Helpful Links

[Admin]

We will post helpful links here for all to see. If you have a link you think is helpful, please post a reply and I will add it to this main page.


HELPFUL LINKS

NPC Merchant/Troop calculator
http://www.npccalculator.com/

Distance Calculator
http://www.javaschubla.de/2006/travian/ ... ml?lang=en

World analyzer
http://travian.ws/analyser.pl?s=us4

Crop finders galore
http://travian.ws/?s=us2&lang=en
http://travian-utils.com/crop_finder/
http://www.travutils.com/?s=us2&z=320801&ex

Culture points chart
http://help.travian.us/index.php?type=faq&mod=532&s=500

Map (just add the player or clan - can also be used to calculate troop speed)
http://travian.org.ua/us/s4

All kinds of goodies with these...
http://www.traviantoolbox.com/en/
http://www.traviandope.com/
http://www.gettertools.com/s4.travian.us.2/

[Admin]

Two great links
Almost everything that you need to know about travian.

http://travian.kirilloid.ru/

If you want to find out how the worlds are doing. A little more in depth detail on how fast folks and alliances are growing. With Maps.

http://travian.ws/analyser.pl?s=us4

[Admin]

Warfare
These are some thoughts on warfare in Travian, written mostly for newer players. I want to point
out that it is NOT a guide, but more a series of thoughts. Everyone should bring their own mind to
work while reading and hopefully this piece of writing will give you some ideas how to destroy
your enemies in a more effective way.

The Setup
The time when your biggest problem was to open a new farm is over. When we are talking war,
we are talking attacking villages that is being defended, not just by one player, but by a number of
players. This means that 2-5k offensive troops are not enough to do the trick. As you probably
know there are parameters built into Travian, which ensures that the more overwhelming your
force is the less you lose. Having more villages with 2-4k armies is ineffective compared to having
one big offensive force. That being said, having more armies can be rather useful. One of these
benefits is the fact that you can build offensive troops a lot faster. If you lose one army, you have
another to continue the attacks. That way you are never without an army and you can hit more
enemies at the same time.

In general the offensive player must have a big offensive army and when the crop upkeep is too
much for one village, you should have more villages from where to transfer crop. But this type of
player will easily be a target to enemies because of his offensive role, which is why he will also
need access to defence relatively quickly. This can be his own defence or defence from defensive
players around him (to get to the defence quickly, he should be sitter for at least one). A small
number of defensive troops can be devastating enough to an attacking force. Wave-breaking, that
is sending reinforcements in between the attacker's waves, is a skill that takes some practice, but
it is so useful that you can’t play without it.

Remember: Troops sent first hits first! Use this to wave-break your enemies’ attacks and to take
over villages in 1 single second.

Building the waves
Use tabs when sending several attacks from the same village. Set up the attacks in each tab and
use hotkeys to switch between them quickly while pressing the OK-button. In FireFox for instance,
the hotkey to switch between tabs is ctrl+tab.

Let’s look at the build of the attacks. There are many variants, but let’s look at one of the builds
and take it from there.

Cleaner + 1 catapult (to slow the cleaner down)
Catapults + escort
Catapults + escort
Catapults + escort

First off, the cleaner. 1 catapult has it’s advantage, you don't lose any catapults this way. But it is
also important with as few waves as possible, so you don't risk getting wave-breaked. It depends
on the target player and the size of the village, which method to prefer. Personally I would prefer
to lose the few catapults at all times. You get to destroy more buildings in the strike and you can
save a wave in the end. It can be only 20 catapults to take out the small buildings like the bonus
buildings or other low level buildings. Of course, the number of catapults depends on whether the
target has a stonemason or not.

The cata-waves that follow don't need an escort. Every troop you send with the catapults, you
take from the cleaner. If it's a big battle with lots of defence then you need them there instead.
And if you're afraid of a wave-break, then I would probably rather send in a real cleaner in the
middle instead. For example, instead of 5 cata-waves with 50 axes in each, then I would send in a
middle-cleaner with 250 axes. If you remember to destroy the wall and the residence or the palace
in the first wave, then you don't need any troops with the catapults.

