Sending Cata Attacks

When catapulting an enemy village, you’ll want to send off multiple wave of attacks so you may inflict maximum damage in a single attack. This makes sense because you don’t want to send one attack, wait for your troops to return, then send them out again, and wait for them to return.

Instead, the first wave you send is the cleaner, whose purpose is to kill the defenders in the village. Immediately behind the cleaner are several more attacks comprising mainly of catas. These subsequent cata waves attacks the now defenseless village and each wave destroys up to 2 structures.

Make sure your rally point is upgraded to the maximum, then you can target 2 structures in a single wave. And yes, you should fully upgrade your Rally Point if you you plan to have catas in them. So if you have one cleaner and followed by four cata waves behind, then your maximum damage potential is ten structures destroyed. The walls will also be destroyed if you send rams.

Your cleaner wave has to be a big army, usually that’s your hammer. This cleaning wave must be accompanied by rams, and also your hero.

This is a very common mistake players make – they send attacks without rams. Rams make a very, very big difference. And you should have at least 300 rams in your cleaning wave.

If you doubt the effectiveness of rams, just use the combat simulator, but I’m just going to say you must have at least 300, and ideally 350 rams. In the early game, that’s not possible, but once you have built your capital army and offense army, then both armies should have these number of rams.

Your cleaner wave should also have sufficient catas to destroy some initial structures. Aiming for the palace or residence are good targets because this ensures your subsequent cata waves don’t suffer any casualties from palace and residence defense.

The subsequent cata waves that follow behind the cleaner will each destroy 2 structures. There is no need to have any troops accompanying the catas, as long as you send them to arrive on the same second (which you should).

For example, lets say your hammer is 20,000 axeman, 8,000 TKs, 350 rams, 1000 catas. Your attack waves should look like this:-

Wave 1 cleaner – 20,000 axeman, 8,000 TKs, 350 rams, 130 catas, hero

           Target: Residence, Warehouse

Wave 2 catas – 120 catas

           Target: Granary x2

Wave 3 catas – 120 catas

           Target: Granary, Warehouse

Wave 4 catas – 120 catas

           Target: Trade Office, Marketplace

Wave 5 catas – 120 catas

           Target: Tournament Square, Main Building

You can also send up to ten waves, until all your catas are exhausted. If you’re unable to send same second cata attacks for whatsoever reason, then place at least 200 axeman as escort in each of the cata waves. This will greatly minimize the damage from any snipers you encounter.

These attacks should all land on the same second, or as close as possible. If you have read the section on Defending Against Cata Attacks, then you would understand how the Cata sniper is a deadly defense against waves of cata attacks.

The only really effective counter to this is to send same second attacks. That is to have your cleaner and all your cata waves arrive on the same second. It would be impossible to insert defenders in between waves.

In order to send same second cata attacks, you will need a good internet connection. And Mozilla Firefox. I’m going to assume that you already have Firefox installed. If not, see the chapter Before You Start for instructions on installing Firefox.

Sending Same Second Cata Attacks

Click here for a video demonstration on How To Send Same Second Cata Attacks

Using Mozilla Firefox, you can send same second attacks :-

1. Go to the Travian map and key in the x and y coordinates of the village you want to attack.
2. Click on that village, then right click on “Send troops” and select Open Link in New Tab.
3. Open as many tabs as you wish, one tab for one attack wave. Let’s say we open five tabs.
4. Fill in the details of your cleaner wave in the first tab, and click okay. Travian shows a confirmation screen with the travel time and arrival time. There is also an OK button which will send off the attack. Do not send the attack yet.
5. Go to the next tab and fill in the cata waves. Click okay, and repeat for the remaining tabs.
6. By now you should have five tabs all ready to go. You’re at the confirmation screen and pressing Ctrl-tab allows you to switch between tabs. It should look something like this.

   

7. In Firefox, go to File → Work Offline

   Then click on the OK button. Start with the cleaner tab first, then move on to the other cata tabs. You can take your time to do this, because you are working offline now.

   

8. In Firefox, go to File → Work Online
9. Then right click on the first tab, and click on Reload All Tabs.
10. You will be presented with a confirmation box. It should look something like this.

    

11. Now you need to click very, very quickly. As fast as you can,
    
    Click → Click → Click → Click → Click

    This has to be done very quickly, under one second, and with a good connection, you will be able to launch all the attacks on the same second.

Sending off 5 to 6 waves of same second attacks is easy. It gets more challenging with 8 to 10 waves.

If the attack splits into 2 or even 3 seconds, then go to your rally point and cancel the attacks, and repeat the whole process. You may need to try a few times until you get it right.

How many attack waves can you send in a single second?

In optimum cases, up to ten attacks on a single second is possible. Sending more than ten waves is very unlikely because you need to try many times before you finally pull it off. The number of tries required to send off ten attack waves makes it humanly unrealistic to be always able to launch ten waves on a single second.

A more realistic number would be between four to six waves, but you may still need to try a few times.

