the safe haven Q/A

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Travian Newb Guide

The FAQ can answer a lot of your questions. Read it every chance you get.
travian FAQ
roman stratgey guide
Thanks to The Poet for the link and Iulus(?) for the guide. I think this was also posted by tauliphin at some point elsewhere in this forum

This guide is intended to show new players how to survive after the “noob protection” period expires, and put them on a sure footing for success later in the game. The most important thing to realize is that once you leave “noob protection,” you will become a target for larger players in your neighborhood who will raid you in order to steal your resources. To combat that, this guide will show you how to successfully defend against the attacks from larger players.

Depending on when you join the game, the protection period lasts from between 3 to 14 days (as of the beginning of August, the period is roughly 2 weeks for server 1; for server 2, protection starts at 3 days). It’s imperative that you use that time wisely. At the beginning you will want to concentrate on building up your resource fields. When developing your resource fields, it’s best to develop them evenly. That is, don’t build a level 3 clay pit until all your other clay pits are level 2.

For the first few days, build up your resource fields exclusively. Develop them more or less evenly, with a slight bias toward clay (resource fields cost more clay than other resources). Keep an eye on your wheat. Every time you upgrade a building or field, it takes 1 or more crop per hour as upkeep (that’s what this symbol means: ). As you upgrade your village, your net wheat income will go down, so keep upgrading your wheat. Keep in mind that buildings and fields take little wheat to build, relative to the other resources, so it’s okay to have a production ratio of 2 clay/wood/iron to 1 wheat (if you are producing 50 wood an hour, your wheat can be about 25 per hour). The game will go very slowly at first – just be patient and every chance you get, upgrade a resource field.

Being Raided:
Being raided can be demoralizing. You wait hours and hours to get enough resources to build a building, and along comes somebody with 200 axemen and they take it all. This is a setback, but it’s relatively easy to deal with. The easiest defense is to build crannies (see below), but the best defense is to spend your resources. Try to log on several times a day to start the upgrade of another building (or later on, another batch of troops). If you use Gold to activate a plus account (see below), you can queue two buildings, which means you don’t have to log on quite as often to keep your resources spent

Cranny
The most important building to build before you leave protection status is the cranny. If you are a Gaul, you need at least one level 10 cranny by the time you leave protection. If you are a Teuton or Roman, you need at least two. Once you leave protection, you will be attacked by larger players, and the cranny will protect your resources from being stolen. If you find yourself being raided, and you are losing resources, build another cranny or two. Upgrade each cranny to level 10 before starting another.

Troops
To build troops, you first need to build a Rally Point, which can only be built in the crescent shaped spot next to your Main Building in the center of your village. Don’t build troops until you reach population 100. Investing in an army is a big expense, and you want to make sure you have the economy to support it before you begin. Also, if you get attacked, your army will likely be wiped out, wasting all that investment. Once you are producing a couple hundred of each resource per hour, you can think about building your Rally Point and Barracks.

Gold:
Gold and Plus FAQ

Main Building:
The level of your Main Building determines how long it takes to build all your other buildings and resource fields. The higher the level, the faster they build. At the very beginning, this isn’t that important, but later on it’s imperative to have it at a high level. The Main Building itself takes a long time to upgrade, so it’s important to start early. Each night, before you go to sleep, start a level upgrade of your Main Building.

Alliances:
Alliances can help protect you, depending on their size and organization. To join an alliance, you need a level 1 embassy. To lead an alliance, you need a level 3 embassy. If you are reading this guide, it means you don’t know enough to lead an alliance, so don’t upgrade your embassy past level 1. The larger alliances (e.g. Power Apple, Dracula, Boom) have multiple wings. Think of these like NATO and the Warsaw Pact, except they are even more closely allied. Generally, an attack on one wing of an alliance is treated as an attack on all wings, so tread carefully.

Palace vs. Residence in first village.
The major differences between the Palace and the Residence are: the Palace allows you to found 3 more villages (at level 10, 15 and 20), while the Residence allows you to found two more villages (level 10 and 20); the Palace allows you to name that village your capital; the Palace is more expensive in clay, iron and wheat, but slightly cheaper in wood.

Which village is your capital is an important decision. Your capital can have resource fields over level 10 and it can have the Stonemason (buildings have up to 300% hit points at level 20). Some players will make their 15c their capital which allows them to produce huge amounts of wheat and field very large armies. Other players choose their starting village (or another 4/4/4/6 with good oases) and create resource production powerhouses.

Your starting village is your capital even before you build a Palace or Residence, and will remain your Capital even if you build a Residence there. In fact, if you have a second village and build a Palace their, your first village will remain your capital until you explicitly go to the Palace and click on the link to make that village your capital.

The danger of making your second village your capital is that your first village is then vulnerable to being taken over (your capital can never be taken over). Since it is, and will be, the cornerstone of your empire for a long time, if this happens it can be devastating.

I would recommend building a Residence in your first village so that you can expand faster. I would build your second village in a standard 4/4/4/6 square, and build a residence there too, for quicker expansion. On your third or fourth village, you can look for a 9c or 15c (these are squares with 9 or 15 crop fields). Found that village, and build a Palace, but DO NOT make it your capital (yet). Do not upgrade your resource fields in your first village past ten, and once you are well established and your second village is producing 750+ of each resource (except wheat) per hour, go ahead and make your 15/9c your capital. There is really no need to do this until you need to build a stonemason or a level 11 wheat field there anyway, which will be quite a while.

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There is a lot to learn about this game, and this guide is by no means exhaustive. Keep playing, and you will pick up more and more as you go along. Don't worry too much if you joined recently and feel like you are way behind everyone else. This is the case with all browser games (the most important resource is time). Now that we have a lot of new players, there's the chance of a second server starting soon. Failing that, the 1st server will restart in a few to several months. Use this time to learn as much about the game, so that when the server restarts, you can compete with the more experienced players.

Good luck.
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