Chapter 1: The calm before the storm.
It had been years since anticipation of a battle reached such a fever pitch. Alliances gathered from every corner, a server so competitive, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in ages. As clans marked their territories, their players started to gear up. A subtle hint of nervousness along with the loud cheers of excitement could be felt among the rowdy crowd.
The question loomed: Who would emerge victorious? Who would be vanquished? Who would spare no effort to seize the ultimate prize—Pride itself? This is just the calm before the storm. Everyone best be prepared for it
In short, War is here…
We will go quad by quad, diving into how the server is likely to shape up. We also asked leaders of alliances, set to participate in the server, a set of questions that I hope you enjoy.
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QUAD BY QUAD
We start strong in the Northeast (+/+) with what may be the most riveting matchup: BC vs. Elite. The Balkan Cartel (BC) is widely regarded as the favourites for the quad just to be candid, but something mentioned by the Elite leader a couple weeks ago has stuck with me. Something along the lines of “when we lose a player, that player won’t quit, they will simply start rebuilding and play for the team”. If this proves true, the battle might not be as swift as the Balkans hope, and Elite would hope their allies STD and BK help them achieve a feat most deem improbable. Croppers will be key. If Balkans get the majority of the croppers early, we can expect a snowball out of control into an eventual monopoly on the quad. Elites’ big first step would be to secure their croppers, their server depends on it.
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Alliance name: ELITE
Leader’s quote: United we stand, Divided we fall
Declared quadrant: North East (+/+)
Estimated number of players: 60 (+ 250 players estimated across the coalition)
Best server performance from your alliance to date: Europe 30 / Round 7 ( BC, TEM, RO were there let’s say most interesting one )
Alliance they’re most concerned about: Elite
Alliance they most want to defeat: BC (too much speaking from their side)
Estimated chance of winning: 22%
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Alliance name: BC
Leader’s quote: BC NO1 BABY!!!
Declared quadrant: North East (+/+)
Estimated number of players: 250
Best server performance from your alliance to date: Eu31 round 2
Alliance they’re most concerned about: Stong
Alliance they most want to defeat: ALL OF THEM
Estimated chance of winning: 60%
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—x—x—x—
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Next, we move on to South East (+/-). The quad, with probably the biggest meta in the server. TEM and PvP look to make this quad their own. They do have an opponent in Unity, in their quad. But with no additional info to be offered, they’ll be as big of a mystery to TEM and PvP as they are to us. Unity reportedly does have a helping hand in BW. Let’s hope for another battle-heavy quad. One could assume, a meta this big has to be a contender in the endgame.
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Alliance name: TEM
Leader’s quote: The truest victory is not over our enemies but over our own weaknesses.
Declared quadrant: South East (+/-)
Estimated number of players: 180 in our confederacy and cca 300 in our meta
Best server performance from your alliance to date: both europe31 and europe30 rounds 9
Alliance they’re most concerned about: None
Alliance they most want to defeat: Whoever will be there standing against us
Estimated chance of winning: I would prefer not to give any answers on this one
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Alliance name: PvP
Leader’s quote: You are not my friend, you are my Brother my friend.
Declared quadrant: South East (+/-)
Estimated number of players: PvP & TeM 300+/-
Best server performance alliance: Inter20 last year ago vs tequilla
Alliance most concerned about: Stronk
Alliance most want to defeat: Unity
Estimated chance of winning: 50/50
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Alliance name: Unity
Declared quadrant: South East (+/-)
(Did not want to share more info)
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—x—x—x—
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Onwards we move to a widely regarded favourite/strongest for the server. With a reported 180 members, and a strong leadership, STONG plans on holding no prisoners in this game of war. Someone who might have something to say about that would be the Malay meta. In for another round vs Stong, this battle has a history. In a server where Stong and Hungarians were at each other’s throats, malay 3rd partied them hard and eventually won the server, controversially. STONG will undoubtedly seek revenge for past grievances, while the Malay aim to demonstrate that their previous triumph was no mere fluke. Although STONG is widely favoured to win, history suggests that the outcome is far from a guarantee.
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Alliance name: STONG
Leader’s quote: “Happy to finally lead one last round for the fifth time. Sleep is overrated anyway. At the end of the day, what matters is the friends we make along the way. Kidding, we come for blood and to make that specific dream come true.
We had a dream that one day on the red hills of Munich, the sons of former Travian addicts and the sons of former TG owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
Declared quadrant: South West (-/-)
Estimated number of players: 180 accounts, 480 players
Best server performance from your alliance to date: https://blog.travian.com/2022/06/international-30-won-by-stong-march-2022-june-2022/
Alliance they’re most concerned about: BC
Alliance they most want to defeat: ITA&RV
Estimated chance of winning: 35%
Giving 5 quotes as 1 is Pedro Neto levels of shithousery
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Alliance name: MY + IST + PAC
Reported, South West (-/-)
No other info available
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—x—x—x—
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Last but most certainly not least, we arrive in the North West (-/+). The most noteworthy alliance here would be the Italian + Arab coalition: Dark. They look to make this quad their own via sheer force. NoM and Rogue are surely not going to give them the quad freely; however, it may prove to be a peak too high to climb. Much like the Balkans, this Crew is looking to be notorious for their tech usage, and NoM and Rogue best be locked in or face the darkness.
