I’m leaning towards it being a large amount of fireworks going all at once.

Since the cap is 48 per village, it might not show up until later in the server when people have multiple villages.

But that’s just a guess.

I’m leaning towards it being a large amount of fireworks going all at once.

Since the cap is 48 per village, it might not show up until later in the game world when people have multiple villages.

But that’s just a guess.

Thanks everyone for your responses to this post and to those who participated in the voting. When working with new players, it seems that they think that the best robbers are Teutons. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed that as well?

The responses here also helped highlight that any tribe can be used to effectively raid - it just takes time.
You get out what you put in.

Quote from DasBärchen

Therefore, to any beginner; it does not really matter which tribe you pick. What you should do is gather data. Watch what happens around you. Check population increase. Scout. Being first in finding a new farm is key. Exploit it before others can.

Couldn't agree more! Just to add - never stop gathering data. Even on villages that are currently being raided. It's easy to fall into a the "complacency trap". This is where you are used to a player being an easy farm - but they are just dodging you attacks for now. So, be careful when raiding an active player. Good way to lose troops. They most likely won't dodge forever.

Quote from Lycan_COM

cheap fodder to build up those number with clubs

Teuton clubs are insanely cheap - and quick to build. However, as Sheshnir mentioned - they are slow. What I like about clubs is the efficiency at which they can raid. Thinking from a cost-benefit outlook: a club only has to have a full load ~4 times in order to completely pay for itself. This is lowest of all raiding troops.

Quote from Lycan_COM

teutons they have the best farmers namely palladins

I think that Paladins are an overlooked unit for raiding. They are extremely effective at raiding inactive players. I think their real downside however is that they die way too easy. So, you have to send more to overcome village effects that may kill a troop (i.e. residence, wall, etc). This makes running into spiked villages all the more expensive in the future. However, if playing Defensive Teuton - paladins are the way to go.

Alright Travian Community! I've got a question for you - what tribe do you think is best for raiding?
Yes - I know this is a bit of loaded question. If you look on any Top 10 Raiders list on any server you will most likely see one of each tribe.

This is something that I ask every round within my Kingdom. There are clearly benefits to each tribe - but which one do you think rules supreme? Why do you think that?

If you can't pick just one - feel free to explain the benefits of each!

Here are some questions that experienced players could answer that might help a new player understand raiding troops and the benefits of each:
1) Which tribe is your favorite for raiding? Why?

2) Which troop(s) are your favorite for raiding? Why?

3) Does the type of server impact which tribe/troop you think is best? (i.e. x1, x3, x5, Night Truce, etc)

I've scoured the forums - yet I cannot find a satisfactory forum discussion about the benefits of each tribe all in one spot. Be thoughtful with your answers. Imagine that you are trying to explain the questions listed above to a player that is brand new to the game and you are their mentor.
(Also, feel free to share other forum posts here that may be of help).

9400

I think that there are several ways for the game to expand. I see new tribes coming up very often.

Here are some other places where this exact topic has been talked about in the past:

We want new tribes

New tribes - for Kingdoms

New tribes, Huns and Egyptians

There are several other places, but these are just to name a few.

I think that new tribes could be added in - but Travian Kingdoms is not the same as Legends. I've played a combination of the two versions for about 15 years now and what I like about Kingdoms is that it isn't Legends with a 'special feature'. If that were the case they could just do "kingdoms" as a special Legends server. They are almost fundamentally different games.

The game does need to see changes, but I think that it is important that it stay distinct from Legends. Kingdoms is in a position to be well leveraged. It just needs to capitalize upon these advantages.

1. There is an app for Kingdoms - not Legends. This is one of the main reasons I started to play Kingdoms. It's so much more accessible. I can get updates when my granaries are running low. I get a notification if I'm being attacked. It also makes the game accessible for those who may not have been on Legends before coming to Kingdoms.
2. It is so much more forgiving. On Kingdoms it is so much easier to be a defender - and in my opinion - harder to be an attacker. Especially if you are a part of an organized Kingdom The Stolen Goods/Treasures system is something that I find immensely enjoyable.
3. The achievements system. It helps guide approaching different strategies each server. Gives you something to set your personal goals as a player around.
4. The structure of the Kingdoms itself. The way that Kingdoms is set up is to give newer players a structure that they can fit under where they can be guided to learn how to play the game better.

