Guide
A herald’s glossary
The words you will meet in chats, forums and alliance messages, defined plainly. Where a term belongs to one game, we say which.
Browser strategy communities have their own shorthand, and much of it is shared between games. Here are the terms new players ask about most, grouped by theme. For anything we have not covered, each game’s official help pages are the best next stop.
Worlds and time
- World (server)
- A separate copy of the game map with its own players and settings. You can usually play on several worlds, but only with one account or avatar per world.
- Round
- The life of a world from opening to its end. Travian: Legends rounds last several months and end when a World Wonder reaches level 100.
- Speed
- A multiplier on building, training and movement. Travian: Legends worlds run from x1 to x10; faster worlds end sooner but ask for more attention per hour.
- Speed round
- A short, fast world of the kind Tribal Wars runs alongside its regular ones. Best treated as an event.
- Endgame
- Whatever ends a world: a finished Wonder, holding special objectives such as the Secrets of Power in Tribal Wars, or dominance of the map.
- Hall of Fame
- A record of the best players and alliances of past worlds, kept by Grepolis and Tribal Wars.
People and alliances
- Alliance, tribe, guild
- A group of players who co-ordinate. Travian: Legends and Grepolis say alliance, Tribal Wars says tribe, Forge of Empires says guild.
- Confederacy (confed)
- A formal partnership between alliances, documented in the Travian: Legends help centre.
- NAP
- Non-aggression pact: an agreement not to attack each other. Lords & Knights calls them non-aggression treaties.
- Sitter
- A trusted player allowed to look after your account while you are away, within the game’s rules.
- Dual
- In Travian: Legends, an extra player who shares control of an avatar. Duals are added officially in the lobby — never by sharing a password.
- Inactive
- A player who has stopped logging in. Their villages tend to become targets.
War and growth
- Beginner’s protection
- A grace period during which new players cannot be attacked. On a standard Travian: Legends world it lasts five days, plus an optional three.
- Farming
- Raiding inactive players or computer-held villages for resources, again and again. Tribal Wars sells a Farm Assistant to manage it.
- Barbarian village
- An unowned village in Tribal Wars, open to raids and conquest.
- Natars
- The computer-controlled faction in Travian: Legends that holds the World Wonder villages and builds a Wonder of its own.
- Nobleman, conquest
- Taking over another village rather than only raiding it. In Tribal Wars this needs a nobleman.
- Culture points
- In Travian: Legends, points earned from buildings and celebrations that you need before founding or taking more villages.
- Hiding place, cranny
- A building that keeps part of your resources safe from raiders: the hiding place in Tribal Wars, the cranny in Travian: Legends.
- Wonder
- A huge late-game building. Travian’s World Wonder decides the round; in Grepolis, alliances build World Wonders of their own.
Premium words
- Premium currency
- What you buy with real money: Gold in Travian: Legends, Grepolis and Lords & Knights, Diamonds in Forge of Empires, premium points in Tribal Wars.
- Premium account
- A time-limited bundle of conveniences, such as Travian Plus or the Tribal Wars premium account.
- Pass
- A subscription in Lords & Knights. The Builder Pass helps your economy; the Warrior Pass strengthens your units.
- Queue
- The list of buildings or research waiting their turn. A longer queue is one of the most common premium conveniences.