Travian

GENRE: Strategy / Empire Management
PLATFORM: Web Browsers
DEVELOPER: Travian Games

OVERVIEW

Travian (also known as Travian: Legends) is a free to play strategy game for Internet browsers in which players must battle to build up their tribe’s territories. Players can choose to play as the Roman, Gaul ,Teuton, Egyptian or Hun tribes, establishing and building up villages, making alliances and fighting against other players.

KEY FEATURES

- Five tribes with unique play styles: Romans, Teutons, Gauls, Egyptians and Huns
- Construct and upgrade buildings
- Manage time and resources
- Settle new villages or conquer old ones
- Build up an army to fight your rivals
- Join an alliance and battle for ultimate victory
- Free to play
- Browser gameplay

GAMEPLAY

The core of Travian Legends is to establish a successful empire and compete against other players whilst battling against challenging AI. Actions within the game can take anything from minutes to days to complete and require careful managing of produced resources. In the standard server players can actually win the game, which ends a server, typically by being the first to construct a World Wonder.

THE TRIBES

The tribes in the game are:

Romans – A balanced tribe that offer decent offensive and defensive options and well suited to experienced players due to the higher level of micromanagement needed

Gauls – A heavily defense focused tribe based on their unit’s strengths and their improved village fortifications, whilst easy to play for new players they can be more challenging to use in an aggressive manner when trying to destroy a rival

Teutons – An offense focused tribe that is considered the hardest tribe to play as due to the play style require more focused unit management and an aggressive playstyle

Egyptians & Huns –Players are able to play as other tribes beyond the core three in the Fire and Sand special server, which adds other unique elements and victory conditions in comparison to the primary game server.

VILLAGE MANAGEMENT

The player’s initial village lacks buildings and requires players to gain resources in order to construct them and then upgrade them. Resources can be gained by completing quests, purchases on the auction, as loot from raids, or from the villages worked land. By upgrading the various land options (clay quarry, forest, iron mines and farmland) players will increase their resources to use on buildings or to train various military units.

Players begin with an initial village but can train up settlers to form a new village through the world map, or even send out their units to conquer a rival player’s village and take it for their own! Players cannot lose control of their original village.

UNITS AND COMBAT

There are numerous units that players will unlock as they level up, all of which can be used to form a players own army. Troops have their own strengths and weaknesses, with certain roles they are best suited for or units that they are particularly strong or weak against. Once trained, units are stationed in the barracks until they are ready for combat. Through the world map players choose their target from AI controlled oasis points or settlements, as well as rival player villages. When an attack is initiated the player is prompted to choose which of their units will go on the attack, from here the AI determines the outcome once the units travel to their target location and sends the player a battle report as to whether their attack was successful or not.

PLAYER HERO

As well as units players also have their own Hero to control. The Hero can have their appearance fully customized and they are used in various ways within the village and beyond. Heroes can be used to buff a particular resource in the village, or they can be sent on various adventures to bring back items and resources. Alternatively they can accompany an attacking force to buff their stats and give them a higher chance at success. Heroes all have their own inventory slots where players can equip them with various items of gear to improve their abilities, as well as items that can be equipped to heal the, and horses to increase their travel time.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENT

Internet browser