Travian: Legends

What it is

Travian: Legends is a real-time strategy game from Travian Games, played in a web browser, with official iOS and Android apps that connect to the same game worlds. You start with a single village, grow its resource fields and buildings, train troops, and spread across a shared map by founding or taking further villages. Every neighbour on that map is another player — or one of the Natars, the computer-controlled faction that guards the most valuable ground.

What sets it apart is that a game world has a beginning and an end. The publisher’s help centre says plainly that rounds last several months, and the finish line is concrete: the first player or alliance to raise a World Wonder to level 100 wins the server. Then the world closes and new ones open. That last chapter shapes everything, from your first week to how you treat the alliance that might carry you there.

How a reign unfolds

You begin by choosing a tribe. The help centre currently describes seven — Romans, Teutons, Gauls, Egyptians, Huns, Spartans and Vikings — and the front page sketches the classic three in a line each: Romans with disciplined legions and engineering, Teutons as ruthless raiders, Gauls as swift defenders with traps and hidden crannies. A hero, who gains experience on adventures, travels with your armies.

New avatars get beginner’s protection: on a standard x1 world, five days plus an optional three more. That window is for your economy — resource fields first, a cranny to hide what you cannot defend, then the barracks. A second village needs culture points, earned from buildings and town-hall celebrations; on x1 the threshold is 2,000.

From the first week, Travian is a social game. The introduction tells new players to find allies early, and the help centre documents alliances, confederacies and non-aggression pacts. A combat simulator lets you test an attack before sending it.

The second half of a round changes the game. Artefacts appear (from day 90 on x1), then construction plans (day 180), and the Natars begin their own Wonder. Alliances that have taken a Wonder village from the Natars pour resources into it while holding off everyone else. If you enjoy logistics at alliance scale, this is the best part.

The clock it asks for

This is the most demanding game on our roll, and the publisher does not pretend otherwise. Troops march in real time, attacks can land while you sleep, and a village left alone too long becomes someone else’s farm. The game offers cover — sitters who can look after your avatar, and duals who play it with you under the rules — but both assume you have people you trust.

Calendar length depends on speed. A standard x1 world closes registration after 70 days, and the Natar Wonder is scheduled to finish after 250; faster worlds run up to x10 and squeeze the same arc into weeks. Faster is not lighter. If you can only look in once or twice a day, choose x1, build defensively and lean on your alliance.

How it pays its way

Free to start. The developer lists its mobile app as free with in-app purchases, and the browser game follows the same model. The premium currency is Gold. Its best-known use is Travian Plus — 7 days for 10 Gold on an x1 world, 3 days on faster ones — which adds a notepad, a larger map, attack warnings, a central overview of your villages and a building and research queue. Gold also pays for Gold Club features and production boosts.

One detail we like: Gold cannot be used at all inside a World Wonder village, so the final race is settled by resources and co-ordination.

Who it suits

Strengths and faults