There is truth in the saying that unless you manage what you have, or you simply won’t have any. Travian is a game of resource. It is the mechanism that drives your economy, your army, your village – its like the oil in your engine.
There are three important rules with resources:-
- Value it
- Make it
- Understand it
Value it. Too many players don’t value their resources. They allow their warehouses and granaries to overflow. And occasionally let troops die of starvation. You need to value your resources so you don’t lose it unnecessarily.
Manage them properly; do not let them overflow; do not accept losing trades at the marketplace; do not waste resources on inefficient building path; do not waste resources by losing troops unnecessarily. Invest them properly into resource producing structures.
The first thing you need to learn about resources is to value it. A strong economy is a must. It is the foundation of your game. The following questions will help you examine how you value resources:
Do you lose resources to constant raids? Do you allow your Warehouse/Granary to overflow? Do you frequently lose troops while attacking? Do you accept losing trades at the marketplace? Do you let your troops starve? Do you build structures because you don’t know what else to build?
Plug these leaks and reinvest them into resource producing structures and troops.
Some players will continually attack others even if they suffer losses on every attack. Your troops cost resources to train. Do not be that foolish player who doesn’t understand the value of his troops and resources.
Any wargame player knows that you can become strong only if your economy is strong.
Make it. There are three main ways to obtain resources: from raiding, self-production, and trading.
Of the three, raiding is probably the most crucial strategic component in the early to mid game. It is easy to get ahead of others by successfully raiding everyday.
Later in the game, raiding becomes less important as it will be surpassed by self-production.
When building your village, give priority to resource producing structures first. This is inline with the principle that a strong economy is a must.
Build resource fields first, and the production boosters such as grain mill, bakery, brickyard, etc. Of course there are times when you need to extend the warehouse, granary, barracks, etc.
But generally, if a resource field or production building is not yet fully extended, then extend it first before building other non-essentials. Invest your resources to produce even more resources.
Even training of troops for raiding is to support the higher goal of generating a strong economy.
Trading at the marketplace is somewhat less crucial but can make you 10,000s of resources daily, especially in the early to mid game. Check the marketplace daily for profitable trades.
And everyday, before you shutdown for the night, put up several offers on the marketplace. Offer wood, clay, iron and crop, and mark up the asking price by about 50 percent.
For example, in the early to mid game, you can put up these offers on the marketplace every day:-
By the time you login the next morning, you’ll find most of your offers would have been accepted.
Trading is useful only in the early game, and gets progressively less important as the game progresses.
Understand it. Understand it means knowing the numbers behind every battle report. This is an often neglected skill of many players.
Most players don’t understand that every attack is expressed in terms of resource.
When you raid, you might suffer casualties. Calculate the cost of replacing the lost troops versus what was stolen. If raiding a player is unprofitable, then don’t do it.
Look for easier prey because some players make lousy farms. Remember, raiding is for gain, and unless its profitable, then don’t do it.
Likewise, don’t use the wrong troop type to attack or defend. When measured in terms of resource, attacking with 1000 clubswingers can bring very different results from attacking with 1000 Teuton Knights.
Use the combat simulator to calculate how many troops you will lose with the different troop type combination. And then calculate the resource loss to decide which troop type to send.
For example, let’s put 500 Teuton Knights vs 2000 Roman Praetorians.
Using the combat simulator :-
500 TKs attacks 2000 Praetorians.
The casualties are 452 TKs and 2,000 Praetorians. That’s 689,300 resources (attacker) versus 920,000 (defender).
And if you reverse it :-
2000 Praetorians attacks 500 TKs.
The casualties are 500 TKs and 553 Praetorians. That’s 762,500 (attacker) resources versus 254,380 (defender).
In this example, the odds favor the attacker. So in this situation, you should attack even if it means attacking with praetorians.
Many players might jump at this, because a praetorian is a defender. But let me say that there are times when you need to attack even with defenders.
Why? Because the praetorian is practically useless against cavalry attacks. He has 30 attack points, versus 50 defense points for a Teuton Knight. For the same crop consumption, 3 praetorians pack 90 attack points versus 50 defense points of the Teuton Knight. Therefore, you will lose lesser troops and resources even if you attacked using praetorians.
Use this understanding to decide whether to attack or defend.
Let’s look at another example. Let’s add 500 axemen into your army :-
500 axemen and 500 TKs attacks 2000 Praetorians.
The casualties are 381 axemen, 381 TKs and 2,000 Praetorians.
Expressed in terms of resources, that’s 767,715 (attacker) versus 920,000 (defender).
Its still better to attack, but when you look at the resources lost, you will find attacking with :-
500 TKs costs 689,300 resources. 500 axemen and 500 TKs costs 767,715
This shows that attacking with a bigger army of 500 axemen and 500 TKs is more expensive.
If you value your resources, then use this understanding to decide which troop type to send into battle. As mentioned, use the combat simulator to find the right troop combination. You usually know what your enemy is defending with.
Lastly, something worth mentioning is that raiding Nature troops is a poor tradeoff. Unless it is to conquer an oases, otherwise don’t attack Nature. There are far too many players who raid nature oases to gain hero experience. My advice is to attack other players if you want to build hero experience.
When you understand the numbers behind every battle report, and that ultimately Travian is a numbers game, then you will approach the game from a very different perspective.