Crimson Wolf
16 Apr 2010, 03:58 PM
Crimson Wolf's guide to Alliance Culture
Culture, often overlooked, is a vital component of Travian. Each Travian alliance has its own culture, its own way of doing things, its own brand. People make assumptions of who you are depending on the alliances you have been in and the alliance cultures you have been exposed to.
Travian alliances are very conscious of the issue of culture and cultivate it very carefully, some over a very long period of time.... Other alliances kind of stumble upon it and then formalise it. Other alliances fail to establish a strong culture and their members wander around, quit or leave as the alliance withers and dies...
A deeper understanding of alliance culture enhances the gameplay of a newcomer, enriches the experience of an older player and informs any prospective leader of a future alliance. What I am going to present here is a classification of different alliance cultures, their characteristics and attributes.
TYPES OF ALLIANCE CULTURE:
1. The Mongols
2. La Familia
3. The Empire
4. The M&P
5. The Specialists
THE MONGOLS
(also the BIG BOYS; motto “my stuff is my stuff and your stuff is my stuff too”)
We have all been there... You are building up your village, growing nicely your crops and troops, joining a nice top 40 alliance and then in disbelief within 3 weeks from the start of the server you have visitors! Hordes of rowdy Teuton maces, speedy gaulic TTs, and rather grim legs landing on your village. What surprises you most is not the number of visits (3-4 per day) but the number of troops (10-100 mace; 10-40 TT; 80-100 legs). You check the player profile and see they belong to a one word alliance (often one letter/symbol).
On the alliance profile you notice the following:
-The alliance has either no CPs or maybe 1 CP (often their training wings or the defence wing) and they do let you know explicitly that they do not do NAPs! Not now... not in a month... not in half a year... NOT EVER...
-There is no forum link
-The alliance profile is full of medals reminding you the united colours of Benetton
-The wording is rather hostile to all non-members; classic expressions include “We have no pity” “we are coming for you” “thanks to all our farms” “aggressive”
-The players are rather large pop players who also dominate the raiding, off/def charts of the server
Characteristics
You just met a typical representative of the Mongol culture. These alliances tend to be:
-Teuton-heavy (with the exceptional Roman/Gaul added for variety’s sake).
-Highly focused on raiding.
-Very aggressive.
-Full of players who play 24/7 (that is the only way you can be a top raider)
-The management structure usually consists of the more competent raiders/players and is quite simplistic.
They have many of the characteristics of the RL Mongols when they first expanded their empire: fast raids, quick demolition of opposition, highly competent members, quick establishment of communication lines, quick expansion with every newly conquered city becoming the base for the newer expansions.
What matters when you are a member of that organisation is the size... of your army and the length.... of your village list. Discussions in chats and forums have a similar spirit behind them. Members continuously compare and challenge each other: who has hit the most villages (raiding), has had the highest number of village conquests, and was the smartest in getting lots of raiding in. No wonder it resembles the boyish cultures of investment banking.
LA FAMILIA
(also the Mafia; motto “you dare hurt my people!! I will take my revenge, burn your villages, kill your dogs, bury you deep and dance around your grave... twice...!” )
There you are once again minding your own business... Of course as a member of a Mongol alliance your business is raiding your neighbouring villages (as you do). Then a village you have been harassing for some time suddenly has a very strong defence, obviously reinforced by their mates. Then you get a message from somebody you have never heard of. You check the player and you find is of respectable size and belongs to that same alliance. You realise that he/she is of the management team of that alliance and asks you to leave X member of the alliance alone in a polite yet firm manner. Of course two avenues are open to you: keep attacking or conform. If you keep attacking the case could easily be that you get attacked by almost the whole alliance.
On the alliance profile you notice:
-Well written alliance presentation; dominant phrases: “friendly” “active” “well-organised”
-Small management team
-Forums often exist; a general message for all Travian visitors with clear descriptions of the contract you would sign joining this alliance
-Size of members varies greatly;
-Some medals; mainly Def and climber medals
-A number of CPs (often one wing), possibly some NAPs but not many, no more than 5-6 in total as these alliances take their CPs, especially, rather seriously
-Often proud of their history/philosophy they are not shy in their alliance pages about it
Characteristics
You just met a Familia alliance. Such alliances tend to be:
-Balanced in terms of tribes
-Well-organised and well-run though not as military-like as the Mongols
-well-structured with dense communication structures
-Often management focuses around a central figure or two who are charismatic and fundamental for the overall co-ordination (think Godfather...)
