Romans: the complete tribe guide

Romans are one of Travian's three original tribes. Their army is built around quality, specialisation and late-game scaling rather than the cheapest possible early production. They usually need more infrastructure and more resources before the army reaches its full potential, but the payoff is a roster with excellent specialist infantry, strong cavalry and very good late-game crop efficiency once the Horse Drinking Trough is developed.

Every unit below links to its own page in the unit database, and every comparison opens in the Unit comparison with both sides already chosen. The whole Roman roster is on the Romans page.

The hero

The Roman hero's increased fighting strength is not just a dry numerical bonus. Early in the server it makes oasis clearing easier and can reduce the number of supporting troops needed while the account is still resource-starved. Once beginner's protection ends, the same personal fighting strength turns the hero into a genuine threat to small armies.

A Roman hero can hunt weak troop groups, win fights another tribe's hero might not take as comfortably, gain experience from those kills and accelerate his own levelling. That makes him both an economic tool, through safer oasis clearing, and an early pressure tool. What his attributes and equipment are worth is in the hero database.

The Horse Drinking Trough

The Horse Drinking Trough is one of the main reasons Roman cavalry becomes so attractive later. It reduces cavalry training time at every level and, at three specific levels, reduces the crop consumption of Roman cavalry: level 10 for the Equites Legati, level 15 for the Equites Imperatoris and level 20 for the Equites Caesaris. A Roman account can therefore concentrate more cavalry power into the same crop budget.

The downside is investment. The Trough itself costs resources and building time, and a Roman cavalry army needs more infrastructure before it reaches the numbers that make the mechanic shine. The late-game advantage is real, but it is bought with an earlier economic commitment. This is why Roman cavalry can feel expensive to get going even though it becomes very efficient once the account is mature.

The Trade Office

The quietest Roman advantage, and the one most Roman players never hear about. Every tribe's Trade Office adds a share of a merchant's base carrying capacity per level. For everybody else that share is 20%. For Romans it is 40% - twice as much from the same building, at the same cost.

It matters because of where the Romans start. A Roman merchant carries 500 on a 1x world, the smallest load in the game alongside the Huns and Spartans, against 1,000 for a Teuton. Twenty levels of Trade Office take that 500 to 4,500. The same twenty levels take a Gaul's 750 to 3,750 and a Teuton's 1,000 to 5,000. So the tribe that begins with the least ends up carrying more than every tribe but the Teutons, and does it with a building the others get half as much from.

The practical reading: on any Roman account that moves resources seriously - a capital being fed, a hammer being supplied, a Wonder being built - the Trade Office earns its building slot earlier than the same slot would on another tribe, and keeps earning it further up. It is the one place where Romans get more economy per resource spent than anybody else.

Capacity only, though. Neither the Trade Office nor anything else makes a merchant travel faster except the alliance's Commerce bonus, which raises capacity and speed alike for every tribe.

The wall

The City Wall gives a strong defensive multiplier but is relatively vulnerable to rams. Romans benefit greatly from keeping the wall intact, and an attacker who removes it erases a large part of the defensive advantage. This is the opposite of the Teuton philosophy: the Earth Wall gives less amplification but is much harder to destroy. See Rams and walls for how a wall is actually brought down.

Troops, and what they are up against

Legionnaire

A genuine all-rounder. The Legionnaire combines useful attack with meaningful defence and can be used in either early offence or defence. It is worth comparing with the other tribes' flexible starters rather than only with each tribe's first troop - its value is flexibility, not winning a single specialist statistic.

Unit	Def inf	Def cav	Def / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Side by side
LegionnaireRomans	35	50	10.6	1	400	6	this troop
PhalanxGauls	40	50	14.3	1	315	7	Compare
Ash WardenEgyptians	55	40	11.3	1	420	6	Compare
MercenaryHuns	40	30	12.1	1	290	6	Compare
HopliteSpartans	35	30	7.4	1	440	6	Compare

Praetorian

Rome's specialist infantry defender and a natural stationary-defence unit. The Praetorian is extremely strong for one crop - but it is not the highest infantry defence per crop in the seven-tribe roster. The Shieldsman beats it outright, and several cavalry defenders reach higher figures once crop is normalised. Keep the claim precise: elite one-crop infantry defence, excellent for mass stationary defence.

Unit	Def inf	Def cav	Def / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Side by side
PraetorianRomans	65	35	10.9	1	460	5	this troop
ShieldsmanSpartans	85	45	12.3	1	530	8	Compare
SpearmanTeutons	35	60	14.0	1	340	7	Compare
PhalanxGauls	40	50	14.3	1	315	7	Compare
Ash WardenEgyptians	55	40	11.3	1	420	6	Compare

Imperian

The core Roman offensive infantry, and one of the main building blocks of a Roman hammer because it concentrates substantially more attack than Legionnaires. It should not be called the highest attack per crop across all tribes either: the Twinsteel Therion is higher. The Roman advantage comes from the whole hammer system - production, Trough-supported cavalry, upgrades and late-game sustainability - rather than a single superlative. See the two side by side.