I think that recently the Kingdoms Team has started to make progress again. The new focus on the app has me excited. That is what originally brought me in. Currently the app is seen as a "companion" to the Desktop version. I would like to see the app capable of being a standalone platform for the game with cross-over capabilities for those of us who play on both.

There are still loopholes that can be exploited, which sucks when they happen, but I have the utmost confidence as we go along that these issues will continue to be resolved as they are identified.

For the longest time there were not any additional achievements added. There are several new achievements to hunt every single year - and if we can keep a good game trajectory I'm positive that we can continue to see more expansions around the achievements system.

It's hard to see the advancements in the game because we have never really gotten a road-map on where the game is currently, what is being addressed currently, and what will be addressed next.

So, while yes, I would love to see an expansion in tribes. I think that there are other areas where Kingdoms could expand - and if they expand different tribes I would like to see it take a different route than Legends.

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:

• Build in as many villages as possible!
  • As a defender - never train a troop in a great barracks or great stable. It is more cost effective to keep the barracks producing in 3 villages versus keeping the great barracks going in one. As a defender it is not important to have all of your troops in one village - unlike offensive players.
• Getting a cropper and maintaining it is really hard right off the bat as a non-gold user.
  • I agree that any big army will need a cropper to maintain - or you will need to be storing your defense as standing defense in treasuries. Without gold - it is really hard to develop a cropper early on. I would suggest avoiding it and going for a good 7c with nice oasis bonuses around for your second village. If you can menhir onto one - all the better.
• More infantry or more cavalry?
  • Infantry. Infantry, infantry, infantry.
    • Phalanx can produce around 1 defense point for every 3 resources spent.
      ^{total resources needed/(infantry+cavalry defense strength)}
    • Druidriders on the other hand produce about 1 defense point for every 5 spent.
      ^{same equation as before}
  • Druidriders are good to have because they can be a very effective quick response defensive troop. They also have a breakdown in their defense strength between infantry and cavalry that is very similar to the breakdown of most armies. So they make phenomenal defenders in that regard.

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.

Quote from Wamic

Great write-up for my favorite tribe and the hot topic of Clubs vs. Axes.

Rams are awesome, and also surprisingly good at soaking damage! I like to cap catas at 250 then go full rams after that.

Thank you!

I agree on having a small number of catapults. They are useful for treasury attacks and catapult operations.

In my experience, I encourage people to have at least 300 catapults for these types of operations so that they can completely take two buildings in one go.

Overview

There are a couple of different ways to play as an offensive Teuton. This post is not meant to tell you how to play as an offensive Teuton, but rather, how you can play as an offensive Teuton. This post contains some general information that I have found useful when working with new players on how to best build up their armies.

In order to have an effective army you must have ever type of troop: infantry, cavalry and siege weapons. You cannot ignore one and still have a good hammer at the end.

Hopefully you find this information useful. If you have anything to add, please feel free to do so in the comments!

Teutons, in my opinion, only have 5 possible offensive troops: Clubswingers, Axefighters, Teutonic Knights, Rams and Catapults.

• The Clubswinger
  • It is the cheapest troop across all the different tribes. It comes in at a total of 180 resources (wood, clay, iron) to make one single unit in the Barracks. They are also the quickest to train out of all the Travian troops. On a x1 server, the time that it takes to train one Clubswinger ranges from 12:00 to 01:37 (it can be further reduced with a helmet that affects Barracks and Great Barracks training times)
  • Across all troops they can be considered as a moderate attacker, however, when only comparing them against other "offensive" infantry" (Legionnaire, Imperian, Axefighter and Swordsman) they rank fairly low. In fact, only the Legionnaire shares as low offensive strength. All others are stronger per troop. At the base level Clubswingers have 40 attack strength. Where Clubswingers thrive is in the sheer numbers you can produce them in.
  • A main perk that a lot of players enjoy about a clubswinger is their ability to raid. They are not the quickest in terms of speed, but they are the most effective raider. What do I mean when I say “effective”? What I mean is, they have the lowest number of “full” resource hauls (50 per raid, per troop) to make in order to pay for themselves. A clubswinger, if coming home with a full haul will pay for themselves after 4 trips. This is almost 100% cheaper than for any other raiding troop.
    