Sending attacks with ten waves on a single second is easy to do as long as it’s a fake attack because you don’t need to worry about the cleaner landing on a different second. There is no cleaner in a fake attack.

But in a real attack, you need to get the cleaner and all cata waves to land on the same second, and that becomes a different matter. That is why for a real attack, getting more than 6 waves in a single second becomes increasingly difficult because you need to try many times.

For the same reason, if you see ten attacks directed at you, all landing on the same second, sent from the same village, then you can be almost certain it’s a fake. If it turns out to be real, then maybe this might happen once or twice. But if a player consistently sends ten waves on the same second, and they are always real attacks, then report this to the multihunter. It is almost certainly a script user.

Sometimes you might come across in the forum about some player boasting that sending ten same second attacks is a piece of cake and he does it all the time. But believe me, from my years of experience of playing Travian, and from that of my friends who are all top players, sending a REAL attack of more than 10 waves on the same second is not that simple. These forum posts are false and merely from kids needing to boost their ego.

Even if you managed only six waves on a single second, this does not mean that you can send only six waves of attacks. You should still send the maximum number of waves until all your catas are used up. So that maybe ten to twelve waves over 2 seconds.

With fakes, and some luck, the defender will not snipe your catas.

How Many Catas to Send?

How many catas should you send in order to destroy a level 20 structure?

Below is a chart showing the number of catas needed to destroy a structure at varying levels.

Level 1 = 2

Level 2 = 2

Level 3 = 2

Level 4 = 3

Level 5 = 4

Level 6 = 6

Level 7 = 8

Level 8 = 10

Level 9 = 12

Level 10 = 14

Level 11 = 17

Level 12 = 20

Level 13 = 23

Level 14 = 27

Level 15 = 31

Level 16 = 35

Level 17 = 39

Level 18 = 43

Level 19 = 48

Level 20 = 53

The values shown are at base level. For example, it takes 53 catas to completely destroy a level 20 building. This is at base value, assuming the catas have not been upgraded, and there are no modifiers.

They are the same regardless of the attacking/defending tribe and building types, whether cropland, Main Building or Palace/Residence. So a level 10 cropland is as tough as a level 10 barracks, and a level 20 Main Building is the same as a level 20 Palace. And a Teuton cata will do the same damage as a Roman fire catapult.

Many players will argue that a Roman Fire catapult is more powerful than a Teuton catapult. That is true, a Fire catapult has 75 attack points, versus 60 of a Teuton catapult. These additional attack points will count as infantry attack points. But their ability to destroy buildings are the same. You will still need 53 catapults to destroy a level 20 building, regardless of whether it is a Roman Fire catapult or Teuton catapult.

But there are a few other modifiers that may change the number of catas required.

Troop upgrades. Fully upgraded catas in the blacksmith have 35 percent more attack points. Upgraded catapults have increased effectiveness in destroying building.

Morale bonus. This is the difference in total population between the attacking and defending player. The defense bonus granted to a smaller player can be significant.

Stonemason. Estimate three times more the number of catas needed.

To achieve maximum efficiency, the precise number of catas should be sent in each wave so you may attack and destroy more structures. But your attack efficiency drops severely if you underestimate and your attack did not manage to completely destroy a structure.

Consider this, if you have only 100 catas and sent two cata waves, each with 50 catas, all aiming at granaries. Assume there is only one granary.

	1st wave	– 50 catas damage Granary from level 20 to 5.
	2nd wave	– 50 catas destroy Granary level 5.

Because 50 catas only managed to damage a level 20 Granary, the second wave of 50 catas was used to destroy it. In total, it took 100 catas to destroy a level 20 granary – which is terribly inefficient.

Instead, you should always aim to completely destroy a structure in a single attack. A more efficient attack structure would be:

	1st wave	– 53 catas destroy Granary level 20
	2nd wave	– 47 catas damage Warehouse level 20 to 7

The same 100 catas now managed to destroy one Granary level 20 and further damage a Warehouse from level 20 to 7. That is more efficient than the earlier attack of sending 50 catas at each structure.

Estimating the correct number of catas is important if you want to cause maximum damage. Since it can be difficult to do any accurate estimates, then it is better to overestimate and send slightly more than enough.

For simplicity, I just use a one size fits all approach, and I’ve found it to work well for me. My catas are fully upgraded.

	Level 10 buildings,	usually resource fields like cropland. 22 catas.
	Level 20 buildings,	such as granary, residence. 55 catas.

If attacking capitals, due to the stonemason,

	Level 10 buildings	So far I have never attacked any capital anticipating only level 10 croplands. I have always estimated croplands to be above level 15. I would send 250 catas in a single wave, with double targeting on croplands.
	Level 20 buildings	If all croplands have been destroyed, and I anticipate a level 20 structure such as Main Building, then I would send 300 catas with double targeting.

How Double Targeting Works

With a fully upgraded Rally Point and with a minimum of 20 catas in the attack, you may do double targeting.

It is always a good idea to fully upgrade your Rally Point so you may do double targeting. Double targeting allows you to inflict the same amount of damage but using only half the number of waves. Halving the number of waves reduces the chances of your catas being sniped.

