I’m playing my first server, I started quite early on, and we’re now about a month or so before the endgame starts. I wish I’d got the advice the poster above me got, but I’ve done ok, survived, learnt a hell of a lot, and now I’m helping lead the largest wing of the largest alliance on the server, and at that level it really does get interesting. Fighting other people and alliances your own size is where the fun and challenge lies. I’ve never spent any money on it either – its far from essential unless you’ve set your sights on smashing through entire alliance defences with a single attack.

I love travian for the massive multiplayer aspect of it, but it does have some flaws. I’ve said before, Game theory kills travian, both at the small end and the big. To start with, the farming of helpless small players is a problem and puts many newbies off, yet is essential to grow properly at the start – It is simply not a good idea to get involved in genuine fighting with people your own size just yet. Then at the end of the server, you end up with everyone teaming up into massive “meta” alliances, and the whole thing risks becoming rather stagnant. That spoils it for me a little.

The people is what makes travian for me though. Communicating and organising large defences is a challenge but surprisingly rewarding when it pays off. Being part of a large alliance is the whole fun of it.

I tried out my first game on S7 a while back, and joined about 6 months late. I taught myself the basics and being a rather reserved, defencive guy i worked on economy. 2 weeks in, some cock catapulted me for being in his 7X7 saying i was taking space.

However, it occured to me he wasnt actually a complete ass. He told me i should join a fresh server – i was going to be no use to anyone with the end game scenario (Natars, WW etc.)

He told me next time to start of by creating a barracks and 3 legions. These 3 troops brought in bounties of 30,30,30,30. My army grew and soon i had 20 legions. Then i had 100 imperians, and i hadnt upgraded a single field (except alot of wheat fields).

I grew that game, and several months in a newbie spawned around my 15C. I asked him to delete and told him the advice that the other player had told me.

Were not all orgues :)

raiding is the way to go. early on gives you that extra boost. For tuetons that 2/3 and have res. storage helps. Alot. guals have TTs with are conviablly the best raider in the game. Gual players are ussaully top attackers and raiders mid-late game. Super calavry =]

Jackal: Where you suppress many smaller villages, just enough so you can keep farming them like a parasite. Have to watch your back every hour of the day for someone wanting to become a parasite to you. Gaming environment encourages bullying, lying and cheating.

Non-jackal/angel: Being helpful to your reasonable neighbours (not the idiots) even though they may be smaller and younger, encouraging learning, skill, honesty and teamwork. Eliminating jackal attack forces, which is good fun. Hopefully you could swap/dual accounts for a less or more intensive game as the weeks go by. However I think this would never work without the same planning that I suspect goes into some of the mega alliances before the server starts.

I have only played once but got into the top 400 by being a jackal. Start location was 64,113, so I think I started late. Even with the maximum of one hour of resources ’subscription’ (unbalanced transfer) per day , I don’t think there is a non-jackal strategy that will work, but if someone works one out, I would like to play again socially (at my convenience not the game’s).