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Alliance name: DARK
Leader’s quote: “Make Travian Clean Again”
Declared quadrant: North West (-/+)
Estimated number of players: 90
Best server performance from your alliance to date: Won some 2x/3x server
Alliance they’re most concerned about: BC
Alliance they most want to defeat: Stung
Estimated chance of winning: 7%
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Alliance name: No Mercy (NoM)
Leader’s quote: “We will gonna play for breaking the game!!! Try our best… I & my friend will come here for joy and honor”
Declared quadrant: NW (-/+)
Estimated number of players: ~60
Best server performance alliance: alpler3x 19.03.2024
Alliance most concerned about: no fear no mercy
Alliance most want to defeat: en çok yenmek istediğimiz birlik (Translation: “The union we want to defeat the most”, so perhaps ‘Unity’)
Estimated chance of winning: we’re fighter, no business with winning
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Alliance name: Rogue
Leader’s quote: “Those that need to tech, don’t have a voice – change my mind.”
Declared quadrant: NW (-/+)
Estimated number of players: 20-40 acc
Best server performance alliance: Pass, played for years under multiple names and allies.
Alliance most concerned about: None
Alliance most want to defeat: Tech allies.
Estimated chance of winning: 0. the goal is not to win → learning experience.
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—x—x—x—
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Some alliances reported to be joining but have yet to declare a quad (that we know of). Who knows, a wildcard thrown in the mix always makes things interesting.
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Alliance name: Swinger Club (SC)
Leader’s quote: “Resist and bite”
Declared quadrant: –
Estimated number of players: 60
Best server performance alliance: TTQ winners 2011. Tournament winner 2017.
Alliance Name: Rabbits (R)
Leader’s quote: “NY team without WW. So for fun”
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—x—x—x—
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UPDATE
There do seem to be some changes in alliance plans since I started writing this post. The most notable being the following:
- NoM shifts their quad from North West to South East.
. - TEM + PvP reevaluate going to the East and are yet to declare a quad.
. - We also have the alliance ‘Garda’ added to the list of competitors.
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Unfortunately some alliances have changed their quads, making the matchups a bit different from what’s written above, but for the most part, I would like to think the points still stand. Just need to substitute some of the new alliances in the quad into the same equation.
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Here is the complete list of alliances reported to be coming to the server and their quads.
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Here is the updated Map of declared alliances and their quads
(TEM + PvP yet to declare)
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Conclusion
Let’s round off this intro-heavy post with some macro points for the server
In the Grey:
Alliances will strive to claim this area as their own. Uniques are exclusive to the grey zone and its borders, compelling alliances to settle here and engage in intense close-quarters battles. In a server this competitive, every artifact’s weightage is 10fold, especially the Uniques. This region is poised to witness the fiercest battles—let’s see how events unfold in the grey.
Tech Lives Matter:
Some of the numbers cited by alliances don’t accurately reflect their true strength. A significant number of tech accounts are expected from a few crews, with the Balkans and the Italians + Arabs being the most feared in this server. Alliances will need to devise a strategy to address this threat, ideally early on. If left unchecked, these teched-up accounts could snowball into the late game, making the final showdown a task too tough for anyone. It will be interesting to see how alliances approach this issue—whether they choose to engage by aggroing these techs or running constant ops on them knowing they aren’t as heavily protected as main accounts. Regardless, it’s a major talking point.
Cropper Wars:
Almost every quad is filled to the brim with major alliances and metas. Step 1 for any alliance to do well would be to secure their desired croppers. But with it comes a certain battle for territory. Expect aggros left and right in highly contested quads, and how those battles play out will determine the rest of the server. This is where the strength of alliances (and techs) is seen in their rawest and earliest form.
Border Wars:
It often happens that a certain border between 2 quads becomes a highly contested zone. Not only in terms of control for croppers that exist around it but for artifacts too. Unexpectedly, 2 alliances could face the risk of heavy damage here on the borders. The alliance that emerges victorious will gain a stronger foothold in the territory, along with access to the valuable artifacts within it. Controlling your borders and triumphing over your neighbours is essential in a server where securing a monopoly on those crucial artifacts is unlikely.
There is much more to talk about. Boonies, WWKs, setting up around WW locations, and meta’ing up, but post artifacts is almost seen as an Act II to this play. Let’s enjoy the first Act to the fullest and hope for a server we never forget. Drama, controversies, and skill—there will be a lack of none of those.
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Some writer’s thoughts:
I aim to release an article a week, each week diving into how events are unfolding and what we can expect in the days to come. To be transparent, I am a player on the server too, so my aim for an article a week is somewhat of a tough task. I also promise to try to be as unbiased as humanly possible. I hope this was a good read for all and I hope it builds a little more hype for the server. Thank you for reading!
– Anga
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Credit to Mustafa for his diligence with the list of alliances coming.
Credit to Carbon for the Alliance logos he made *cough cough* for his podcast.
Major Credit to ThomasGB for all his help this week in order to get this up and running.