Now, if you know that your opponent will try to wave-break, then you need to trick him somehow.
Most people always think the cleaner comes first, well it usually does, because many people send
it first, but this is where you, as an experienced player, send a couple of fakes with 1 catapult in
front of the cleaner. The opponent thinks he is wave-breaking after the first wave, when the real
cleaner comes afterwards and takes out the defence meant for the catapults. Voila!

Conquering villages is a whole other situation. As a rule you need 5-6 chiefs to take a village from a
strong player. To be on the safe side, I recommend attacking with 3 chiefs with your main army
and then 2 chiefs from another village. If you hold a great celebration at the village where you
have your 3 chiefs, this should be enough for all takeovers. Remember to bring catapults with the
first army to destroy the residence. This way you only need 2 waves which can easily be sent to
the same second to avoid any wave-breaks.

Warfare-Attacking
When the offensive player wants to attack somebody in an alliance which is at war with his own,
an attack with his main offensive force against a village followed by catapults is not enough. Most
active players can at this point defend themselves against a single attack, on his own or with some
help from his allies. This will be a perfect death trap for your army.

Attacking a player in an organized alliance is NOT at all like breaking a farm.

Fakes
When you attack a player you should always send a bunch of fakes as well. That means a number
of attacks with 1 troop that you send towards other villages than the main target, which could be
other villages of the targeted player and/or his allies nearby.

The fakes could for example hit at approximately the same time as the real attack or some time
before to draw reinforcement there instead of your prime target. If you think that sending lone
clubbers from your 4-4-4-6 village while you attack the real target from your cropper is going to do
the trick, you are sadly mistaken.

A FAKE SHOULD LOOK LIKE A REAL ATTACK… otherwise it’s pointless.

Preparing and sending fakes is one of the main reasons why an offensive player must be very
active (the other being crop management). He will have to take notes of his travel time to many
villages and some fakes might have to be sent long after the first to get them to hit at the same
time. Sometimes, he has to sit at his computer and send fakes/attacks for multiple hours.

A note on fakes: Remember to keep faking after you send the real attack, otherwise the
experienced player will see right through that great shower of fakes.

Precision
You have to be precise when sending catapults or senators. If you leave a window of more than 1
second between sweep and catawave or senator you’ll risk that the defending player wave-breaks
your attacks. Of course server lagging is a bitch sometimes, but you can check out the delay of the
attack by sending a “test” out just before you launch the real attack. Then you can see what the
delay of the server is at the given moment.

When sending from various villages where timing is important, make sure you open the attack
window at the latest possible moment… there is something in the script that makes the attack
more delayed the longer the window has been opened.

Be unpredictable
As a rule you should send the same number and type (normal/slow) of fakes on the fake targets as
you send real attacks on the real target. But be inventive! When you have made an attack the
same way or on the same target a couple of times, it becomes easy for the defending player to
know where to put the defence. You should shift targets often.

For instance, you can on purpose choose to send one chief less than needed when conquering a
village. After you have removed residence and lowered loyalty in the village belonging to an active
player, it is sometimes a good idea to attack one of the other villages (while faking the one you are
seemingly conquering, naturally), for he is probably screaming for reinforcements on his alliance
forum and thinks he knows where to put his defensive troops. That is just one of the infinite
number of tricks you can pull off.

The keywords are “Vary your attacks”.

Patience
I have lost many troops by attacking with too few troops because I wanted things done at once or
just a lot faster. Most times it is better to send the fakes as usual, take your time and pick off your
targets one by one.

Last tip of the day: Keep a few troops in each village. If the town is empty, the attacker will often
be able to see it even with a fake. The attacker will then know that you aren't defending it and
next time he'll attack that village for real and not just with fakes. So always keep a few defensive
troops in the city when being attacked, it's worth it. So remember that if you get the note "None
of your soldiers returned" from your fakes, then you know there are either def in the city or he has
high level residence and wall. If you don’t get it, you know it’s empty!

Destroying the crop fields (and granary/warehouse/marketplace/main building) in several villages are more devastating to an account than destroying the barrack, embassy and the like. You need resources to build armies and cities.

