BEING FARMED

Being farmed in Travian is a real nuisance, especially if you are a frequent target for offensive players. But there are a few simple steps to reducing the amount of raids on your village or even stopping them outright.
The majority of most raids are initiated for the sole purpose of retrieving resources or to dodge an attack on the village. It is only after a sufficient amount of time has passed since a server has started that players will start raiding for other reasons. These reasons can vary from the player showing his or her military supremacy, to the player sending the troops for lack of anything better to do. Also farmers farm differently depending on your tribe.
A Gaulish village will be generally left alone due to the fact that Gauls have several defensive benefits which they receive by being a Gaul. These include troops which have a high defense and are cheap to produce, horsemen which are specifically meant to defend against foot-soldiers, a palisade which offers a high defense bonus and is resistant against rams, crannies which protect twice the number of resources, and the ability to deploy traps which capture attacking soldiers and horses. These defensive attributes are meant to deter small raiding forces during the early part of the game but some of them are rendered obsolete when faced with a large army. Farmers will generally avoid raiding Gaulish villages because of the amount of effort and resources required to nullify these benefits vs. the amount of profit received. Powerful farmers though will waste little effort to receive resources from a Gaulish village.
A Roman village is a prime target for many raids. Roman villages will receive few defensive benefits for being roman. Their only advantage is their city wall and their trained defensive troops. Although the city wall gives the highest defensive bonus to all troops stationed inside a village, it is highly susceptible to battering rams. Also new roman villages are impaired by the costs of roman troops. Although roman troops are the best, they require the most amount of money which results in roman villages, on average, having smaller forces than their Gaulish and Teuton counterparts. Also the roman tribe is given economic benefits rather than defensive or offensive benefits. Romans are able to build both resource fields and a building at the same time. This allows them to expand quickly, which allows them to produce more resources, which means that a raid will on average receive more profit because of the high resource production. This combined with expensive roman troops and a standard cranny will result in a higher amount of raids being targeted at roman villages. Despite these set backs, roman villages which are successful are powers meant to be reckoned with as they are able to support large powerful army's and build villages faster to support more army's.
A Teuton village is generally raided depending on it's success. Teutons receive many offensive benefits which are of little help against a raid. They are the trickiest of the tribes to play as, because their villages require constant success to become powerful. Teutonic troops are the cheapest to produce, which results in their villages having more troops than Gaulish and Roman villages. But their troops also have a low defense which leaves them slightly incapable of defending against an attack. During the development of a Teutonic village, troops are utilized to their maximum potential, raiding as many villages as possible to keep them away from a village which is susceptible to attacks. This results in a village which is generally undefended. Raids tend to occur the most during the early part of a Teutonic village's development but once the village has developed a large army it is generally safe from future raids. Unsuccessful Teutonic villages though are high targets for raids. Teutonic earth walls give very little defensive bonuses and Teutons have little use for crannies, being an offensive tribe. Teutons though are the most adaptive of tribes. They are fully capable of starting all over again from complete destruction and losing troops does not affect a Teuton player due to their troops cheapness.
Basic Steps
While the tribe you are in will only slightly determine the amount of raids you get on your village, the fact of the matter is that farmers will continue to farm you repeatedly unless you take a few basic steps which are a must for any village being farmed.
• Invest in a Cranny: A cranny's purpose is to hold resources during a raid or attack on a village. A cranny has a certain capacity per level; higher level crannies can protect more resources from raids. Crannies are the cheapest of all buildings to build and they are also unable to be targeted, meaning that a player will not be able to directly target your cranny with catapults. Teutons though are capable of reducing the cranny's effectiveness meaning that the cranny will only protect 2/3 of what it is capable of protecting. This applies only to Teutons though. Once you have a level 10 cranny, it is possible to build more crannies to increase the amount of resources you can protect. Always try to protect all of your resources with your crannies. If suffer from resource over-flows, calculate them in advance so you can log on to spend the resources. If you can stay off-line for half a day and not lose a single resource to a raider then you have sufficiently protected yourself. Generally, building crannies will register your village as a threat to powerful players. But it is rare that a player will single you out for a catapult strike because he or she is not making a profit in raiding you.
• Train basic troops: Use some of your protected resources to train a few defensive soldiers. Make just enough to damage the raiding party slightly. This should be done with all your resources protected. If your attacker loses resources every time he or she raids you and receives no profit, the attacker might reduce the attacks or just stop attacking out right. This action should not be done if the attacker is powerful and has villages which are catapult-capable. Generally and resistance can be seen as a threat and will be responded to with force.
• Join an alliance: Joining an alliance has many different effects. But generally it is a good course of action to take if you are being raided. Depending on the size of the alliance and it's reputation, a raider might just stop raiding you or double his or her efforts. While joining an alliance could cause a raider to take an unpredictable course of action, it is generally a good idea. You can ask for help from other alliance members in defending against raids. Also very few players can become powerful without the help of an alliance. Joining an alliance is practically required to win the server game. Travian is meant to be a game of cooperation with fellow players and as such, joining a alliance is a must.
• Contacting the farmer: Contacting the attacker is generally a good idea. Generally you should ask the attacker for the reason why he or she is attacking your village. Proper grammar is a must and be sure that you properly format you message as a letter. Sending a professional letter with no grammar or spelling mistakes will usually result in the attacker responding to you. You should not make your letter look like you are pleading for the attacker to stop attacking you, rather you should ask why the attacker is raiding you and if there is a way for you and the attacker to work the issue out. Pleading and begging will generally make the attacker annoyed and result in more attacks. Also threats are not generally a good way for dealing with an attacker. Try to reason with the attacker that the attacker is not receiving much of a profit by raiding you and you could even suggest other targets for the attacker. Never taunt your attacker either with the statement "Attack all you want but you won't get anything because crannies can't be destroyed". Technically Crannies cannot be targeted directly for destruction. They are still capable of being destroyed if the cranny is the only building left in the village which usually results after the attacker has systematically destroyed every other building and resource field.
These general steps can help to ease the amount of attacks you receive. But they are not fail-proof as an attacker could just deliberately target your village because they choose to. But generally, if you can give a farmer no reason to attack your village, your village should be relatively peaceful and unharmed.
It is possible to destroy a cranny before all the other buildings and resource fields are destroyed. The attacker has to set catapults on random to hit it, but it *can* be done. So beware of a false sense of security, don't do anything that might be construed as a threat until you have the troops to back it up, and you should be OK.
Most mistake with most beginner is building the warehouse and granary capacity level over cranny protection. By actively checking in you could usually evade pillaging from attackers by using up your resources by either building up village infrastructure or defensive and or offensive troops and also moving unprotected excess resources not covered by crannies prior to raids/attacks. There will be times when you will have to just delete and start again in another area or a different server because most offensive players will not listen to any reasoning and would already have knowledge of those villages you might want to offer as an alternative targets. You might find that reasonable player that appears to listen and will cease all attacks but often they will only be stringing a villager along to delay deletion of their favorite farm. It is a war game and it gets nasty whether you are protecting your ASSets or actively pillaging someone else’s :)