Why counter attacks work
Offensive troops are strong in attack and weak in defence. While an army is out attacking, its village is guarded only by what stayed behind. Once it gets home, it sits in a village it can barely defend. A counter attack that lands a second after it arrives hits the whole army at its weakest.
The send time is simple: the moment their attack lands, plus their trip home, minus your own travel time. The hard part is getting both trips right to the second.
What decides their trip home
- Slowest unit: the army moves at the speed of its slowest surviving unit. If every catapult dies, the rest walk home faster.
- Tournament Square: each level of the attacker's Tournament Square adds 20% speed to every field beyond the first 20, on the way there and back.
- Hero items: boots add speed beyond 20 fields, and a map speeds up only the trip home.
- Artefacts: a speed artefact makes troops faster, and a cursed one slows them down.
- Server speed: troops move twice as fast on 2× to 5× servers, and four times as fast on 10× servers.
If you don't know a bonus, leave it out and plan a few seconds of margin.
Using the Counter Attack calculator
Import a screenshot of the incoming troops in your rally point, or type in the landing time and the attacker's coordinates. Pick their slowest unit, then the village you counter from and your own slowest unit.
The Counter Attack calculator gives you the second to send, a countdown, and a table with the send time for every unit speed in case you're not sure what they sent. Share the link so alliance members can time their own counters on the same attack.
When the timing goes wrong
The attacker can see your counter coming and send the army out again as soon as it is home, or come home sooner with a hero map you didn't count. If the hit matters, scout their village right before your troops land, and send a few seconds late rather than early: arriving before the army means hitting an empty village.
Common questions
How do I time a counter attack in Travian?
Take the time their attack lands, add their trip home at the speed of their slowest unit, and subtract your own travel time. Send so you land a second or two after they arrive. The Counter Attack calculator does this for every unit speed.
At what speed do troops return home in Travian?
At the speed of the slowest unit that survived the battle. The attacker's Tournament Square and hero boots speed up the part beyond 20 fields, and a hero map speeds up the whole trip home.
Can I counter attack from a different village?
Yes. Choose the village you send from and the calculator uses its distance to the attacker. You can add several villages and get a send time for each.