  • Two really big cons of a clubswinger - they take up a lot of crop mid-late server, be sure to utilize croppers. They also are terrible at defense: they will fall over dead at the sight of a cavalry troop.
    
• The Axefighter
  • More expensive when compared to the Clubswinger. 275 resources (wood, clay, iron) will be needed in order to pay for this troop - about 52.7% more resources when compared to the Clubswinger. However, they do come with a 50% boost in attack strength at 60. Their train times do not scale quite as nice as their attack strength however and take 55.5% longer to train per troop when compared with the Clubswinger. (18:40 to 2:31).
    
  • They are the best infantry troop in terms of crop consumption:train time:strength ratios on the server. There are two infantry troops, Imperian and Swordsman, which are stronger, but both have significantly higher training times.
  • If you want more attack strength with less crop hassle - Axefighters are the way to go. They are marginally better at defense, but you still wouldn’t want them to be caught at home by an attacker.
  • Axefighters do have somewhat good capacity for raiding, however, their speed and cost make them less effective than clubswingers.
• The Teutonic Knight
  • This is the only cavalry troop that Teutons have that is worth anything on offense. They are almost 3x stronger than the Paladin. There really is not a comparison here. TK’s are the second strongest troop in the game, only beat out by the Equites Caesaris. TKs have 150 attack strength.
  • TKs cost 860 total resources (wood, clay, iron). They are not as effective at converting resources to attack strength, much like all cavalry troops in the game. However, in order to have an effective hammer - you must build every troop possible.
• The Ram
  • Teuton rams are the best rams on the server. They are 8.3% stronger per ram when compared to Romans and a whopping 30% stronger when compared to a Gaul’s rams. In addition to being stronger, they are also cheaper AND they train faster.
• The Catapult
  • Teuton catapults are the reverse of the ram. While still the cheapest ram (all Teuton troops are the cheapest), they are the most ineffective. How ineffective you might ask? A full 50% weaker than the strongest catapult on the server - Romans, and 40% weaker than Gauls. For this reason alone I typically try to sway Teuton players away from Catapults. Leave that to the Romans and the Gauls. It’s just much more effective to do so. Teuton’s pave the way!
    

Conclusion

So, at this point, I would consider your siege troop to be set (Ram) and your cavalry troop set as well (Teutonic Knight). The Ram is the more effective siege weapon for a Teuton. The TK is the only offensive cavalry troop.

However, it is a real decision between a Clubswinger and an Axefighter. To help you better make that decision - here is a useful example.

• If I had 20 days where I could build non-stop Clubswingers in my Barracks, and non-stop Axefighters in another - which would be stronger? (Barracks level 20).
  • I can build 891 clubs per day in village one, and 533 per day in village two.
  • That is a total of 17,820 Clubswingers in village one and 10,660 Axefighters in village two over the 20 days.
  • Another way to look at it: 712,800 attack strength in village one, and 639,600 attack strength in village two. If I focused only on Clubswingers, I would have 11.4% more total attack strength than if I only focused on Axefighters.
    • Of note: Crop would be 7,160 more expensive PER hour, or 171,840 per day.
    • If I had to pay for my troops, it would cost me 3,207,600 resources to build all my Clubswingers, but only 2,931,500 resources to build the Axefighters (a cost reduction of 276,100 resources OR 9.4% less resources).

From this information we can tell that Clubswingers are going to have more power if we are able to train them non-stop. However, it will cost more resources to produce them, and they will consume significantly more crop PER day.

Which troop you choose to build will rely entirely upon your capacity to bring in resources, as well as your ability to feed them

My general suggestion here (which I’m sure some will disagree with):

• If you cannot produce Clubswingers continuously, build Axefighters.
• If you are not extremely active, and online infrequently - build Axefighters.
• If you are not actively raiding - build Axefighters.
• If you do not have any croppers - build Axefighters.