If a member of such alliance you find they are run by a small, tightly knitted group of people. The atmosphere tends to be one of family, relationships among members are warm and communication and having fun together are quite important, sometimes at the detriment of what makes strategic sense or helps win the endgame. RL examples would include mafia organisations, or other code of honour cultures around the globe.
Mongols and Familias often start wars because mainly of the Mongols’ insistence to keep raiding a Familia member. Once the war starts is usually the familia alliance that is much more committed to it than the Mongols.
What matters in such an alliance is to get along, to make positive contributions and communicate with others within the alliance and to be perceived as a team member.
THE EMPIRE
(also the Old Timers; motto “We are legend; what the donkey’s hoove are you?”)
There you are; sitting tight and ready to expand to your nth village. And so you do. And the moment you land there you find out you are under attack. You wonder; what is happening?? So soon? No warning? Where are they...? Cannot be that somebody is already there...? Surely you checked and the closest villages were about 7 squares away... The attacks come from multiple players, well-timed and in big numbers. You heard their alliance name before; again and again...
You check the alliance page; there is not much information available there. You notice:
-Well outlined management team
-A number of wings all located in the same quadrant
-No forum link (usually)
-Little text; little advertising (they clearly feel they do not need to advertise themselves)
-Medals are present but are not many (per wing)
-Players are of variable sizes and strengths
Characteristics:
You probably just met the Empire. Characteristics of such alliances are:
-Low publicity in server ranks and in their alliance pages
-High number of alliance wings all similarly organised
-High and intricate levels of organisation. They make compartmentalisation of information and activity a real art!
-An external forum
-Highly organised and ruthless off/def tactics
-Calm and confident in decision-making
The Empires’ culture is strong, their organisation is impeccable and the sheer atmosphere of quiet confidence and calm before the storm is seductive. This kind of alliance is different from the Familias and the Mongol alliances. First of all Empires are much less volatile, they don’t do things out of passion (whether of Mongolian aggression or of familial ties). They are methodical organised and they have a PLAN. No matter what happens in the short term they stick to the PLAN, even if they lose some villages on the side, enter short term wars and face adversity. Such alliances have a certain aura of purpose, a certain feel of confidence that they will prevail in the end. That kind of aura is impossible to imitate, is the aura of experience, the certainty that you are entitled to fight for the endgame, the Travian world OWES it to you... Modern Real Life equivalents could be found in very large and established corporations like IBM, General Electric or the large Petroleum companies.
These alliances do nothing accidentally. If they engage in war they use superior numbers to overwhelm the Mongols and organised quadrant-wide attacks to take out the Familias. Very often they ally with one or two strong Familias, a potent combination; or use a Mongol alliance to subdue all potential enemies while they are simmering and preparing massive armies in WW sites for the endgame. The latter kind of arrangement is rare though; Mongol alliances tend to despise Empires. The organisation and single-mindedness of such Empires just ticks the Mongol tendency for anarchy, pillage and raiding. One of the most common warfare types in Travian is between an Empire and a Mongol alliance where, to everybody’s mirth, 200 to 300 players poise against max. 40 players. In the long run is usually the Empire that wins IF the players don’t lose confidence to the Empire’s leadership.
MOM & POP alliances (M&P)
(also the Lost Travians; motto “don’t know where we are going, don’t know what to do...”)
You raid that chap for the 100th time and you notice he just entered an alliance. You wonder who would take a player who lost to you during the 2nd week of the server an approximate 10,000 res. They do have a funny name often quite long... Yes you nod wisely you know these alliances, seen them before, different names, different leaders but still the same kind of alliances! You just found a treasure; an alliance full of farms! With glee you prepare raids for another 10 players (the number of players in your “friend’s” alliance).
On the alliance page you will find:
-Fun graphics
-A ridiculous number of CPs and NAPs; you would truly think that the world loves them...
-Fun text; often incorrect grammar; hastily prepared material
-The larger players are not part of the management team
Characteristics
To be frank I don’t know much about this kind of alliance. I never joined one nor I intend to... From word of mouth they tend to be disorganised and full of noobies. I have to mention them though as a great number of alliances in every server are not just any kind of alliances, they are M&P alliances .
They tend to have:
-Weak management structure
-Lots of yellow dots
-Inexperience in off/def
Culture is weak or non-existent and little thought has been put with regards to the organisation of the alliance.