Is it worth it? Yes, definitely. But how does double targeting work?

Supposing you have 100 catas, and you aim at two targets. What happens is 50 catas will fire at target A, and the other 50 will fire at target B.

As mentioned, your aim should be to completely destroy a structure during an attack. Because 50 catas is not enough to destroy a level 20 building, place between 110 to 120 catas in the attack, so there are 55 to 60 catas for each building.

When targeting level 10 croplands, place 45 catas, so there are 22.5 catas for each cropland.

In the cleaner wave, place an even higher number of catas because a part of your cleaner will be killed by the defenders during the attack. Place a higher number of catas to compensate for this. The number is not very much higher. I usually send between 130 to 140 catas with the cleaner using double targeting for level 20 structures.

When not to use double targeting?

I’ve seen some players send 50 catas and did double targeting at a Residence.

To their dismay, it did not manage to destroy the Residence. Consider this example:-

	1st target	– 26 catas damage Residence level 20 to 15
	2nd target	– 26 catas damage Residence level 15 to 6

When there is only one structure, it is better to use single targeting. It does more damage when 50 catas hit a single building, than two separate attacks of 25 catas on the same building.

	Single target	– 52 catas damage Residence level 20 to 2

This is especially so when catapulting WW villages. Never use double targeting when attacking WW villages unless you are sure your hammer is big enough against the defenders.

How Cata Attack Works

Some structures cannot be targeted. You should already know that the stonemason, cranny and trapper cannot be targeted. The only way to hit them is when your catas land at random.

Ironically, when attacking a capital, the last structure to be destroyed is the stonemason. So don’t count on a lucky random hit to destroy the stonemason.

If you target a structure that does not exist, the attack will hit a random structure.

If you target a structure, and there is more than one of it, then which structure does the catas hit?

For example, there are two granaries, one at level 10 and the other at level 20. When you target a granary, does it hit the granary level 10 or granary level 20?

It will hit the highest level structure.

It is built into the Travian engine that in the event of multiple choice targets of the same building type, the catas will always hit at the highest level structure.

What Targets To Cata

Now that you understand that cata attacks are sent in waves, and that you use double targeting to reduce the number of waves you send.

What structures do you aim for in order to cause maximum damage?

That depends on your objective.

Attacking a Capital.

When attacking a capital, ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS aim for the croplands. Croplands are very expensive, and that is where it hurts the most.

A level 18 cropland costs over 1.5 million resources to build.

A level 20 Warehouse costs only 45,000 resources.

It is good enough to aim exclusively for croplands. If all have been destroyed, then let them hit at random.

If it’s a six cropper or nine cropper capital, in addition to aiming for the croplands, aim for the resource fields.

For capital attacks, aim exclusively at croplands and resource fields.

Croplocking a Village.

Croplocking refers to sending a village to negative crop production by destroying all its croplands.

One cropland produces 300 crop production (after grain mill, bakery, without oases, plus bonus). Therefore a six cropper produces 1800 crop.

Subtract the population of lets say 600, therefore the crop production is 1200.

If you destroy all six croplands, then a level zero cropland produces 2 crop per hour. After subtracting the population upkeep, the crop production will roughly be around negative 550.

A village with negative crop production will not be able to support or any troops, or build anything except cropland.

Therefore croplocking a village is the most damaging attack you can do to a village, next to zero popping it.

To croplock a village, aim your catas in the following order, making sure that each attack successfully destroys the targeted structure (not just damage it) :-

• Destroy all croplands
• Destroy the Main Building
• Destroy all granaries
• Destroy all warehouses
• If you still have catas to spare, destroy the marketplace

A croplocked village will need a lot of time and attention to be rebuilt.

Zero Popping a Village.

For new settlements, you might want to completely remove a village from the map so you can settle there.

You need to cata that village until it reaches zero population, and it will disappear from the map – freeing the spot for settlement.

This however will not work for a player’s only village. A player’s only village even with zero population will remain on the map until the player deletes.

Send many cata waves to destroy main building, warehouse, granary, marketplace, iron mine, clay pit, wood cutter, and set the rest to attack at random.

There is no need to aim for croplands because croplands do not have any population until it reaches level 5. Its unlikely for such a young village to have level 5 croplands.

Attrition War.

An attrition war is fought using the RoF Army. Its objective is to cause maximum losses of resource.

Aim for expensive buildings. These are good targets :-

• Trade Office
• Tournament Square
• Warehouse
• Barracks (if you know it is level 20)
• Stables (if you know it is level 20)
• Marketplace

Don’t bother to aim for Palace, Residence, Townhall, Academy and so on. Although these are expensive, but they serve no purpose and the defender won’t bother to rebuild them at all.

Once I had my residence destroyed by a RoF army. I never rebuilt it because it was not needed anymore at that stage of the game.

Attacking Farms.

If you are cata’ing your farms, you can attack these targets :-

• Barracks
• Stables
• Main Building
• Marketplace

Avoid destroying the warehouse, granary, or resource fields because you can send farming attacks.