End game Gauls usually make 90-95%% of the top20-30 defenders of the servers I've played on so far.
If you want to get that high on the tables I'd recommend Gauls with Phalanx + DruidRiders in the most villages you can.
Romans get out-shined in the training time field, when you can make 1838 phalanx / day (in x3) you can only make 1094 praetorians, since you use gold the case where "as a roman you are a better simmer, therefore you'll compensate the difference in training time with more villages, therefore more barracks" can be disregarded. And if you get yourself a good cropper and you're an active raider you can feed your 200-300k of defense easily so the crop efficiency can also be redundant to a certain point 
#gottafillthestaticrequestsasap
I agree with VIOLENCE 59. If you are wanting a good defender score - play as a Gaul. There is already great information above about how fast you are able to train phalanx versus praetorians (because if you are going to play as a Roman defender you have to have praetorians).
To build off of what has been said:
Above is some general information. The more you play - the more you'll learn. At the end of every server you should be saying to yourself - "I've learned a lot - and I'm going to be able to apply that to the next server and be a much better player.
Really fast, before I go, I want to mention what was at the root of your goal: being high in the defense ranks.
There are several ways to do this. As previously mentioned: fill static defense calls for treasuries. If you are in a large Kingdom - you probably won't see consistent action in treasuries. I've played King on several rounds now and I can confirm that visitors just don't come knocking very often. This is because they know that their troops will likely die if they attack a treasury on their own.
Opportunistic players will seek to attack governors on a regular basis. So be on a look out for members in your kingdom that are getting raided or attacked by outside players - this is your best opportunity to consistently earn defense points throughout a round.
If you are pure deffer it would be wise to also in beyond the excellent guides listed find a nice gold user to defend. Build up enough villages to support stables/barracks/smithy in 3 villages. These can be close to your usual def target whilst the supports can be in a secure place. Just keep in mind that you might want to have stolen goods to sell during operations. At least in many good kingdoms you will at some point have to feed some or all of yout own def. This can as described above quickly amount to a nightmare. These periods should be few and far between in such kingdoms
Gaul is the best for defense focused style. Not just because of best resource/defense and defense/time, also the most important movement speed. While phalanx is the backbone for major battles, druid/haeduan though a bit expensive, they allow you arrive on time in most case to compansate their cost.
Roman is generally a poor choice for defense focused style. Praetorian's defense/crop is great indeed, but its movement speed is terrible. You have to position them near some vital village, eg. treasury or major off village. Or the chance to be arrived on time is way too low. Legionnaire could be medicore troops to defense compare to phalanx, and its train speed is way too low. But it can use as medicore attack troops. Not recommended to make too many of them, it is crop inefficent and it's def/time is very bad. One worse thing about Roman defense is, it does not have defensive cavalry, which means it's single village output is far lower than another two tribe and you can not utilise ally flag/shoes to make the arrival chance bigger. Also, you will need to build more villages to compansate it's low troop/time.
IMO teuton is the best defender. Spearfighter are nearly the same stats as phalanx, as are the horses, but the major plus side for teuton is their walls are the strongest. A wall that isnt totally destroyed provides an enormous multiplier effect to your defense. Early game gaul would be the best because of traps, but those diminish in effect mid to late game.
Now if you are not concerned so much about getting attacked yourself which means walls wouldnt really matter, and you are focused on defending others than yeah Gaul has a slight advantage given its defense troop stats.
IMO teuton is the best defender. Spearfighter are nearly the same stats as phalanx, as are the horses, but the major plus side for teuton is their walls are the strongest. A wall that isnt totally destroyed provides an enormous multiplier effect to your defense. Early game gaul would be the best because of traps, but those diminish in effect mid to late game.
The goal of a defender is to defend strategical villages like Treasuries or WWK villages, etc... You do not become a top 30 defender by defending your own villages. Unless by some random reason or some trash talking you make yourself a target the bonus your tribe wall provides is pretty much non-relevant for the topic here.
And actually Spears are better than Paladins in cost/defense and defense/training time. You can argue that Paladins are good raiders sure but imo you either are defending or raiding and if you are defending with Paladins is for an emergency def call where maybe your Spears don't arrive in time, that being said you having Paladins raiding probably means not all of them reach the def call.
I do agree that Spears are amazing as cav counter but with Gauls you simply have more options available that often perform better than what the Teutons have to offer.
The goal of a defender is to defend strategical villages like Treasuries or WWK villages, etc... You do not become a top 30 defender by defending your own villages. Unless by some random reason or some trash talking you make yourself a target the bonus your tribe wall provides is pretty much non-relevant for the topic here.
And actually Spears are better than Paladins in cost/defense and defense/training time. You can argue that Paladins are good raiders sure but imo you either are defending or raiding and if you are defending with Paladins is for an emergency def call where maybe your Spears don't arrive in time, that being said you having Paladins raiding probably means not all of them reach the def call.
I do agree that Spears are amazing as cav counter but with Gauls you simply have more options available that often perform better than what the Teutons have to offer.
