The Grey Chronicles

Last 25 July 2010, I signed up for an account in Travian qualifying game hosted at Server x2. With lessons learned in previous Travian games, such as those highlighted in Learning Diplomacy and Strategy from Travian, or Have Travian Gold, Will Attack and in the recently concluded Server 10, for this account, I would have to strive for a second village within a month, but should ensure that my account was a member of an Alliance within the first week of the game.

Being a member of a well-managed Alliance is one of the key of continued existence in Travian. As this present game was a qualifying one for the Travian Championship, then expansion to several villages was also a must. If my account makes it to the top 1000 Romans, I am qualified to play for the Championship.

Choosing the Romans, again, I situated the capital in the North East (-191|52), the Travian map quarter designated by the team members of the Alliance I played with in com10. During the first two weeks I was already scouting for possible locations for my second and other villages.

In the first three days, still with Beginner’s s Protection, my Capital Village, 00, was surrounded with so many new players. I also found out that my former com10 teammates were situated too far off. On the second day in this server, the leader of the com10 invited me to join LEGEND K, the Alliance destined to be composed of my com10 teammates. While still in protected as a Beginner, my account was already farming some of my neighbors with only a few number of troops. Better start now that be in the receiving end of such actions.

As I have done in other servers—both local and international, the buildings locations were situated particularly, such that the Marketplace was a much as way far off with the Barracks as these buildings’ graphics always seemed to confuse me.

As soon as the Main Building reached level 5, I built a Residence and raised its level to 10 to create three [3] Settlers to settle somewhere. Next in line was to raise the Academy to level 5 to create the Blacksmith, first, then the Armoury, second.

The Blacksmith was prioritized to reach level 5 to build a Stable. With a Stable, which was also prioritized initially to level 5, my account was soon creating Equitis Imperatoris to farm nearby villages instead of the slow-moving Legionnaires. Whenever I logged off from Travian, all excess resources were reserved for the creation of Praetorians, the defensive Roman foot-soldiers.

Each day, while on-line, the Resources fields were equally raised to higher levels. Learning a lesson of crop inadequacy in my games at the Philippine speed server, as soon as one crop fields reached level 5, a Grain Mill was soon erected.

In the Buildings overview, I raised—almost everyday—the weapons level of the troops already researched in the Academy. Not to forget, the Rally Point was raised to level 10, while the Academy level was nearing level 10. The Main Building and the City Walls were maximized at level 10 as soon as the Residence reached level 10. All the blank and empty building gids, a series of Crannies were built and raised to level 10. The Warehouse and Granary levels were raised only to levels somewhat below the total Cranny capacity. There was a time when there were at most, nine Crannies at level 10, i.e., total Cranny capacity at 9,000 units, while Warehouse and Granary at level 8, respectively. At level 8, both Warehouse and Granary could hold about a maximum of 7,800 units only. In so doing, even though some players would attempt to farm the Capital, they will not get anything, but casualties in both sides. Most of the raiders soon stopped any attempt to farm my Capital after finding out that they could not do so without any casualty!

As soon as the Residence was at level 10, and the resources permit, I created a Settler. Meanwhile, I was sending In-Game Messages [IGMs] to my Alliance to host the Settlers. Unfortunately, within the first two weeks, most members of the LEGEND K became inactive that I was seeking another Alliance to join which I did five days before settling in my second village, 01. Although the Capital’s Heroes Mansion was already at level 10, I was not able to conquer a nearby oasis because a strong player had already created three Villages nearby and captured the nearest crop oasis. Capturing an oasis could have afforded my account some safe haven for the Settlers to temporarily hide. My account was lucky that while I was creating the three [3] Settlers, the raids for resources have already stopped, and no incoming attacks were done on my Capital for some time.

Before the month of playing this server was reached, on 23 August 2010, my three [3] Settlers were on the way to settling in a location (-296|6) about an hour from my Capital. Surrounded by a number of oases: crop, iron, lumber and clay, I planned to build additional Villages there as soon as possible. Fortunately, some players had yet to settle nearby the new location for my second village.

Notes:

Disclaimer: These posts do not necessarily represent any organization’s positions, strategies or opinions; refer to this blog’s self-imposed rules: A New Year; New Rules. Unless otherwise expressly stated, posts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Comments are moderated to keep the discussion/s relevant and civil. Readers are responsible for their own statement/s.