EPTAs luck would have it, a new server was starting just as the school year was ending. During this time, I actually learned how to play (forum posts, guides, etc.). The server that would feel my wrath was the .us2 server, a normal (non-speed) server.
This time around, remembering my disasterous first attempt with the Romans, I picked the Teutons, which are like the Zerg of Travian, with cheap raiding units that excelled at stealing resources from other players. The last week of school, finals week (all of which I was exempt from), was the week the server started and the beginning of the loss of all my free time.
Travian starts out with "beginner's protection," a period of time where your village can't be attacked by other players. This is obviously to allow newbies a chance to get used to the game before being exposed to harsh realities of virtual imperialism. Beginner's protection length increases as the server gets older (newer players get more protection time) and for all the players who registered at the very beginning, it was three days of boredom (i.e brag on the server forums at who was going to win at the end). It would be three days before I could unleash my wrath on the porr denizens of .us2
As I was forced to attend class during the finals week, I spent all my time daydreaming of the havoc I would unleash. I had my build order all planned out. Main Building and Barracks to level 3 so I could get my Rally Point, and then a precise reallocation (a gold feature - gold is a resource you have to actually buy with real monies that lets you get little perks - everyone starts out with a small amount of gold) to produce exactly 2 Macemen, the zerglings of Travian. As beginner's protection wore down I surveyed the poor souls around me: many villages were still at 2 population (the default), which meant plenty of free cash for me.
Beginner protection finally ended on the 3rd to last day of school, and my reign of terror began.
Macemen travel at 7 tiles per second, and rake in 50 resources per attack. I believe it takes 200 resources total to make another Macemen. So it would take 2 round trips with my first 2 Macemen to steal enough cash to make another. Raiding adjacent villages took about 30 minutes for a round trip.
So with my first 2 Macemen, it would take one hour of raiding to make another.
Teutons on the server forums bragged about how many Macemen that had produced at the end of the day. The numbers were impressive, most people had around 30-35.
By the end of the first day of no more beginner's protection, I had about 45-50 Macemen. My reign of terror had just begun.
