Direction Forward

I am of the opinion that we have no set goal to achive....
I am placing this here to hear from you on were we want to be or what we hope to achieve both short and long term.
Please feel free to comment as all ideas will be most appreciated and could contribute to our choosing of the goal we wish to achive.
The only foolish comment is the one not spoken for that leads to ignorance which is a wrong on any ones part so please post your ideas and opinions.
Thanks in advance.
Ramblinman

I know that we each have personal goals to achieve. Some of us want to get to top spots on our server for raiding or attacking or population. Some of us are working on smaller goals currently.

I personally am working on building up my resources and troop count. I would like to be able to settle multiple villages and eventually want to try to conquer other villages. It just sounds like fun.

As for our alliance goals...I'm not entirely sure what we're going for. We're a raiding alliance and I think that means that we should focus on raiding as many other people as possible and taking as much as we can from them with the long term vision of being on the top 10 list for alliance raiding. In order for that to happen we need more people, and we need our current members to continue expanding. The more members we have the higher number of resources we can take. This game takes a long time to achieve major goals like this. But I think that recruiting more skilled players would be a very good step towards this goal.

Flame On!

Good I'm glad to finnaly see a reply.

As as you are correct we all have our own personal goals we wish to achive. I for one would like to start my 4th and 5th villages by the end of this week and one of them taking a place closer to the rest of the alliance. That way I don't have to send my attackers three hours to hit the same target as you guys and ruin the surprise effect.





But as for recruiting I'm not so sure as most people that are of any value are more than likely already in an alliance aren't they? But I'm not against more alllies but we have to be very scrupulious in who we let in. That and I'm not sure of our current embassy level as R's got the highest one. But if necissary I can bump mine up...

Ps: After villages 4 and 5 I'm looking to reserch the Senitor so I can cheif me a few villages....

XD

Growth Strategy
I've been watching the growth of UNITED 1 and I think you are generally doing pretty well, considering the disadvantages of starting a little late and having bigger players raiding you. Whether you use this advice on this server or take it to another, these are some of the things the best players do in order to grow and prosper.
1. ALWAYS be thinking about how to settle your next village as quickly as reasonably possible. Once you have 2 villages, build a town hall in one or both of them so you can build up culture points faster. If at all possible, find a 15c nearby (or a 9c, if there aren't any more 15c's). This will be your capital. Build your palace in it, and make sure to designate it as your capital so you can build your wheat fields above level 10. If you have a palace in a regular village with only 6 wheat fields, you would be wise to demolish it (level 10 main building).
2. To continue to get enough resources to fund your little operation, you need to be raiding your neighbors. Gauls can use phalanx at first, but try to get theutates thunders if possible; Romans can use legionnaires/imperians, and Teutons should use macemen and eventually paladins. You should have raids going as frequently as possible, it's okay for one raid to take up to 4 hours there and back if the loot is decent. You will lose some troops occasionally, don't worry too much about it.
3. If you see an attack coming from a much larger player, DODGE IT. Send your troops to another village, or to an ally's village (ask first, or make sure you have it prearranged with an ally and send a little wheat to feed your troops while they're there). Also be sure to spend down your resources or send them elsewhere because most attackers will eventually stop if they aren't getting anything for their trouble.
4A. (Offensive-minded players) Most Teutons and some Romans choose to be hammers. Once you have your 15c or 9c capital, you have 2 choices. I think option 2 is better, but it's up to you. Option 1: build all your offensive troops out of your capital, and upgrade the blacksmith whenever you can so you can upgrade their attack power. Your capital is now your "hammer." Blacksmith/armory upgrades apply ONLY to troops trained in that particular village. Option 2: do not build any troops out of your capital. You need a regular village right next to it, and that's where you will build your troops and armory upgrades from. This village will be your "hammer." You will keep those troops in the capital as reinforcements whenever they aren't being used. The disadvantage is that eventually you'll have more troops than your hammer village can feed, so you'll need to be sure to send that village plenty of wheat during the time that they are actively attacking; the advantage is that you will be able to build a lot more troops before your wheat starts going negative.
4B. (Defensive minded players) Generally Gauls and sometimes Romans will choose the anvil route; the role of the anvil is to send reinforcements to your allies whenever they need them. Once you have your 15c or 9c, build a village right next to it. This village will be your anvil. In that village you will build all of your defensive troops (larger players will have 2 or more anvils, but let's just start with one for now). Upgrade your armory as much as you can and upgrade your troops' armor (don't bother with blacksmith upgrades). Gauls will need a LOT of phalanx; start with those, and move on to druidriders whenever you get the chance, but you should have at least 3-5 times more phalanx than druidriders. Romans build praetorians primarily, and eventually, build up to mounted troops (legionnaires are really NOT recommended).
5. Do not be afraid to go into the negative with your wheat, as long as you have at least 2 fully upgraded granaries for wheat storage in that village, and/or you know you will be online often enough to keep that village's wheat supplied so your troops don't starve. They begin starving ONLY once the amount of wheat you have on hand gets to 0; then they will die one at a time until you fix the problem, or run out of troops.

***This server still has at least 2-3 months left before endgame starts, which is plenty of time for you to decide whether you want to go offensive or defensive, and set yourself up accordingly. You WILL make yourself useful to WP if you follow this guide, and therefore you WILL be on the winning team once the server ends. That's the whole point of the game, right??!!!
(And really, if you want to consider us4 as a "practice" game and use this strategy on a new server in which you started playing at the beginning, that's perfectly acceptable.)
Good luck to all!
-Pega5us

I read the last post here which talks a little bit about the placement of villages but w/in the context of the individual player really. I am bringing my Residence up to level 10 as I type so I should be getting Settlers and a new village soon. This is my first time w/in an alliance.

It seems to me that within reason as an alliance member I ought to be placing my second village where it will do the most good for the alliance as a whole. I see clusters of the same alliance members all over on the map and it seems that this is a great way to tightly control a small area but a waste as far as utilizing the advantages of oases and also to spread power further out. While I may like having my second village nearby do I need it close to my previous village or just near another alliance member so that we can move troops/supplies, etc. to safety quickly if need be?

That said, I am still fairly new to playing Travian and honestly am not sure of the end game goals in general much less for our alliance. I would be greatly helped by discussion and/or confirmation or refutation of my thoughts.

Thanks

I'm fairly new too, and from my experience I think it would be more beneficial to have your second village close to you. I have a second village way out on an oasis and it takes a really long time to get resources there to build the village up. My next village will be back close to my original village.

-Booney

... three main thoughts to this subject.

#1 Grow close to your #1 village. Keeping close protects both villages.

#2 Grow closer to the core, or homestead of the alliance. You will get the same protection, supplies, aid but with more to help out.

#3 Find a +15cropper. You can go out 'two clicks to find one'. Go to Traviandope if you don't feel like 'hovering' over every empty square. Pick on an oasis fro hero points and conquer them for + resources.