Software techies, bored teenagers and nerds all over the world have caught on the web’s most popular browser game, Travian. Travian doesn’t require any downloads, and players can log on anywhere, making it a popular choice in the Internet gaming community. But it can be very intimidating for new players, unless you have at least somewhat of an idea how to get things going.
The Game
Travian is set in what I like to call, “the olden days.” The world is comprised of squares, and grows exponentially in relation to the number of players that sign up. There are always several games of Travian taking place at any given time, and each game takes place on its own server. When you sign up for a server, you are signing up to participate in that particular game. When a game ends that server will reset, and if you check the main page regularly it’s easy to find out when a game is resetting.
If you are going to play, make sure you are ready to commit to play out an entire game. The endgame phase of Travian sessions typically don’t even begin until 300 days into the game. If this is a bit much, there is usually at least one speed server, which I have not yet attempted. Of course you can always play until you get bored and then nuke your kingdom (metaphorically, of course).
When you sign up, the first thing you’ll need to do is pick a server. There are minor differences in each server, too many to list here, but the game is essentially the same. Don’t sweat it too much unless you are getting very serious about playing this game. The world is broken up into four main quadrants: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and Northwest. The world is so large that even if your friend joins in the same quadrant as you, you may end up hours upon hours away from them. If you were to send a soldier across the world, it would likely take many days, if not weeks. Pick your quadrant. Once you activate your account, you will be given a village. Your village is placed on the board in relation to when you signed up. If you sign as soon as a server restarts, you will be placed near the center. If you sign up several months after the game began, you will be placed in the boonies. This is a very good thing, because you have a better chance of being placed near players that closer to your level.
One of the main aspects of Travian is a sim-city like building process, in which you increase the population of village through building and eventually you can settle new villages and maintain a kingdom. Your village has resource fields with four resources: clay, crop, iron, and lumber. Different building processes take different combinations of these resources. Unless you are on a speed server, your population farms your resources and produces a certain amount per hour in real time.
The other main aspect of Travian, and the one that should turn off any sim-city players, is that it is a war game. The ultimate goal is for an alliance to build a 100 level wonder of the world, and to do this it takes a lot of battling and a lot of time. Only the top alliances have any chance of actually building one, and the rest can only hope to help in some way. All beginner’s get one week of protection, after that expect your village to be raided by bigger, stronger and more aggressive players. If you want to play nice, this is not the game for you. One of the ways to get extra resources is to raid other players, and you will be raided.
At this point you should be getting an idea whether or not you would actually like to try this game out, if so, check out the next part on this guide.