Abbreviations

Here you can find a list of terms and abbreviations commonly used by players. Please note that this page assumes you have already read through the rest of the help.

#

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

#

• 24/7 Account: An account that is played 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Ordinarily done through multiple players logging into the one account, aka 'co-players'.
• 7*7: The territory immediately surrounding one’s own village. This territory spans 7 tiny squares x 7 tiny squares. 7*7 is the usual map available to non premium players.
• 15*15: The wider territory surrounding one’s own village. This territory spans 15 tiny squares x 15 tiny squares. This is a map option available to premium players.

A

• Academy tribe: A second tribe created by the "main" tribe, into which new players are often convinced to join on the assumption they’ll be taught how to play.
• Account check: Carried out by tribe leaders periodically, this involves account sitting a player in order to see what their account is like (troop counts, building levels, tech levels, etc). This is a relatively commonplace requirement when applying to tribes.
• (Account) Sitting: Allowing another player to take control of your account, through the Account Sitting process in game. This is most notably done in order to have someone look after your account whilst you're away from Tribal Wars.
• Act of war: Anything a player may do that causes an opposing tribe to declare war on the initial player’s tribe. Typical ‘acts of war’ include (but are not limited to): scouting players from opposing tribes, inviting players from other tribes, and attacking players from other tribes.
• Activity check: Usually done in the form of a post in a tribe’s forums, leaders will ask for everyone to ‘sign in’ (respond) to their post, in order to make sure everyone is active. Another method is to send a circular mail to all tribe members.
• Aristocracy: The tribal leadership, from the Barons to the Dukes

B

• Backtime: An in-game technique in which Player A works out when Player B's troops will return to Player B's village after an attack. An attack is then arranged to hit Player B's troops the instant they get back into the village. Typically this is conducted between two players - one player attacks, the second dodges, then backtime's the first - although anyone can backtime a player provided they know when B's troops return to the village.
• Banned: When a player breaks the rules (typically the ‘no multi accounts’ rule) they are banned from the world and unable to play any more. It is against the rules to discuss bans in the public forums. Bans can be appealed by sending in a ticket.
• Barb / Barbarian: Villages that have no owner. These are good for farming early on, and many new players' choice of a first noble target, as they don’t put up a fight.
• BB-codes: Codes that help you change the appearance of your text, or insert links, images or quotes into a post. See: BBCodes.
• Bonus villages: Particular to certain world settings, ‘bonuses’ are villages with special features, such as extra population, faster production times, more resources produced, greater warehouse capacity, etc. They are part of a world from the beginning, and not owned by any players until they're conquered.
• Bookmarking: A farming technique where you copy the "resend same" link from the farm report to your bookmarks. By opening all bookmarks in a folder you can farm a huge number of villages within seconds - legally.
• Bot check: A check to make sure that a human is controlling an account, rather than an illegal bot.
• BP (Beginner Protection ): The first few days after a player joins a world, during which no one can attack them. The length of BP time varies from world to world.
• Bug: A ‘bug’ is another term for a glitch in the TW system.

C

• Cats: Catapults.
• Cat Waves: As catapults are more effective in small numbers it is better to send them in trains/"waves" than one huge attack. Lots of small cat-attacks sent in succession are known as cat waves.
• Clearing: Describes the act of killing all the troops in an opponents village. I.e. "I just cleared player X, so now would be a good time to noble him."
• Cluster (player): A group of villages owned by a player. Its preferable to have a tight cluster (villages close together) in order to make the villages easier to defend when under attack.
• Cluster (tribe): A tribe with lots of players in close proximity to one another.
• Crippling: This is the catapulting of crucial buildings in an opponent's village, designed to slow down or halt their growth completely. Which buildings will vary depending on the stage of the game, and in-game circumstances.
• Continent: The section of the world map a village is in. See: Map.
• Coordinates: The location of a village on the map i.e. 475|724.
• Co-Players: Two or more players playing the same account, most often from complementary time zones, to ensure maximum activity on the account.
• Coat of arms (COA): The picture used on a tribe or player’s profile.
• Coin: Gold coin
• (The) Core: The four innermost continents in the map - K44, K45, K54, K55.