[Admin]

15C guide: Crop fields, grain mill, bakery and hero mansion
When to build what? I have done some cost/benefit calculations on exactly that matter. Below is my results in four different situations depending on the oases in your proximity.
Note that when to build grain mill/bakery is not calculated by me. For that I relied on http://travian.kirilloid.ru/villages_res.php
Also note that neither the crop consumption of buildings nor the loss of troops when sweeping the oases is included in these calculations.
The calculations can be downloaded here in .xlsx format.

Situation 1: You only have 25% oases in proximity of your 15c
# 13 level 4 fields - 2 level 5 fields
# Grain mill level 1
# 2 level 5 fields - 13 level 6 fields
# Grain mill level 2
# 15 level 6 fields
# Grain mill level 3
# 10 level 7 fields - 4 level 8 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Grain mill level 5 - bakery level 2
# 2 level 7 fields - 12 level 8 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Bakery level 3
# 9 level 8 fields - 5 level 9 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Hero Mansion level 10 - first oasis
# 14 level 9 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Bakery level 4
# 14 level 10 fields - 1 level 11 field
# Bakery level 5
# 15 level 11 fields
# Hero Mansion level 15 - second oasis
# 4 level 13 fields - 11 level 14 fields
# Hero Mansion level 20 - third oasis
# Continue building the crop fields Smile

Situation 2: You have one 50% oasis and two 25% oases
# 13 level 4 fields - 2 level 5 fields
# Grain mill level 1
# 2 level 5 fields - 13 level 6 fields
# Grain mill level 2
# 15 level 6 fields
# Grain mill level 3
# 4 level 6 fields - 11 level 7 fields
# Hero Mansion level 10 - first oasis
# 10 level 7 fields - 4 level 8 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Grain mill level 5 - bakery level 2
# 2 level 7 fields - 12 level 8 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Bakery level 3
# 14 level 9 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Bakery level 4
# 14 level 10 fields - 1 level 11 field
# Bakery level 5
# 15 level 11 fields
# Hero Mansion level 15 - second oasis
# 15 level 14 fields
# Hero Mansion level 20 - third oasis
# Continue building the crop fields Smile

Situation 3: You have two 50% oases and one 25% oasis
# 13 level 4 fields - 2 level 5 fields
# Grain mill level 1
# 2 level 5 fields - 13 level 6 fields
# Grain mill level 2
# 15 level 6 fields
# Grain mill level 3
# 4 level 6 fields - 11 level 7 fields
# Hero Mansion level 10 - first oasis
# 10 level 7 fields - 4 level 8 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Grain mill level 5 - bakery level 2
# 2 level 7 fields - 12 level 8 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Bakery level 3
# 14 level 9 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Bakery level 4
# 15 level 10 fields
# Hero Mansion level 15 - second oasis
# 14 level 10 fields - 1 level 11 field
# Bakery level 5
# 15 level 14 fields
# Hero Mansion level 20 - third oasis
# Continue building the crop fields Smile

Situation 4: You only have 50% oases in proximity of your 15c
# 13 level 4 fields - 2 level 5 fields
# Grain mill level 1
# 2 level 5 fields - 13 level 6 fields
# Grain mill level 2
# 15 level 6 fields
# Grain mill level 3
# 4 level 6 fields - 11 level 7 fields
# Hero Mansion level 10 - first oasis
# 10 level 7 fields - 4 level 8 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Grain mill level 5 - bakery level 2
# 2 level 7 fields - 12 level 8 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Bakery level 3
# 14 level 9 fields - 1 level 10 field
# Bakery level 4
# 15 level 10 fields
# Hero Mansion level 15 - second oasis
# 14 level 10 fields - 1 level 11 field
# Bakery level 5
# 15 level 13 fields
# Hero Mansion level 20 - third oasis
# Continue building the crop fields Smile

[Admin]

How to dodge a counter (1 second or more)
This info may be known to some/most but I figured it was good to post as it can be very important.

Early game is where counters are most viable, so now is the time when it is important to be prepared to avoid counters. Putting a ton of def in your attacking town isn't always a viable option, even if you stop their counter and only lose half your def, that means you lose half your army also, if you don't dodge the attack.