Unit	Attack	Attack / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Carry	Side by side
ImperianRomans	70	11.7	1	600	7	50	this troop
Twinsteel TherionSpartans	90	11.3	1	795	6	50	Compare
AxemanTeutons	60	12.2	1	490	6	50	Compare
SwordsmanGauls	65	12.1	1	535	6	45	Compare
Khopesh WarriorEgyptians	65	10.0	1	650	7	45	Compare

Equites Legati

The Roman scout. The comparison that matters is not attack or defence but scouting efficiency: speed, crop consumption and how densely a village can stack anti-scout defence. The Trough's crop reduction at level 10 makes large Roman scout stacks easier to sustain later. Scouting explains how a scouting battle is actually resolved.

Unit	Def inf	Def cav	Speed	Crop	Cost	Side by side
Equites LegatiRomans	20	10	16	2	360	this troop
PathfinderGauls	20	10	17	2	380	Compare
SpotterHuns	20	10	19	2	380	Compare
ScoutTeutons	10	5	9	1	360	Compare
SentinelSpartans	40	22	9	1	445	Compare

Equites Imperatoris

Lighter offensive cavalry. Expensive to start, but it gains strongly from Trough training and the crop reduction at level 15, and it makes a faster or cheaper Roman cavalry composition than an all-Caesaris route.

Unit	Attack	Attack / crop	Attack / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Carry	Side by side
Equites ImperatorisRomans	120	40.0	8.5	3	1,410	14	100	this troop
Steppe RiderHuns	120	60.0	13.4	2	895	16	75	Compare
Theutates ThunderGauls	100	50.0	9.2	2	1,090	19	75	Compare
Teutonic KnightTeutons	150	50.0	9.8	3	1,525	9	80	Compare

Equites Caesaris

Heavy Roman cavalry, and individually one of the strongest units in the game. Using it as dedicated defence is normally uneconomical: only in a single-tribe situation where Romans must cover every role should its defensive stats be treated as a practical fallback.

Unit	Attack	Attack / crop	Attack / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Carry	Side by side
Equites CaesarisRomans	180	45.0	8.3	4	2,170	10	70	this troop
MarauderHuns	180	60.0	10.2	3	1,760	14	80	Compare
Corinthian CrusherSpartans	195	65.0	8.4	3	2,315	9	80	Compare
Teutonic KnightTeutons	150	50.0	9.8	3	1,525	9	80	Compare
Valkyrie’s BlessingVikings	160	80.0	9.8	2	1,625	9	80	Compare

Battering ram

Raw ram attack is not the reason to choose Romans; the ram is support for the hammer. Rams and walls compares every tribe's ram and explains how wall damage is calculated.

Unit	Attack	Attack / 100 res	Def cav	Cost	Crop	Side by side
Battering ramRomans	60	3.3	75	1,830	3	this troop
RamTeutons	65	3.8	80	1,720	3	Compare
RamGauls	50	2.6	105	1,910	3	Compare
RamEgyptians	55	2.8	95	1,990	3	Compare

Fire Catapult

A high-quality but expensive siege investment. Catapults: targets, durability and how many to send covers targeting, accuracy and what a catapult actually destroys.

Unit	Attack	Attack / 100 res	Def cav	Cost	Crop	Side by side
Fire CatapultRomans	75	2.5	10	2,990	6	this troop
TrebuchetGauls	70	2.2	10	3,130	6	Compare
CatapultTeutons	50	1.8	10	2,760	6	Compare
Stone CatapultEgyptians	65	2.0	10	3,250	6	Compare

Senator

20-30% loyalty per hit - the widest range in the game, with both the highest floor and the highest ceiling. Compare with the narrower 20-25% administrators and the high-variance 15-30% Logades and Jarl. Administrators: loyalty and conquering villages has the full table and the arithmetic of a chiefing wave.

Unit	Loyalty per hit	Cost	Crop	Speed	Side by side
SenatorRomans	20-30%	140,450	5	4	this troop
ChiefTeutons	20-25%	114,300	4	4	Compare
LogadesHuns	15-30%	117,600	4	5	Compare
JarlVikings	15-30%	114,300	4	5	Compare

Settler

Roman settlers are particularly relevant to iron planning. Settlers and founding villages covers culture points, expansion slots and the settling itself.