D

• D / Def / Defence: Spears, swords, scouts, heavy cavalry and catapults comprise what is referred to as a player's defence, or defence force.
• Dodging: An in-game technique in which a player sends all their troops out of the village just before an attack hits, thereby saving their troops.

E

• Ego: How highly a player thinks of his or herself.

F

• (Epic) Fail: A phrase used to express extreme disapproval of a post, poor attacks, etc. Commonly used on poor forum posts.
• Fake: In-game technique in which a player sends a "fake attack" at another player - often consisting of a single axe or ram. Typically used during war to confuse and fluster enemy targets.
• Family tribe: A family tribe is any tribe that has multiple branches, all of which are united as one 'group', playing together with the same goals - as distinct from allies, who occasionally help each other out when it's mutually beneficial, but quite often have their own agendas. This includes brother tribes, sister tribes, academies, and so on. Any addition to the main branch.
• Farm: Any village a player sends his troops to, to gain resources, is a "farm".
• Farming: The act of sending troops to another village, to gain resources.
• Farm shaping. This happens in worlds with growing barbs. As they stop growing at a certain point, catting everything you don't need in your farm ensures the resource pits and warehouse grow to decent levels.
• Fast tabbing: Quickly switching or closing tabs on opera using keyboard shortcuts.
• Free Trade: Refers to the ability to send resources to players in game, via the market, without needing to make a swap for anything in return.
• FTW: For the win.

G

• Gifting: Allowing another player to conquer villages without a fight by sending troops away from the villages.
• Greys: Grey villages on the map. These include abandoned, barb/barbarian, and bonus villages.
• GTFO: Get the f*** out.
• Guides: Guides are written by (usually) experienced players, and range from detailing single strategies, to advice on how to approach world settings, etc.

H

• HC: Heavy cavalry.
• Hugging: This is when tribes obtain as many alliances and naps as they possibly can, in order to avoid conflict.

I

• IG: In Game.
• IGM: In Game Message.
• IGN: In Game Name.
• IRL: In real life.
• In Game Staff: A player who has volunteered to help police and "moderate" the game worlds.
• Inactive: A player who isn’t logging into their account often/at all.
• Invite: Aka invitation. Tribes send invites to players, and once this is accepted, the player automatically joins the tribe. If you're already in a tribe, you need to leave in order to view your invitations.

K

• K: Shorthand for ‘continent’. Ie. K45.
• Kicked: When a player is dismissed from a tribe.

L

• LC: Light cavalry.
• Loyalty (tribe): Willingness to stick with your tribe during war.
• Loyalty (village): A village attribute shown when being conquered. See: Battles (conquering)

M

• MA: Mounted archer
• Merge (tribe): When two tribes agree to join forces and create a single tribe.
• Merge (account): When one player completely nobles out another, usually when a player has decided to leave a world and "gifts" their villages to the second player.
• Moderator: A player who has volunteered to help police and "moderate" the game worlds.
• Monitor: An early-game technique in which players keep track of the points of surrounding players to gauge their building progress.
• Morale: A protection mechanism for smaller players. See: Battles (morale)
• MS: Millisecond.
• Multi accounting: Breaching the rules by playing more than one account on the same world.

N

• NAP: Non-aggression pact. Made between tribes to signify a state of peace between each other.
• Newb: A new player that shows promise.
• Noob: A player that does not show promise. Can be either new or old.
• Nobling: The in-game act of conquering (taking over) someone else’s village. See: Battles (conquering villages)
• Nuke: A massive force of troops. A nuke is the full space of a level 30 farm used to make offence troops. Used with the sole intention of obliterating an opponent's army.

O

• O / Off / Offence: Axes, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, rams and catapults comprise what is known as a player's "offence force". These are the units you attack other players villages with.
• ODA: Opponents Defeated as Attacker. Refers to a player's ODA ranking, which gives an indication of how many enemy troops a player has destroyed by sending attacks at others.
• ODD: Opponents Defeated as Defender. Refers to a player's ODD ranking, which gives an indication of how many enemy troops a player has destroyed by defending against attacks others have sent.
• OP: Original post / Original poster - depending on context. Also operation - A Coordinated attack planned in advance by a set of players (usually within a tribe)
• OT: Off Topic / On Topic - depending on context.

