Scouting

• Before any sort of attack or raid, send two waves of scouts to examine your target village. One wave must collect information on troops and resources. The other must learn about army size and the strength of the village's defensive wall. Catapults are especially susceptible to enemy defenses, and you could lose many of them at great cost against a well-defended village. Your scouts should also take note of enemy scouts. If the enemy has active scouts, he could be prepared for a catapult assault.
  
  

Staggered Waves

• Send several groups of soldiers to attack the target village before sending a group of catapults. Sending multiple groups, with all but one being decoy groups of one soldier, forces the player to randomly guess when to hit your village to retaliate. He must split his forces into smaller and more manageable groups, which will leave less soldiers to defend his territory. Most adept "Travian" players will attack with offensively-minded soldiers and leave their defensive units behind to repel catapults.
  
  

Lowering Defenses

• Clear most of the enemy defenses out with ground forces before you attack with catapults. Disguise this group of soldiers among your staggered waves and adequately out-number the defending army to win the battle. Follow this attack with a wave (or multiple waves) of catapults.
  
  

Selecting Targets

• The catapult assault should target enemy buildings that pose the most threat to your army. Crippling these buildings first will limit the opponent's ability to compete with you. The key target should be the main building, which will slow the enemy construction schedule and disable unlocked building and soldier types. Other targets should be the city wall (which will make successive attacks more effective), and barracks (to reduce troop output). The amount of damage caused to the building depends on its rank (from one to 20) and the number of catapults you use. Once every building is destroyed, the village will disappear.