I bet you all find them fun to raid...
THE SPECIALIST
(also the professionals; motto: “we do one thing and we do it really, really well”)
Sometimes you are bored... There you are, raids are still not back (damn the rally point limits) and most of the alliance is not around, well at least the ones you would prefer to talk to. So you look at the rankings as we all do. And discover a weird alliance, very small maybe 6-16 members strong but when you check the stats they are good, sometimes impressively so. So you visit the alliance’s profile and the weirdness continues. On the profile you see:
-Claims of a close knitted alliance; key words: “fun”, “old friends”, “long time together”
-Few graphics and a small management team
-Good members; some individual medals either off or def
Characteristics
It is hard to know much about such alliances. I was lucky that my alliance absorbed such an alliance once for a short period of time. Thus I had a brief exposure on how they were organised. The claims to old friends and a close-knitted structure are not to be taken lightly. Such alliances can be dangerous as their costs of co-ordination are very low (i.e. it is easier to organise 10 players than 50 or 200) and if they consist of experienced players they can inflict much pain, even to empires. In RL the equivalent is a small professional, innovative firm facing a large corporation. In Travian as in RL sometimes small and nimble is powerful.
Such alliances tend to have:
-Continuous communications
-Very close connections and relationships among members
-Low co-ordination costs and little need for formal managerial structures
-Fast response times
SO WHAT?
I am sure you recognise most of these alliances. And you probably wonder what is the point ...?
Broad classifications allow for comparisons. We do that kind of classification instinctively anyways. What I have done here is to give names and general characteristics. To know the general characteristics of each alliance type allows you to predict to some extent the organisational characteristics and culture of a Travian alliance when you first meet them as a new player or as an alliance player/leader in a server.
On a single player level
For a player a quick recognition of the type of alliances the players in their neighbourhood belong in helps in multiple ways. For example when you face a Mongol member any communication should be polite yet firm and respectful with a tad of arrogance (status is everything for them and arrogance is something they respect); at times you have to show teeth...
If you face a familia member they tend to be quite respectful of decent folk and will respond well to a polite letter. They don’t like as much arrogance though (honour is important for them). If you face an empire well... “Resistance is futile”. They will negotiate only if the communication furthers the established goals. Otherwise prepare for assimilation or join a Mongol/Mafia alliance and start hitting them fast and hard. Different cultures, different approaches when you communicate with them, different ways to treat their players.
On an alliance level
At a higher level of gameplay it is important for prospective leaders to be aware of the kind of alliances they wish to create and how to manage their alliance culture and internal communications. This guide provides the first such guidelines on how to create an internal culture and management style that would be instantly recognisable to prospective recruits.
Furthermore, for the discerning leaders out there :D this guide gives a first inkling on how to fight enemy alliances, militarily and diplomatically. It helps leadership teams first to understand themselves and second to understand the alliances around them.
In war:
1. If your alliance faces an empire: if both sides are equally well-organised the Empire will win any time simply because they have the numbers, patience and time on their side and they can afford to lose players and troops. In fact, the best way to win an empire is to undermine the trust Empire players have to the empire's leadership. This is done using IGMs and continuous harrasment tactics as well as making sure to damage key people in the empire's structure. Well organised defences and well-timed offences combined with propaganda and behind the scenes talk make the empire falter (think s1 Boom when it faced the OG in 2009; s4 WR when it faced HATE in 2010 etc...).
2. The simplest way to bring down mafias is actually by either killing off the core group that forms the Mafia's heart or convince that same core to join your alliance instead. Once the heart goes you can plunder the players and resources of the rest of the alliance. Unfortunately because loyal ties are strong in such alliances there are no simpler ways.
3. The Mongols are very fragile, especially in the early stages of the game:
a. Mongol alliances are offence oriented they have very few defence troops. If they go to war they often have to rely on defence from external alliances and often those alliances may well be far away. As a result their defences tends to be slow, cumbersome and costly.
b. For Mongols their hammers are the single most important thing. Thus a Mafia/Empire should focus on creating good solid defences or on wiping out the origin villages of those hammers when the hammer is on the road.