I personally prefer the additional power that is given by building Clubswingers, but it’s expensive. It’s not for everyone. Adapt to the troop that best meets your needs as a player. Any offensive playing style involves a fair amount of activity. Clubswingers are just much more time, resource, and energy intensive than Axefighters.

Of note: All attack strengths mentioned in this post are based on no Smithy upgrades. I will make a post in the future about the importance of Smithy upgrades. This is just meant to be a base level look at playing as an Offensive Teuton with some base suggestions.

0v0
What everyone is referring to is this phenomenal guide shared by Be2-e4 which can be found here:
[How To] Speedsettling on steroids

This is an interesting idea. As Mycro#EN pointed out, there are various ways for this to be abused. Multi's have been known in the past to kill troops of their other accounts to rank up their heroes, so I'm not very on board with this specific idea.

However, I do think that additional strategies for getting culture points would be a welcome addition to the game. Currently, there are a few ways:

1. Hero helmet
2. Buildings producing culture points / cities
3. Using artworks
4. Celebrations

A mix of these can help a player attain large amounts of culture points if used effectively.

An idea for expanding culture points activities, I think, would be something similar to "smithy upgrades". Currently, the Town Hall has a function that is somewhat similar to that, but only in terms of time (so the higher you upgrade, the less time it takes) and two tiers of celebrations (-/=500 small celebration and -/=2,000 for large celebrations). Maybe an upgrade that could add a certain percentage bonus to the max culture points that a village could produce - this option could be an *infrastructure* upgrade that could be located in the Smithy.
The second way that I think this could be implemented could be through the Academy. Right now you are able to research different troop types based off of buildings. Maybe there are additional perks, such as, increased culture points, or maybe an additional celebration that isn't tied to the Town Hall. Other options could be explored for infrastructure Academy research items.

These are just a few idea that *could* expand out the current culture point earning options.
At the current moment, I am fairly happy with how the culture point accumulation works. There are plenty of different strategies for getting additional culture points - both related to Gold use and non-gold use. I think how it is implemented with buildings/cities bonus is very well balanced. My above ideas are more for "IF you wanted to expand, these might be some options", but in terms of things that I would want addressed in the game this would be at the very bottom of the list.

I like this!

I am Wheat Dragon. I've played this game since I was young... I was playing in 2007, maybe 2006? I can't remember. Travian was my first dive into the "browser game" world. I tried a lot of other games similar, but I was hooked on this one in particular. Sounds familiar to what I've seen written already.
My starting to play this game coincided with a lot of turmoil within my personal life and it was an excellent outlet.

I remember the first time that I settled a second village... it was like after my 10th server. I was horrible at this game. I didn't know strategy. I was just here to basically "sim". I didn't meet up with a group of players that I would regularly play with for a few years. Since then I've just absorbed the different strategies. When I discovered Kingdoms, the main appeal was that it was the first time that I had Travian on an app - and I loved that. Obviously the app has had it's issues over the years, but I never let that dissuade me from continuing on.

I've played under too many names to count, but I think I finally found one that is hopefully 'unique' with Wheat Dragon.

I've recently hoped into the leadership role and play as King. What a learning curve... but I love it. I get to interact with so many different players and pass on the random knowledge that I have of this game to other players. I'm just grateful to everyone that I've learned from (even if it was on the receiving end of a hammer ).

I look forward to all the future servers with and against you all. May we all continue to learn a better game and enjoy each others company and competition.

This seems to be a very impassioned thread... I like to tend to stay away from these, but I do want to share a different opinion than has already been expressed.
Kingdoms has gotten rid of the defenders points for spiking farms. This has greatly reduced the amount of spikes that I encounter on a server. I was very supportive of that change. However, I don't see the purpose of getting rid of it entirely.
There are several times on a server where a governor who just wants to be left alone reaches out to inform me that they are being attacked each and every day by a player in an opposing Kingdom and that when attacked that player sends their full army. I very rarely will decline this request because it is an opportunity to catch a hammer that otherwise would never show up on one of my players or one of my villages until late in the game.

I do empathize with the frustration of people crashing my hammers when I'm under the impression that I have an 'easy farm', but to me that's just a part of the game. It is one of the many strategies that can be utilized to catch an attacker.

