In Travian Kingdoms, you have the possibility of upgrading villages to cities. This opens up new opportunities for players: when you have enough culture points, you can choose if you wish to found a new village or upgrade an existing one to a city.
What are cities?
A city is the result of the continued development of a village. A village can be upgraded in the Main Building.
Compared to a normal village, a city opens up a number of new options. The advantage here is that a city does not occupy an expansion slot in a village although it does consume culture points.
To upgrade your village to a city, there are certain requirements that need to be met first.
Requirements to upgrade a village to a city
- Enough culture points (this amount vary depending on your expansion in the game world).
- The population in the village must be at least 500.
Advantages of upgrading to a city
- You can upgrade the resources fields to level 12.
- You gain 500 extra inhabitants for the city, which means more influence as a king and more influence on an oasis as a governor.
- You gain 500 additional culture points/day if your capital is a city. Other villages raised to a city generate an additional 200 culture points a day.
- Maximum loyalty for a city is raised to 200%.
- In a city, you can build a Water Ditch which can be upgraded to give you up to 30% defense bonus at level 20.
- A city is harder to conquer: it requires having the culture points for 2 villages.
Disadvantages of upgrading to a city
- Another village may be more flexible in your building plans as a king to expand territory or a governor to access a different oasis for the new village.
- Another village can produce more than 200 or 500 culture points (capital) and have more than 500 population in time.
- Building resource fields in a new village is less expensive in terms of production/resource.
- Two villages produce slightly more resources than one city.
- As soon as your city drops below 1k in population, it is reduced back to a village. TThis means that all your resource fields above level 10 are reduced to level 10 when this happens (when your city is hit by an attack).
- You do not get additional building queues (Barrack, Stable, Workshop) and you do not get the option to celebrate an additional feast in the Tavern.
Summary
The decision to turn a village into a city is up to you. You need to consider your game style and evaluate the risks versus the benefits.
A city makes for a very useful addition to the game. This holds true especially for players stuck in war zones, but also for less active players who don’t settle or conquer that often. Particularly with the increased maximum loyalty of 200% and the new Water Ditch, the city offers highly effective protection.
The added production of culture points and resources is considerable, although it doesn’t compare to an additional village. For a well-developed capital village, upgrading it to a city – or better capital city – is almost a must. Especially towards the endgame stage, this city upgrade will prove to be useful.