Follow-up
If you wish to explore some of the basic rules of Travian communication which are particularly relevant to the culture and diplomacy of the alliance please do explore this fabulous communication guide written by Iwind (February 2010) that augment some of the points already made here about Travian communications and gameplay:
http://www.travianstrategy.com/communication-in-travian/
Good Gaming to All,
CW
Culture, often overlooked, is a vital component of Travian. Each Travian alliance has its own culture, its own way of doing things, its own brand. People make assumptions of who you are depending on the alliances you have been in and the alliance cultures you have been exposed to.
Travian alliances are very conscious of the issue of culture and cultivate it very carefully, some over a very long period of time.... Other alliances kind of stumble upon it and then formalise it. Other alliances fail to establish a strong culture and their members wander around, quit or leave as the alliance withers and dies...
A deeper understanding of alliance culture enhances the gameplay of a newcomer, enriches the experience of an older player and informs any prospective leader of a future alliance. What I am going to present here is a classification of different alliance cultures, their characteristics and attributes.
TYPES OF ALLIANCE CULTURE:
1. The Mongols
2. La Familia
3. The Empire
4. The M&P
5. The Specialists
THE MONGOLS
(also the BIG BOYS; motto “my stuff is my stuff and your stuff is my stuff too”)
We have all been there... You are building up your village, growing nicely your crops and troops, joining a nice top 40 alliance and then in disbelief within 3 weeks from the start of the server you have visitors! Hordes of rowdy Teuton maces, speedy gaulic TTs, and rather grim legs landing on your village. What surprises you most is not the number of visits (3-4 per day) but the number of troops (10-100 mace; 10-40 TT; 80-100 legs). You check the player profile and see they belong to a one word alliance (often one letter/symbol).
On the alliance profile you notice the following:
-The alliance has either no CPs or maybe 1 CP (often their training wings or the defence wing) and they do let you know explicitly that they do not do NAPs! Not now... not in a month... not in half a year... NOT EVER...
-There is no forum link
-The alliance profile is full of medals reminding you the united colours of Benetton
-The wording is rather hostile to all non-members; classic expressions include “We have no pity” “we are coming for you” “thanks to all our farms” “aggressive”
-The players are rather large pop players who also dominate the raiding, off/def charts of the server
Characteristics
You just met a typical representative of the Mongol culture. These alliances tend to be:
-Teuton-heavy (with the exceptional Roman/Gaul added for variety’s sake).
-Highly focused on raiding.
-Very aggressive.
-Full of players who play 24/7 (that is the only way you can be a top raider)
-The management structure usually consists of the more competent raiders/players and is quite simplistic.
They have many of the characteristics of the RL Mongols when they first expanded their empire: fast raids, quick demolition of opposition, highly competent members, quick establishment of communication lines, quick expansion with every newly conquered city becoming the base for the newer expansions.
What matters when you are a member of that organisation is the size... of your army and the length.... of your village list. Discussions in chats and forums have a similar spirit behind them. Members continuously compare and challenge each other: who has hit the most villages (raiding), has had the highest number of village conquests, and was the smartest in getting lots of raiding in. No wonder it resembles the boyish cultures of investment banking.
LA FAMILIA
(also the Mafia; motto “you dare hurt my people!! I will take my revenge, burn your villages, kill your dogs, bury you deep and dance around your grave... twice...!” )
There you are once again minding your own business... Of course as a member of a Mongol alliance your business is raiding your neighbouring villages (as you do). Then a village you have been harassing for some time suddenly has a very strong defence, obviously reinforced by their mates. Then you get a message from somebody you have never heard of. You check the player and you find is of respectable size and belongs to that same alliance. You realise that he/she is of the management team of that alliance and asks you to leave X member of the alliance alone in a polite yet firm manner. Of course two avenues are open to you: keep attacking or conform. If you keep attacking the case could easily be that you get attacked by almost the whole alliance.
On the alliance profile you notice:
-Well written alliance presentation; dominant phrases: “friendly” “active” “well-organised”
-Small management team
-Forums often exist; a general message for all Travian visitors with clear descriptions of the contract you would sign joining this alliance
-Size of members varies greatly;
-Some medals; mainly Def and climber medals
-A number of CPs (often one wing), possibly some NAPs but not many, no more than 5-6 in total as these alliances take their CPs, especially, rather seriously
-Often proud of their history/philosophy they are not shy in their alliance pages about it
Characteristics
You just met a Familia alliance. Such alliances tend to be:
-Balanced in terms of tribes
-Well-organised and well-run though not as military-like as the Mongols
-well-structured with dense communication structures
-Often management focuses around a central figure or two who are charismatic and fundamental for the overall co-ordination (think Godfather...)