I'm a strong believer in adopting strategies to match the game, not changing the game to match a strategy.

rafal92f#PL

We are having similar issues on COM1N. I guess this has potentially been going on for a few servers? I wasn't paying attention to the patch notes for a while - I was on vacation from the game. Maybe I missed something. I'm curious to know why robber attacks have a different color than they used to.

Well, not entirely sure here on how to handle the last one. Typically, with Boot of the Chicken, the one shoe upgrade equates to +25 troops fleeing. So, I'll go for that.

The equation would be as follows:

8*2+6+25 = 47

My guess would be - 47

Tiitana

I could get behind them being deleted from the server the first time - or have a punishment that slows their growth. I don't think the whole ban other accounts and leave the main one unscathed has been very effective.

Dux Rupie#EN

I think that the first time you are caught multi-accounting it should be treated as "Maybe you didn't know this was against the game rule, here is a punishment. We will allow you to keep playing this server, but you will incur certain in-game penalties." A lot of people would say that it is unfair to limit their resource production or troop production speed - but it might help them realize that when they are cheating - it penalizes other players in the same who aren't cheating.

I think that the second time a person multis it shows a pattern. They got caught once, and the only reason that they would have done it a second time is that they thought they could get away with it.

I think that person should be allowed to keep playing the game if they would like - but they can't on that account anymore. They lose their prestige, they lose their awards, etc.

Obviously you should keep track of that player's IP address, but I don't think that it should be banned for life. The act of taking away the account is probably punishment enough. I had a 3 gold star account that got locked the day I wanted to start a new server. It sucked having to start over from square one and I think that other people would agree.

I have both accounts still - but they are never used on the same server (I've actually not touched the other once since I created this one).

One of the greatest appeals of Kingdoms (other than the gameplay) is the awards system. I think that if these players were at risk of losing the rewards of their "hard work" they wouldn't be as inclined to cheat. Right now - the system is set up to where that main account can benefit and remain on server. It's the side accounts that are deleted. The accounts that the cheater most likely has just created and cares nothing about.

DarthButtHair#EN(1)

I've spoken with the mods about this in the past. I always worry when I have people coming over that also play. If you are in contact with them and explain the situation they are very understanding.

I'm not sure that the right move is to ban the IP address - since most use a VPN anyway.

I would suggest that the accounts themselves receive a permanent ban. This would destroy the "prestige" associated with any given account. I'm not sure that the first time it happens they should receive a permanent ban, I will leave that to the game makers. I would think that no more than twice should be allowed. I also think the degree to which multi accounting has been done should be taken into account.

I think that Travian Kingdoms has done a somewhat decent job overcoming Multi's, but they have yet to achieve the appearance of controlling them - which in turn causes players to lose confidence in the game.

One thing that is a glaring issue that I've noticed on servers. A player can multi an entire Kingdom. When they are caught - the side accounts are all banned - but the main account, the one with the treasury and the one that has received the most benefit remains untouched. This then allows that player to leverage those treasures into joining another kingdom.

Or they can be stolen, giving a Kingdom an unfair advantage. 1,000 treasures won't make that much difference into the future - but 1,000 treasures right at the start of a round can make a large difference in the momentum of a Kingdom on a server.

Just some thoughts.

Fintan and @dianamite#EN,

It is useful to build a palace to get all 3 spots for Chiefing as Fintan mentioned.

This allows your chiefs to travel with your large army. This is especially useful if you are trying to sneak a chief, because then they are not as noticeable. If you send multiple attacks from different villages it might raise some alarm bells.

Typically, you wouldn't do this in more than one village.

A common tactic for keeping all 3 of your spots open is to build 1-2 chiefs in a side village. Then use the expansion slots from them as the 'final chief'.

Some people will chief a village that they settled a long time ago just so that they can get the expansion slot back in the village that initially settled it.

So, you could built 2 palaces at different stages in the game to get 3, and then 6 chiefs, but as you noted Fintan, it is cheaper to just manage your expansion slots in the village with the Palace so that you can keep all 3 slots open.

I'm sure this was a little bit of a rambling response. If you have any further questions I would be happy to elaborate.