Diplomacy Guide

Here i have gathered some Tips for what you can achieve with chat alone. I know many of the Largest Kingdoms dont use this feature at all, but it is still part of the game and is especially useful in smaller servers where you can use it to trade information and conduct Diplomacy, and begin to be more aware of the situation on your World. In this, it helps if you are Duke or King yourself, but you may as well talk to other players as a Governor too. This lets you also notice many abnormalities around you, or even guess which ones are multi-accounts or not. As a rule of thumb, i always mark any players as Targets that do not answer in chat. To me, it means the same as being Grey/Inactive on their Status. If you can enforce it, their only function is to act as Farms.

When utilized right, chat in the game can be a powerful tool that wont cost you anything, but can produce you great benefits or harm. Depending on how you use it. In some cases even, winning of the server can be determined by which Kingdom could better utilize the chat feature in game. (Recruiting, Gaining Allies, Intimidating, Sharing Information and so on)

With the use of chat feature, you can even start alone, and end up with the largest Kingdom on your server, uniting with another large Kingdom later on. This is all achieved with only typing to other players and thus affecting on what they choose to do. Assimilating another Kingdom or gaining them as an Ally, is always more benefical than wasting your effort in Fighting Them.

Again, this is probably only true in Regional Servers, and in them i suppose 1x servers are the best places to use Diplomacy. For what i gather, COM servers and especially 3x servers are ruled by Kingdoms who do not utilize this feature at all, so the usefulness of it in there is on decline. These servers are usually formed by pre-generated Kingdoms who have conducted all this type of actions already. They might also have similar kind of methods to affect other people, but they usually tend to do it outside the actual game. In Regional Servers, you might very well be able to compete against smaller pre-arranged teams with only random people you gather across the map. So basically with use of Diplomacy, anyone can win even their Kingdom would start from nothing. 

So, if you like the thought of Diplomacy in the game, i would recommend playing on 1x Regional Servers. The worst kind of servers for this might very well be the 3x COM servers.

TIP 1: Message girls, do it a lot. They like when you talk to them in-game, and might very well want to Coordinate Attacks with you. There are plenty of them around and for some reason most of the men wont talk to them.

TIP 2: Ask random Governors from opposing Kingdoms how they are doing. Some of the times, they end up telling useful Knowledge of their Kingdom or Situation. Dont be shy to share yours, thats what they might be looking for as well. You can also straight up ask even Kings whatever you want, and most of the time they want to be helpful. Remember that people love to be important and the attention you give matters to them. This way, you can also gain informants in many Kingdoms, and form a lasting relationship with them that benefits both. If you become well established as an Informant, they might start coming to you to better know what is happening in their World. For obvious reasons, this kind of position is very advantageous for you. Ever better, if they start asking you what to do.

TIP 3: When trying to Recruit Governors, do not straight up ask do they want to join your Kingdom. Instead, its better to ask have they thought about Joining a Kingdom yet. This way you make them think about joining yours, but do not offend them if they are part of some pre-arranged Kingdom already.

TIP 4: If you see someone that was earlier a part of a Kingdom not being so anymore, ask what happened. This is also true, if you notice any abnormalities within the map. Especially, if a Kingdom gets denounced, you should really know what led to this to become aware of any possible forces that are causing such Disturbances.

TIP 5: Dont be afraid to just chat random stuff with those who are willing. In this way, you might find interesting people within the game who make the time pass more soundly for you both. You might also gain useful in game information even you would not be actively looking for it as many people like to tell what they are doing, what kind of exploits they just had and so on. They might very well start to even post Reports to you, even they would be a part of another Kingdom. This is especially true if they are on a Mind Set, that they are guiding or teaching you in the game. This kind of relationships might sometimes even affect at their reluctance on attacking you even your Kingdoms would go into war with eachother.

So all in all, i would say In Game Chat, is one of the most powerful and interesting features in the game. And like it or not, Diplomacy is a real part of this game and those who can better utilize it will gain a tremendous Advantage. These Kingdoms who can, tend to usually be larger than others as they have been able to recruit a lot more members than the most. So the least any Kingdom will have to do is to ask people to join theirs, but all of the more successful Kingdoms must have some kind of system or Strategy revolvng around Diplomacy, regardless do they use in-game chat feature or not. People is what makes the Kingdoms, and with Diplomacy, you aim to affect them. 

As for darker side of this feature. In this Thread i accept any Ridicule, as it is a legit Strategy you can use on Diplomatic Sabotage.

These tactics are also sometimes utilized by infiltrators. Basically you join an opposing Kingdom, and start flooding them with unneccessary stuff and blame them for everything. If they are nice people, they might even take you seriously and keep you undermining their morale, or start to fullfill your ridiculous requests. Infiltrating and Spying on a Kingdom thought, is another topic. (which can be done in game, or out of game)

Morale is a very important thing in this game, and undermining it can even destroy a Kingdom from within. It can also cause people to stop playing, or become inactive as their interest on the game will drop. 

There are many people in Travian, who conduct this kind of Sabotage on its different forms. So as a living part of this game, every player should at least be aware that it happens. If for no other reason, at least to be a harder target for them. 

(Affecting the Troops is the Player - Affecting the Player, affects the Troops itself)

Another similar strategy is Intimidation. In Game, it can be utilized to gain a serious advantage. Basically, any Assimilation of Smaller Kingdoms are usually made by Intimidating them from a Position of Power. This will usually result on their decision to join you, and to become part of this Power they were Intimidated with.

How to subtly do this, is another topic as well.