If a member of such alliance you find they are run by a small, tightly knitted group of people. The atmosphere tends to be one of family, relationships among members are warm and communication and having fun together are quite important, sometimes at the detriment of what makes strategic sense or helps win the endgame. RL examples would include mafia organisations, or other code of honour cultures around the globe.
Mongols and Familias often start wars because mainly of the Mongols’ insistence to keep raiding a Familia member. Once the war starts is usually the familia alliance that is much more committed to it than the Mongols.
What matters in such an alliance is to get along, to make positive contributions and communicate with others within the alliance and to be perceived as a team member.
THE EMPIRE
(also the Old Timers; motto “We are legend; what the donkey’s hoove are you?”)
There you are; sitting tight and ready to expand to your nth village. And so you do. And the moment you land there you find out you are under attack. You wonder; what is happening?? So soon? No warning? Where are they...? Cannot be that somebody is already there...? Surely you checked and the closest villages were about 7 squares away... The attacks come from multiple players, well-timed and in big numbers. You heard their alliance name before; again and again...
You check the alliance page; there is not much information available there. You notice:
-Well outlined management team
-A number of wings all located in the same quadrant
-No forum link (usually)
-Little text; little advertising (they clearly feel they do not need to advertise themselves)
-Medals are present but are not many (per wing)
-Players are of variable sizes and strengths
Characteristics:
You probably just met the Empire. Characteristics of such alliances are:
-Low publicity in server ranks and in their alliance pages
-High number of alliance wings all similarly organised
-High and intricate levels of organisation. They make compartmentalisation of information and activity a real art!
-An external forum
-Highly organised and ruthless off/def tactics
-Calm and confident in decision-making
The Empires’ culture is strong, their organisation is impeccable and the sheer atmosphere of quiet confidence and calm before the storm is seductive. This kind of alliance is different from the Familias and the Mongol alliances. First of all Empires are much less volatile, they don’t do things out of passion (whether of Mongolian aggression or of familial ties). They are methodical organised and they have a PLAN. No matter what happens in the short term they stick to the PLAN, even if they lose some villages on the side, enter short term wars and face adversity. Such alliances have a certain aura of purpose, a certain feel of confidence that they will prevail in the end. That kind of aura is impossible to imitate, is the aura of experience, the certainty that you are entitled to fight for the endgame, the Travian world OWES it to you... Modern Real Life equivalents could be found in very large and established corporations like IBM, General Electric or the large Petroleum companies.
These alliances do nothing accidentally. If they engage in war they use superior numbers to overwhelm the Mongols and organised quadrant-wide attacks to take out the Familias. Very often they ally with one or two strong Familias, a potent combination; or use a Mongol alliance to subdue all potential enemies while they are simmering and preparing massive armies in WW sites for the endgame. The latter kind of arrangement is rare though; Mongol alliances tend to despise Empires. The organisation and single-mindedness of such Empires just ticks the Mongol tendency for anarchy, pillage and raiding. One of the most common warfare types in Travian is between an Empire and a Mongol alliance where, to everybody’s mirth, 200 to 300 players poise against max. 40 players. In the long run is usually the Empire that wins IF the players don’t lose confidence to the Empire’s leadership.
MOM & POP alliances (M&P)
(also the Lost Travians; motto “don’t know where we are going, don’t know what to do...”)
You raid that chap for the 100th time and you notice he just entered an alliance. You wonder who would take a player who lost to you during the 2nd week of the server an approximate 10,000 res. They do have a funny name often quite long... Yes you nod wisely you know these alliances, seen them before, different names, different leaders but still the same kind of alliances! You just found a treasure; an alliance full of farms! With glee you prepare raids for another 10 players (the number of players in your “friend’s” alliance).
On the alliance page you will find:
-Fun graphics
-A ridiculous number of CPs and NAPs; you would truly think that the world loves them...
-Fun text; often incorrect grammar; hastily prepared material
-The larger players are not part of the management team
Characteristics
To be frank I don’t know much about this kind of alliance. I never joined one nor I intend to... From word of mouth they tend to be disorganised and full of noobies. I have to mention them though as a great number of alliances in every server are not just any kind of alliances, they are M&P alliances .
They tend to have:
-Weak management structure
-Lots of yellow dots
-Inexperience in off/def
Culture is weak or non-existent and little thought has been put with regards to the organisation of the alliance.
I bet you all find them fun to raid...
