Here are three tricks that most players overlook. By following them however you will become much more powerful than your entourage.

The first has to do with your main building. Most beginning players never bring it past level 5 or 6, since that is the required minimum for building a residence. But don't forget that a main building reduces the most indispensable resource in Travian, time.

A player can have all the resources they need at their disposal. But if it takes hours to complete a field that could be done in half the time with a level 20 main building, then the player is not making good use of time.

Culture points are collected from both parties that are hosted in the town hall, and buildings giving a small amount every day. The embassy for example generates 153 culture points each day when it is at level 20. A level 20 main main building gives another 77. The main building has other uses other than culture points, but the high contribution toward expansion a main building has should be a good enough reason to bring it to 20 along with the storage and granary of a newly found village in its early stages.

The armory, blacksmith and academy contribute to culture points too. However once these buildings are brought to 20 and have all the researches done in them, they outlast their usefulness. While an academy contributes to culture points, the blacksmith and armoury should be destroyed as they inflate the population of a village making it an attractive chiefing target.

These three types of buildings are often forgotten by experienced players who scratch their heads wondering why they lost their 15 village empire within 1 week.

Daniel Massicotte has been playing Travian online since 2008. After playing on the us speed servers he decided that due to the high volume of inexperienced players he would create a guide to help them out. Join his newsletter to learn more about the game and how to manage your time here: http://tips4travian.com