Understanding the Armoury and the Blacksmith

The benefits of these buildings has puzzled me, just as the costs of upgrading these buildings and the research within leaves my warehouse bare. The Armoury, by name, upgrades your troops armour, the Blacksmith upgrades their weapons.

There's a common misconception that you have to recover from in order to understand these buildings. I would think that nearly everyone on Travian understands these buildings in a visual manner... 'If my Macemen have level 20 armour and level 20 weapons, they go into battle with the sharpest swords and the thickest shields, so they're bound to succeed'.

This makes common sense, but is it true?

No it's not. Look at the manual in game, at the troop types, do you notice the three figures for Attack, Defence Against Infantry and Defence Against Cavalry? Attack and Defence values are separate in Travian, as is the 'research' done in Blacksmith and Armoury.

Armoury research upgrades improve the defensive value of a troop type, Blacksmith research upgrades improve the offensive value of a troop type. These upgrades have no effect on each other, level 20 armour counts for nothing in an offensive scenario, and vice versa.

So what are the benefits?

Each Blacksmith/Armoury research upgrade for a troop type raises your defence/offence level by 1.5%. So level 1 is 101.5%, level 2 is 101.5% of 101.5%. It's a mathematical bonus, not a case of upgrading a stick to a sword to an Uzi 9mm.

At level 20 of research for a troop type you've gained ((100x1.015) to the power of 20) - that's the formula to work out the total bonus you get, Which I calculated to be 137% of the original, undeveloped troop strength.

How This Affects My Teutons

With my calculator doing overtime, I applied the maths to some of my own troop types to see what the real benefits of research upgrades are. So I've taken the original, undeveloped troop values and calculated 137% of those values.

The figures below are organised into attack, infantry defence, cavalry defence.

Axemen are 60 30 30, they become 82 41 41.

Spears are 10 35 60, they become 14 48 82.

Paladin are 55 100 40, they become 75 137 55.

Knights are 150 50 75, they become 205 68 103.

Using the figures above for my troops, 1 Paladin is worth about 3.5 Axes in defence against infantry and worth 2 Axes against Cavalry. 5 Spears are the equivalent of 4 Knights in defence against cavalry. 1 Spear is the equivalent of 2 Axes in defence against cavalry.

And Your Point Is?

As a Teuton I have a troop type called a Spearman; he's great at defending against cavalry but absolutely worthless at attacking (look at the values above). In my capital, at a time when I too had the misconception about the Armoury and Blacksmith upgrades, I developed both research types side by side for my Spearman. I got to level 10 in both armour and weapons, which cost a hell of a lot. Look again at the figure above, at level 20 of weapons research my Spearman is only worth 14 points in attack. He's gone from useless to just slightly less useless. Did I waste my time and resource upgrading his weapons in Blacksmith? Of course I did. Now look at his defensive values and the difference 137% makes. Did I waste my time upgrading his armour? Hell no.

So my point is that, and this doesn't apply to all troops types in all tribes, a defensive troop primarily needs Armoury research upgrades, while an offensive troop needs Blacksmith upgrades.

As I've made clear, I'm Teuton and given my troop types have decided to divide my army into strictly defensive and offensive brigades. So the Armoury/Blacksmith question is important to me as I've decided to give different troops types a certain role. If your troop type is good at both attacking and defending, and you use them in both roles, you've got to upgrade both the armour and weapon. If, like me, you've got troops who are strong in one discipline but not the other, you should only upgrade the armour or the weapon, but not both.

If my Paladins are used ONLY to defend, my Axes used ONLY to attack, I've wasted my time in upgrading the Paladin in Blacksmith (attack) because he will never attack. I've also wasted my time upgrading the Armour of the Axes who never defend. It's not that Axes can't defend, again see the figures above, it's just that it's not the best use of Axes, just as upgrading their armour isn't the best use of my resources. After all, most upgrades in either building get to the same price (and then more) as a Settler when you pass level 5.

The Test

I did perform a small test to try and prove what I've said. It perhaps wasn't large enough, but here are the results:

Part 1 - 33 Maces attack 10 Paladins with Level 10 Armour and Level 10 Weapon

Attacker KuKu Blok from the village 1. Nutbush City
Troops 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Casualties 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Defender Reinforcement
Troops 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0
Casualties 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0

Part 2 - 33 Maces attack 10 Paladins with Level 10 Armour and Level 6 Weapon

Attacker KuKu Blok from the village 1. Nutbush City
Troops 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Casualties 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Defender Reinforcement
Troops 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0
Casualties 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0

In Conclusion

If you can afford offensive upgrades for defensive troops, go for it. But while you're still growing, that resource is better spent on troops/resources/buildings. Having said that, a Teuton who upgrades the weapon of their Spearman is a bloody fool.

If your troop type is good at attacking and defending you're probably Roman, so you should upgrade both armour and weapon if you plan to use these troops in both disciplines.

Unless you plan to defend with catapults and rams, you should only upgrade them in Blacksmith.

Scouts are Defensive units, so again they only need to be upgraded in the Armoury

Which troops do I upgrade in the Blacksmith and Armoury?

Gauls



Romans



Teutons



* Although Rams are an attacking unit, they have a massive defence capability against cavalry, so it’s well worth adding to this by upgrading them in the Armoury.


Wizzo