If someone counters you and their attack lands the same second that your troops return there isn't anything you can do besides pile on def and pray. Same second counters are the minority though, most counters arrive 1 second or more after troops return home. These ARE dodgable, but you need to be prepared.

To dodge a counter you have to have been prepared for it before the counter was launched. Before sending your troops out for the initial attack, make a handful of tabs (I usually do about 6) each tab reinforcing someone with your entire army. You should click "OK" after selecting all the troops, but do not click "OK" the second time, so the troops aren't actually sent out. Now that you have all those tabs set up, you leave them aside and you launch your planned attack(s). If someone attempts to counter you on your return home you'll be ready now.

If you're facing a 1 second counter, you have very little room for error, that's why you made 6 tabs instead of just 1. Somewhat depending on your internet connection, start clicking send on your tabs, about 1 every half second, starting about 3 seconds before your troops get home.) If any one of those 6 tabs fires on the same second that your troops return home, your troops will be sent out to reinforce the town you selected and will live to fight another day.

[Admin]

Chiefs.
"The chief/chieftan/senator (chief) is the most powerful army unit as well as being perhaps the most misunderstood unit in the game. It serves 3 potential uses.

1. To chief an enemy hammer
2. To obtain a new village for your own empire

As to #1 and #2, unless you are feeling particularly lucky or stupid, you will be wanting a 3-set of chiefs. By this, I mean to have 3 chiefs built from the same village and also be the same village which your hammer comes from. When it comes time for alliance chiefing operations, its is likely that only those with 3-sets will be considered, though in rare cases 2-sets may also be used.

Because a 3 set is so desireable and because it can become impossible if mistakes in build orders are made at the start of the game, I thought I should set out a few guidelines as to how to ensure you are able to build a 3-set. Apologies in advance for those to whom this is all well known and second nature to you.

Building a 3-set
A 3-set can only be built from your palace. What’s more, it must have all its’ expansion slots free. The first chief is possible at palace level 10, the second at 15 and the third at 20. Whereas the palace must at some stage be built in your cropper, so that your cropper can be designated as your capital and high level croplands be built, once the capital is designated, the palace need not remain. It can then be knocked down and rebuilt elsewhere. Of course, you needn’t knock it down if your intending to build a capital hammer, in which case you would want your 3-set built in your capital. For those seeking non-capital hammers, simply knock down the palace in the capital and rebuild it in your non-cap hammer.

It should be noted that there is no limit to the amount of times that the palace can be knocked down. On s7 last server, where we ran capital and non capital hammers together, we opted to have a 3 set in each which allowed for chiefing missions in 2 waves using 6 chiefs. Of course if u build a palace , then the 3 set, then knock the palace down and build elsewhere, your 3 set then becomes vulnerable and should you lose one, it cant easily be rebuilt as you wont have your palace. This inherent vulnerability isn’t something that should put you off as such, but will need to be borne in mind later.

Free Expansion Slots
It is the failure to keep expansion slots vacant which stops most people from building a 3 set. Proper planning at the earliest stages will ensure that this doesn’t happen to you. Essentially you have two ‘easy’ options for capital hammers, and two ‘easy’ options for non caps. Should you have followed a different build order, having a 3-set may still be possible, just far messier.

The essence behind making sure u can build the 3-set is to ensure that you dont settle from your hammer village, or if you do, yourechief it later.

Capital Hammer 3-set
(option a)
Spawn settles cropper
Palace to level 10 in cropper
Cropper settles a support village (village #3)
#3 settles village #4, #4 settles #5 etc etc

At some stage, likely when you are around 10 villages, you would then friendly chief your own village such that village #10 chiefs village #3. This will free up your palaces expansion slot.

If this is to be your intended route, please make sure that you don’t intend to build army units from village #3 as when its rechiefed, you will lose all of them, together with any researches completed.

(option b)
spawn settles cropper
knock down residence in spawn and rebuild in its place a palace to 15
settle village 3 from your palace level 15
village 3 settles village 4, village 4 settles village 5 etc
knock down palace in spawn and rebuild it in your cropper, designating cropper as capital and going onto build your 3 set in due course.