THE SPECIALIST
(also the professionals; motto: “we do one thing and we do it really, really well”)
Sometimes you are bored... There you are, raids are still not back (damn the rally point limits) and most of the alliance is not around, well at least the ones you would prefer to talk to. So you look at the rankings as we all do. And discover a weird alliance, very small maybe 6-16 members strong but when you check the stats they are good, sometimes impressively so. So you visit the alliance’s profile and the weirdness continues. On the profile you see:
-Claims of a close knitted alliance; key words: “fun”, “old friends”, “long time together”
-Few graphics and a small management team
-Good members; some individual medals either off or def
Characteristics
It is hard to know much about such alliances. I was lucky that my alliance absorbed such an alliance once for a short period of time. Thus I had a brief exposure on how they were organised. The claims to old friends and a close-knitted structure are not to be taken lightly. Such alliances can be dangerous as their costs of co-ordination are very low (i.e. it is easier to organise 10 players than 50 or 200) and if they consist of experienced players they can inflict much pain, even to empires. In RL the equivalent is a small professional, innovative firm facing a large corporation. In Travian as in RL sometimes small and nimble is powerful.
Such alliances tend to have:
-Continuous communications
-Very close connections and relationships among members
-Low co-ordination costs and little need for formal managerial structures
-Fast response times
SO WHAT?
I am sure you recognise most of these alliances. And you probably wonder what is the point ...?
Broad classifications allow for comparisons. We do that kind of classification instinctively anyways. What I have done here is to give names and general characteristics. To know the general characteristics of each alliance type allows you to predict to some extent the organisational characteristics and culture of a Travian alliance when you first meet them as a new player or as an alliance player/leader in a server.
On a single player level
For a player a quick recognition of the type of alliances the players in their neighbourhood belong in helps in multiple ways. For example when you face a Mongol member any communication should be polite yet firm and respectful with a tad of arrogance (status is everything for them and arrogance is something they respect); at times you have to show teeth...
If you face a familia member they tend to be quite respectful of decent folk and will respond well to a polite letter. They don’t like as much arrogance though (honour is important for them). If you face an empire well... “Resistance is futile”. They will negotiate only if the communication furthers the established goals. Otherwise prepare for assimilation or join a Mongol/Mafia alliance and start hitting them fast and hard. Different cultures, different approaches when you communicate with them, different ways to treat their players.
On an alliance level
At a higher level of gameplay it is important for prospective leaders to be aware of the kind of alliances they wish to create and how to manage their alliance culture and internal communications. This guide provides the first such guidelines on how to create an internal culture and management style that would be instantly recognisable to prospective recruits.
Furthermore, for the discerning leaders out there :D this guide gives a first inkling on how to fight enemy alliances, militarily and diplomatically. It helps leadership teams first to understand themselves and second to understand the alliances around them.
In war:
1. If your alliance faces an empire: if both sides are equally well-organised the Empire will win any time simply because they have the numbers, patience and time on their side and they can afford to lose players and troops. In fact, the best way to win an empire is to undermine the trust Empire players have to the empire's leadership. This is done using IGMs and continuous harrasment tactics as well as making sure to damage key people in the empire's structure. Well organised defences and well-timed offences combined with propaganda and behind the scenes talk make the empire falter (think s1 Boom when it faced the OG in 2009; s4 WR when it faced HATE in 2010 etc...).
2. The simplest way to bring down mafias is actually by either killing off the core group that forms the Mafia's heart or convince that same core to join your alliance instead. Once the heart goes you can plunder the players and resources of the rest of the alliance. Unfortunately because loyal ties are strong in such alliances there are no simpler ways.
3. The Mongols are very fragile, especially in the early stages of the game:
a. Mongol alliances are offence oriented they have very few defence troops. If they go to war they often have to rely on defence from external alliances and often those alliances may well be far away. As a result their defences tends to be slow, cumbersome and costly.
b. For Mongols their hammers are the single most important thing. Thus a Mafia/Empire should focus on creating good solid defences or on wiping out the origin villages of those hammers when the hammer is on the road.
Follow-up
If you wish to explore some of the basic rules of Travian communication which are particularly relevant to the culture and diplomacy of the alliance please do explore this fabulous communication guide written by Iwind (February 2010) that augment some of the points already made here about Travian communications and gameplay:
http://www.travianstrategy.com/communication-in-travian/
Good Gaming to All,
CW