuton starts raiding it he has no advantage over you.
4. Non player controlled oases can not be reinforced.
5. Most players are not very vigilant of oases, so they will not know it's cleared. You can sometimes farm it for days without people jumping in to farm it as well.
6. Oases regenerate 10/hr of each resource, and 40/hr of the bonus resource. So a clay oasis regenerates 10/40/10/10 per hour (70/hr total). An iron/crop oasis regenerates 10/10/40/40 (100/hr total). On a daily basis, a 25% oasis gives you 1680 resources, or 11760 per week. A 25/25 gives you 2400/day or 16800 per week. That's quite an economic boost, especially early.
The steps required for success:
1. The first step is to find a suitable oasis. Most heroes are cavalry units, so you want to find an oasis with low anti-cavalry defense. If you have an infantry hero, just look for one with low anti-infantry defense. For the most part, if you have a level zero hero, look for oases with between 16-20 crop worth of defense, and under 700 anti-cavalry defense. I have generally found clay, iron, lumber/crop, and iron/crop oases have the lowest initial defenses. The variance between oases in defense strength can be pretty great. One clay oasis might have 16 crop of defense, and another clay oasis in the same 7x7 might have 54 crop of defense. You'll have to scout around a bit.
2. Next, put all your hero's points into offense attack power (not offensive bonus). I would also recommend getting the gold +10% attack power, as it will save your hero's hit points, which over the course of time will save you many hours.
3. Here's a bit of a trick. As long as your hero takes less than 50% health loss, it is beneficial to send another unit with him. This other unit, which will not be killed (if you calculate properly) can help reduce the health loss of your hero by 4-7% (depending on the strength of the defense you attack).
4. Calculate your results before you attack. Make sure you'll be able to clear the oases on multiple trips before trying to begin. Here is an example.
The scenario:
-TT hero, 5 points in offense attack power, full health (100 pct), and +10 pct gold attack bonus
-TT assist unit
-Target is a +25 pct clay oasis with 9 rats, 6 spiders, and 4 bats (19 crop of defense, 620 anti-cav)
Here is what the first battle looks like:
First wave---->
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M0QAyA-uc9XhkUIFAPwfxagi
You killed 10 crop worth of the defense. You took 45.8% health loss on the hero, which Travian rounds up to 46%. Take not of the remaining defense...4 rats, 3 spiders, and 2 bats.
Just for kicks, let me show you the results if you didn't send that single escort TT:
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?MwRA/upZfBCPFCoA4FdhOvgA
You only kill 9 crop worth of the defense. You take 51.5% health loss on the hero, which Travian rounds up to 52%. So that extra TT saved you 6% health and resulted in one less rat you have to kill in the subsequent attack.
Just for kicks, let's say you get impatient and decide to send more than one extra TT because you want to get the job done faster. Let's say you send 2 other TT to help. What does this look like?:
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M8QAkL-7r0fDI4UKAPhFBIVL
Here you can see that you only lose 41% health and you kill 11 crop of the defense. Great! But one of your TTs is killed. Not so great. The whole goal here was to level the hero and improve things economically, but losing a TT (especially early) is an economic setback. In truth, you would need to send 1027 additional TT to avoid losing even one single TT in this scenario. If you have that many TT, you are not concerned with farming oases!
Second wave (assuming you sent the hero and a single TT escort in the first attack)------>
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M8QAkC-ANYzBgqEBAN//lOcM
You notice I sent two TT to escort the hero this time. I did so because the simulator showed I would not lose a TT with two escorts, but if I sent three TT one would die. Thus, I sent two. The result is that the hero lost an additional 19.3% health (rounded to 20%). This means your hero is down to 34% total health if he did not regenerate health between battles. The forces remaining are one rat and one spider.
Third wave----->
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M8QhQH6goUoAgwAA/l9etR8
I sent 10 TT to escort this time, but really you can send whatever you have. With 10 TT, the hero took only 1% additional health loss, bringing him down to 33%. The oasis is now clear. There is 1600 resources to be collected, minus whatever you already pulled out of it (though some has since regenerated, depending on time). Congratulations, your hero gained 19 xp.
Important Notes, etc:
1. Those stupid animals regenerate fairly randomly. I read somewhere that if you keep clearing the oasis very regularly (like every few hours), then they don't respawn. That's not true. From what I have observed and experienced, they almost always pop back up after 1-3 days. No amount of farming keeps those rodents away. I've lost a handful of phalanx to random animal respawns after I send the attack. The lesson here is to use cheap units in small quantities, and farm regularly. It's better to collect a few hours of regenerated resources at a time rather than send a big force to collect a day's worth--only to lose that force when the animals pop up at an inopportune moment.
2. If you are a min/max type of player, and your hero is level 0, make sure you switch your hero to full regeneration between attacks. It takes about 57 minutes to get one hit point back.
3. If your hero is very low in health and level zero, and you have many attractive and nearby oasis targets, it is better to suicide your hero into the next oasis. For instance, let's just say it was the same oasis as the first example, but your hero only has 18% health (random low number). Here is what happens if you send him at that oasis:
http://travian.kirilloid.ru/log.php?M8QhQH6goUoAgwAA/l9etR8
You'll notice the hero died, but he killed just as much of that defense as he would if he was at full health. Also note that the hero would have lost 52% of his health if he had enough HP to survive the battle (or 46% if you sent the TT escort). So think about this. Instead of waiting two full days to get enough HP regenerated on your hero (25/day), why not suicide him and save all that waiting? You'll clear more oases faster. It only costs 2x the cost of a TT to rez your hero, and it only takes a few hours. Ultimately, I submit that you will get more xp and more net resources in less time if you suicide the hero when he's at low xp.
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