Addicted to Travian

I was recently introduced to a risk-like strategy game with city building. Travian is a web based game with little to no graphics and a very simple interface. I can even play it on my iPhone, which is a god send. The game doesn't appear to be very appealing at first glance but once you start playing you will see how quickly you will get addicted to the game.

I signed up with 3 of my friends and we all started villages on the Speed server. The Speed server is 3x as fast as the other servers and it was fun that it was faster but the game can quickly become too much work to play casually. I actually recommend you play on the slower servers even though it may seem really slow at first. The servers only last a certain amount of time before they are restarted. The Speed server lasts 4 months and the Regular server lasts about a year. If you start playing at the beginning of a server you can end up with around 10 villages to manage which is like having 10 different accounts. When you're that big, you will be thankful that the server isn't 3x as fast. We used the time we played on the Speed server as a test run because we joined when it was close to ending.

Server 6 recently started and we joined at it's launch. My first village is "Guinness", in the southwest. We joined an alliance in the beginning of the server to help protect ourselves but then we joined a top alliance, "?". I am a Gaul, one of 3 races to choose from including Romans and Teutons. The 3 races all have strengths and weaknesses, the Gauls are more defensive because their 1st troop, the Phalanx, is cheap and good at defense against troops and cavalry. Gauls also have traps to protect their villages and also protect more resources in their Cranny, which is like a bank.

As a Gaul, it wasn't easy for me to raid other villages for resources. Therefore I spent most of my time building up my resource fields. I still can't really raid effectively but I already have a 2nd village and am about to move onto my 3rd. My 2nd village is what is called a 15 cropper, a village plot that has 15 crop fields and only 1 of each other resource. The 15 croppers are vital to building a large army in the late stages of the game. Big armies need tons of wheat to feed all the troops and there are only a limited number of 15 croppers available on the server. My 3rd village will be my Hammer. The Hammer is a village that is either near or directly next to your 15 cropper that is where you will build your giant army. The 15c will feed your Hammer when your army is sent out on attacks and it is better for it to be next door because it takes time to send resources between villages. I am not sure where I will expand after that but I am thinking about finding a 9 cropper which is also rare on the server.

The game is meant to be something you can check once or twice per day but if you want to be good, you will need to spend more time than that in the game. The Teutons are especially time consuming because they need to be constantly raiding other villages in order to grow. If you have internet access throughout the day and are able to access the game, Travian is an excellent break from work that doesn't need much attention regularly. If accessing the game is only possible once per day, you can still play but don't expect to be very good or be able to last very long because the serious players will steal all your resources and kill your troops when you aren't paying attention.

P.S. I must warn anyone that is thinking about checking this game out. Travian is extremely addicting and you might be better off not getting interested in the game. I am not even sure if I will regret it later.