Tribal Wars

Tribal Wars is a browser-based strategy game that sees players develop from small village chiefs into leaders of gigantic tribes, controlling thousands of armies into battle in a persistent game world.

The strategy takes place on two levels: managing construction and production in one's villages, and managing trade and army on the world map, between villages. The player starts with a small village. At the Village Headquarters new buildings can be erected, or existing ones can be upgraded. In the village screen, the graphics reflect the day-night cycle according to the server time but do not affect the game mechanics.

Three resources must be produced -- wood, clay, iron -- either directly in villages or through trade with other players. All the world data is persistent on the server, so the resources are output in real time regardless of whether the player is logged in or not. The warehouse size must also be managed so as to hold the targeted quantities of resources. Additionally, the player must manage each village's capacity to support troops, by upgrading the farms.

On the world map, relations can be established with surrounding village leaders using the game's integrated email system. Each player can set up his own tribe, invite other people to his tribe and define diplomatic relationships with other tribes.

Each kind of unit has its strongly typed attributes: offense, defense against cavalry, archers etc., farm support consumed, travel speed, resources carrying capacity. This makes some suited better for some tasks, e.g. war machines for tearing down walls, spearmen for defending against cavalry etc.

Stationed armies provide defense for villages. The wall in the village where they are stationed provides important additional defense. Armies can be sent out to other villages to either defend or to attack them. Attacking abandoned villages is an important crutch in the game as the armies will bring the plundered resources back home.

On the military strategy level timing is essential as the player can calculate when armies reach their target. Thus attacks can be joined between players, or defenses can deceptively leave the village for the moment of the siege. As the game world is persistent, orders can be issued and the player can log in later to check the results and continue.

Other villages can be conquered through the means of a nobleman. The nobleman is an expensive and defenseless unit. When he joins an attacking army, he will lower the loyalty of the village under siege. After several loyalty-lowering attacks with the help of a nobleman, the village is conquered and the nobleman is technically lost. Training noblemen becomes progressively more expensive each time.

The basic version of the game is free to play, but there is also a premium version that offers all-round user interface improvements aimed at the player's better management of villages and armies.