Unit	Cost	Carry	Crop	Speed	Side by side
SettlerRomans	19,000	3,000	1	5	this troop
SettlerGauls	18,100	3,000	1	5	Compare
SettlerTeutons	20,000	3,000	1	5	Compare
SettlerEgyptians	21,000	3,000	1	5	Compare

Economy and farming

Romans do not naturally create the same early farming snowball as Teutons or Huns. Their economy is infrastructure-led: the simultaneous resource-field and building construction mechanic helps development, and the hero can make early oasis clearing safer. The account gradually transitions from development efficiency into expensive but increasingly crop-efficient military production.

Defensive strategy

The clean Roman defensive plan is mass infantry from multiple villages. Legionnaires provide broader coverage; Praetorians specialise heavily into infantry defence. Neither is fast, so both are best suited to stationary or pre-positioned defence: Wonders of the World, artefacts, capitals and other known strategic targets.

Roman heavy cavalry can technically defend, but the Equites Caesaris is far too expensive to recommend as a normal defensive production line. Use cavalry defence only when the account is forced into a single-tribe solution, or when existing offensive cavalry has to be repurposed.

Offensive strategy

Romans have more than one legitimate hammer. The infantry side can lean toward Legionnaires for cheaper, more flexible production or Imperians for stronger concentrated offence. The cavalry side can lean toward Equites Imperatoris for a lighter composition or Equites Caesaris for maximum heavy-cavalry concentration. The right answer depends on the account's resource mix, crop ceiling, production horizon and Trough level.

The numbers: which Roman hammer

Four Roman offensive compositions, each built to the same 100,000 crop:

Army	Troops	Attack	Resources	Days to train
Imperian + Equites Caesaris	50,000 + 12,500	5,750,000	57,125,000	150.1
Imperian + Equites Imperatoris	50,000 + 16,666	5,499,920-4.3%	53,499,060-6.3%	150.1
Legionnaire + Equites Caesaris	50,000 + 12,500	4,250,000-26%	47,125,000-18%	125.1-17%
Legionnaire + Equites Imperatoris	50,000 + 16,666	3,999,920-30%	43,499,060-24%	125.1-17%

What the table says, and what it does not.

Imperian + Equites Caesaris is the strongest per crop, and the margin over the Imperatoris version is small - about 4.5% more attack for about 7% more resources. If iron is the constraint rather than crop, the lighter cavalry is close enough that the choice is an economic one rather than a military one.

Legionnaires cost the hammer about a quarter of its attack. A Legionnaire-and-Caesaris army is 26% weaker than the Imperian version on the same crop, for 17% fewer resources - a worse trade than it looks, because the crop ceiling is what limits a capital, not the resources. Legionnaires earn their place by being useful in defence too, not by being cheaper offence.

Training time barely separates them. Both cavalry options take the same time to train at an equal crop budget, because the Stable is the bottleneck in every case. The Legionnaire rows finish sooner only because a Legionnaire trains faster than an Imperian, and in a real account that gap closes the moment a second village joins in.

None of this includes the Trough, the Smithy or hero equipment. Set those in the Army calculator, which prices the whole army including the buildings behind it.

The numbers: which Roman defence

Army	Troops	Def inf	Def cav	Resources	Days to train
Praetorian	100,000	6,500,000	3,500,000	46,000,000	275.2
Legionnaire	100,000	3,500,000-46%	5,000,000+43%	40,000,000-13%	250.2-9.1%
Praetorian + Legionnaire	50,000 + 50,000	5,000,000-23%	4,250,000+21%	43,000,000-6.5%	262.7-4.5%

Neither is a general-purpose answer. Switching the same crop of Praetorians for Legionnaires gives up 46% of the infantry defence to gain 43% of the cavalry defence, and the even mix lands between the two on both. A Praetorian wall is excellent against an infantry hammer and ordinary against cavalry, which is why Roman defence is usually sent as a mix, or paired with another tribe's cavalry defenders in an alliance.

The days are worth a look as well: the same crop of Legionnaires trains 9% faster than Praetorians, and the mix is slower than either - both lines queue behind each other in the one Barracks.

Strengths, weaknesses and common mistakes

• Strength. Specialist units that are genuinely excellent at one job, and a late-game cavalry economy no other tribe matches once the Trough is up.
• Strength. The hero is a real early weapon, not only a stat line.
• Weakness. Slow to start. The account needs infrastructure before the army is worth anything, and a Roman who tries to farm like a Teuton in the first week usually falls behind both.
• Weakness. The City Wall's multiplier evaporates when the wall does.
• Mistake. Building Equites Caesaris as defence because the defensive stats look good. They are good; the price is not.
• Mistake. Treating the Praetorian as the best defender in the game and planning a Wonder defence around it alone. It is elite against infantry and ordinary against cavalry.

Where to go next

• The seven tribes compared by the numbers - every tribe's best attacker and defender, by the numbers.
• Army calculator - price a whole Roman hammer, buildings included.
• Smithy upgrades: what they do to your units - what upgrades do to the units above.
• Training time and building levels - how the Trough and the Barracks change production.