BoardGameGeek and Travian - Show #3 - 07/11/2006

Online Gaming Podcast

Review of Travian: 6 servers with different approaches 3 races to play Romans (all around, cavalry-heavy) Can raise or extend a building and resource field simultaneously, High Defense-bonus by wall, Merchants can carry 500 units of resources (speed: 16 fields/hour), Very powerful infantry, average cavalry, development is expensive and takes a long time. Teutons (attackers, aggressive) Plunder bonus: the cranny of enemies only hides 2/3 of its content, The earthwall is almost indestructable, but only gives a minimal defense bonus, Merchants can carry 1000 units of resources (speed: 12 fields/hour), Very cheap and fast trained troops which are excellent plunderers, Weak defense Gauls (defensive, passive, but can be powerful) Speed bonus: Fastest troops in the game, average defense-bonus because of palisade, Merchants can carry 750 units of resources (speed: 24 fields/hour), Cranny is twice as big, Expensive siegeweapons, Cheap settlers Main screens Village Overview (this is where you raise resources) Village Center (this is where the buildings are built) Surrounding Map (who your neighbors are) Messages (alliance, others) Statistics Reports (who attacks you) Resources: Lumber, Clay, Iron, Crop Crop is a persistent need, each building and unit requires a constant supply of crop Buildings Main building to decrease building time Barracks for troops, Marketplace for trading, Embassy for alliances Cranny is important, it protects resources from attack Warehouse for storing resources, Granary for storing crop Academy for better units, Blacksmith for better units, Stables for cavalry Rally point for attacking, Armory for increasing the defense of your units Residence for settling new areas (make new cities) City Walls, Resource enhancing buildings, and more Alliances Forums are good and let you know what you are doing wrong and are good for alliances. Plus gives some nice extra options such as queuing, resource look forward (when the resources will be available), better statistics, longer map view, better combat simulator, notebook, sorting function on marketplace. $2.99/month; $6.99/3 months; $19.99/10 months; $19.99/1 year Online experience with Travian: Initially, I thought this game was a slow boring game, but as I played it and got into an alliance, I found it to be more engaging. I definitely plan on playing more often and will report back in a few months Alliances are key Cranny is very important Different races play differently Play often even for a few minutes here and there Review of BoardGameGeek: Three games Roads and Boats Kingdoms (Auf Heller und Pfennig) Tigris and Euphrates PHP / mySQL based Turn-based, non-interactive Online experience with BoardGameGeek: Could use an email reminder feature and a slightly better interface The rules are pretty nice Non-interactive (can be days between rounds) Next week: Boardgame site: Atari Play: http://games.atari.com/playgames/home.jsp MOBBG: Imperia Online