Note: this method avoids the need to rechief your own villages but at a cost. Palace to level 15 costs ∑1-1577720 113050 105985 35325 (332k). Although you save resources later by not rechiefing, you do pay an extra 241k at this early stage. It’s certainly arguable, indeed likely, that you can afford the rechiefing later more readily than this cost now. I wouldn’t advise this method.

NOTE: should you choose to try and settle village 3 from a residence level 20 it will cost you around 700k!! (∑11-202642 209585 159465 82010) and this should therefore be avoided at all costs, in my opinion.

Non-Capital Hammer
(option a)
Spawn settles cropper
Cropper builds palace to 10
Cropper settles village#2
Village#2 builds res to 10 and settles non cap hammer (village #3)
Cropper builds palace to 15 and settles village 4
Village 4 settles village 5, village 5 settles 6 etc….
In due course the palace would be knocked down in your cap and rebuilt in hammer

Again, this method avoids the need to rechief. It varies from option (b) for a cap hamer above in so far as you aren’t required to build a palace to 15 before your 3rd village, when costs are tight, but rather for village 5. One might also consider settling your hammer as village 5 or 6, which would delay the need to build palace to 15 till even later.

(option b)
Spawn settles cropper
Cropper builds res to 10
Cropper settles village 3 (could be hammer or support village)
Village 3 settles village 4
Note: if village 3 is to be your hammer, then 4 MUST be a support village
4 settles 5, 5 settles 6 etc.

At some stage, likely when you are around 10 villages, you would then friendly chief your own village such that village #10 chiefs whichever village your hammer settled. This will liberate the expansion slot previously used in your hammer. You can now build your palace and 3 set in the hammer.


Out of the two non-cap options, option (b) is likely the more economical one but messy, option (a) being more expensive sooner but not so messy. Ultimately, provided you end up with a 3 set, then it’s all good.

[Admin]

Catapult same second Guide
How to Land Multiple Attacks at the Same Second!

Good evening everyone. Maybe some of you knew how to do this already. But, I thought I would share this with everyone. If it helps, great. If its redundant, sorry. If you already knew it….shame on you for not sharing sooner!!!!!

First you have to max out the repeat rate of your keyboard. The concept is to setup the enter key so that when you press and hold the key it repeats as fast as possible. Using Windows XP, go to control panel and then to keyboard. You should see an option for repeat delay, and repeat rate. Repeat delay is the delay in between the initial keystroke and the repeated keystrokes after it. You need to eliminate this delay completely so there is no real need to shorten this setting. You ultimately just want the repeat rate setting to be set as fast as possible.

Step 2. You have to use Firefox. Unfortunately, the doesn’t work using Internet Explorer. So… install Firefox, its free!

Step 3. Using multiple tabs, set up all of your catapult waves. Also put a fake attack in your very first tab. Prep everything and set all your catapult targets or whatever kind of target you want for the attack you are making. Do not send any attacks yet!!!!

Step 4. Put your browser into offline mode: Go to file and in the drop down menu select work offline.

Step 5. Send all your waves. You should get an error saying that you are offline and can’t load the webpage. That is exactly what you want. After you have tabbed through and sent all of your waves, click on your first tab to bring it back to the front.

Step 6. Go to file and in the drop down menu, unselect work offline.

Step 7. Make the Firefox window so small that you can only see the first tab and you can’t actually see any of the webpage. (Try skipping this step and see the difference it makes as you most likely are confused as to why this helps.)

Step 8. Right click on the first tab and select “reload ALL tabs”

Final Step. An error message will come up asking if you want to resend data in order to load the page. Press and hold Enter. Maximize your window after all the attacks get sent, and in your rally point, cancel the fake wave you used to eliminate the repeat delay.
I suggest everyone try this out several times on practice runs so you will know what to do when the time comes when you really need it. Again, try it multiple times before you really “HAVE TO USE IT”, it take some getting used to.
Also, you can practice the above by sending reinforcements to your own villages rather than attacking someone until you have it down. Then…. Destroy them once you’ve perfected the process!!!

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