P

• PA: Personal Ally.
• PA (premium account/points): See: Premium.
• Packages: A world setting defining how nobleman are produced. See: Package system.
• Pally: Paladin.
• PNP: Politics and Propaganda.
• Point Whore: A player that concentrates on increasing their points instead of troops.
• Post: Anything one writes in the forums, once posted for all to read, is a post.
• Premade: A tribe that is made prior to a world opening, typically with players that have some idea of one-another’s skills and strengths.
• Pushing (legal): When a tribe sends a rim-side, or newly restarted, player resource deliveries to boost his rate of growth and dominate his area.
• Push Accounts (illegal): When a player regularly sends resources from a smaller account to a larger one.

Q

• QFT: Quoted for truth.
• Quick Bar: This is a tool bar only available on premium accounts. It is the bar below the main options, which allows you to shortcut to a particular building. The quick bar can be edited as you want and used to add legal scripts to help play more easily.

R

• Ranking: Determined by the number of points a player has in any given area. Each player has an overall point ranking, a K player ranking, an ODA ranking, an ODD ranking, and a combined ODD/ODA ranking.
• Rax: Barracks.
• Refugee: A player that is under attack, and looking for a tribe to join, in order to get protection from them.
• Res: Resources. I.e. wood, clay, iron.
• Restart: When a player chooses to give up his current location, and start over. Restarting is only possible when in possession of a single village.
• Re-take: Presuming one's village is going to be conquered, this involves timing an offence with a noble to hit after the last enemy noble, thus killing the enemy nuke that stays in the village, and re-claiming the village.
• Retiring: Quitting.
• (The) Rim: The outer continents on the map. The rim is always expanding.
• Rim tribe: Any tribe that forms on the rim.
• Rimming: The act of conquering all of a player's villages, and sending him/her to the rim of the world.
• RL: Real Life.
• Rush / Rushing: The process by which a player focuses on achieving a set goal, to the (relative) neglect of all else.

S

• Scripts: Scripts are javascript codes that help you make your gameplay easier. They require a premium account, are installed in your quickbar and can often be found on the public forums.
• Shared Forums: Used when two or more tribes create a section in their in-tribe forums where members from multiple tribes can communicate.
• Sims / Sim City: Derogatory term, used in connection with players who are more interested in building up their villages than getting involved with the war aspect of TW.
• Sniping 1: To time support / recall defence in such a manner as to split an attacker's noble train and thus prevent him from conquering your village in one stroke.
• Sniping 2: To noble a village that another player cleared before he/she can noble it.
• Solo player: A player who chooses to play alone, without joining a tribe.
• Spiking: Used in the early stages of the game, this technique involves players sending a limited number of swords (ideally) and/or their paladin to support barbarian villages. This causes other players in the area to lose their troops when they attempt to farm the village.
• Spread Out: Used in reference to the locations of tribe members on the map.
• Spy: A player who joins a tribe solely to feed information to another tribe. Used most often in war times.
• ST: Server time.
• STFU: Shut the f*** up.
• STW: Speed Tribal Wars.
• Stack: A technique that involves the members of a tribe all sending support to a particular player, thus ensuring he is "stacked" against an incoming attack.
• Stats: Statistics.
• Suicide Troops: A technique that involves sending all of one's troops at an enemy target that will quite likely wipe the attack out.
• Support: Any defence troops player A sends to player B to help against an incoming attack are then known as "support".

T

• TBH: To be honest.
• Teaching Tribe: A teaching tribe is a tribe established by experienced players with the intention of bringing newer players in and teaching them how to play Tribal Wars well.
• Tech (technology) / Research: Particular to certain world settings, in which troops can be upgraded to stronger levels. For more information, see: World settings.
• Train: A series of attacks sent in quick succession, most usually including nobles, (referred to as "noble trains").
• Tribe hopping: The act of switching excessively from one tribe to another.
• Trip wire: A system by which players in a tribe send troops as support to one-another, in order to be alerted should a tribe mate be attacked.
• Troll: Used to refer to players who spend their time posting irrelevant, controversial, or simply off-topic posts in the forums.
• Turtle: A player who builds masses of defence troops, but very limited/no offence force.

W

• W: Short for world.
• White wall: Stacking a village with scouts so as to prevent attackers from getting info on the level of defence.