Well you could be a king/duke and be a def player and need to defend your treasuries in which case Teuton would be great. You would also be able to adjust to offence if needed, or just go full offense and just benefit from the robust walls and let other players defend you. I actually see no reason why not to go teuton especially as a king/duke.
In terms of troop selection i do agree spearfighters are better. Yes they are a bit heavy on the calv side, but then again so are most attacking armies. A disproportionate chunk of any hammer's attack number is from the horses not the infantry in which case spearfighters are more ideal. Speed however is an issue, teut horses are slow so reaching an ally is more of a challenge if there is a time crunch
That's a pretty specific situation but in that point I agree with you.
Teutons make the best Treasury holders because of the robust wall.
A disproportionate chunk of any hammer's attack number is from the horses
On the other hand I don't think it is that linear. Teuton and Gaul armies are Infantry heavy to balanced. Roman armies are Cavalry heavy 100% but as you know Teuton defensive accounts are not that frequent so we can count 90% of the active Teuton accounts to be playing Offense, Gauls are the most played tribe of the game and there are a lot of defensive accounts but even though is criticized by many there are players who play offensive Gaul so chances are the numbers even out each other regarding army composition. In that case the best defense is always a mix of Praets + Spears but since you can't make both the best second thing is a balanced unit and Phalanx is the King in that field because they are the most balanced, cheaper and faster training unit.
That's a pretty specific situation but in that point I agree with you.
Teutons make the best Treasury holders because of the robust wall.
On the other hand I don't think it is that linear. Teuton and Gaul armies are Infantry heavy to balanced. Roman armies are Cavalry heavy 100% but as you know Teuton defensive accounts are not that frequent so we can count 90% of the active Teuton accounts to be playing Offense, Gauls are the most played tribe of the game and there are a lot of defensive accounts but even though is criticized by many there are players who play offensive Gaul so chances are the numbers even out each other regarding army composition. In that case the best defense is always a mix of Praets + Spears but since you can't make both the best second thing is a balanced unit and Phalanx is the King in that field because they are the most balanced, cheaper and faster training unit.
What I meant to say was...when both barracks and stables reach level 20, the horse training time decreases faster than infantry training time. they dont both decrease at the same rate. it decreases so much that if you were to pump out both troops and horses non stop, in 24 hours at barracks/stables lvl 20, you will get more attack power from the horses then from infantry which is why spearfigher are actually more ideal as do you want to be a bit more lopsided towards cavalry defense (they are also more dangerous because they are faster). I cant find the website that gives the training times at lvl 20, but i do recall doing the math some years ago and it worked out this way. i dont know if i did the math for all 3 offenses troops/tribes or if it was just romans where horses train faster anyways so i might be wrong.
Roman (Barracks, Stable and HDT lvl 20; no weapon, no helmets):
| Imperian - 3,636 |
| EI - 5,953 |
| EC - 6,589 |
Teuton (Barracks, Stable and Brewery lvl 20; no weapon, no helmets):
| Club - 7,069 |
Axeman -
6,029
| TK - 6,223 |
Gaul (Barracks and Stable lvl 20; no weapon, no helmets):
| Swordsman - 4,492 |
| TT - 3,736 |
| Haeduan - 4,631 |
Like I said before:
Roman = Cav Heavy
Teuton = Inf Heavy/Balanced
Gaul = Inf Heavy/Balanced
Therefore Phalanx ftw 
Display MoreRoman (Barracks, Stable and HDT lvl 20; no weapon, no helmets):
Imperian - 3,636 EI - 5,953
EC - 6,589
Teuton (Barracks, Stable and Brewery lvl 20; no weapon, no helmets):
Club - 7,069
TK - 6,223
Gaul (Barracks and Stable lvl 20; no weapon, no helmets):
Swordsman - 4,492 TT - 3,736
Haeduan - 4,631
Like I said before:
Roman = Cav HeavyTeuton = Inf Heavy/Balanced
Gaul = Inf Heavy/Balanced
Therefore Phalanx ftw
Ah yes then phal takes the win. also they are more resource balanced spears are too wood heavy difficult making them all the time
Indeed, you need to invest more gold to make Spears, Teuton defense is not balanced resource wise, everything eats up wood so if you distribute your resources and mix up your defense Gauls are the only tribe to actually have a neutral resource ratio consumption regarding defensive units according to the calculations I did, but that's a whole different topic 
OK everyone has been talking abt what u need to make to be a good defender ,
But most important thing i feel every players who wants to play a impactful member of any Kingdom needs to keep his troops rolling . Ideally keeping them to urself isn't going to raise ur DEFF POINTS just for lying around 
And most Importantly , if u want to be e TOP 10 Defender then u cant stop pumping troops , make use of what ever u have and make troops troops troops ,
GOLDEN RULE TO TRAVIAN KINGDOMS
" U CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH DEFENSE "
SO the mantra is simple u have no target just a timeline , Till the server does not end ur troops keep pumping out troops .Just reinforce anyone of your treasury if ur having crop issue . DOnt need to worry no one will say no to Standing Deff
