Sniping waves (sometimes called cutting waves or inserting waves) is one of the most important defensive techniques in Travian: Legends. A well-timed snipe can prevent significant damage and even kill parts of an attacker’s siege army. If you plan to play defensively, this is a skill you should learn and practice.
Sniping means sending defensive troops to land in the tiny time gap between two incoming attack waves—often within the same second or just one second apart. Because Travian resolves actions using a first-in, first-out rule for all events happening in the same second, the order of arrival matters. If your defensive troops arrive immediately after a clearing wave but before the next catapult wave, the second wave will hit your defense instead of an empty village.
A successful snipe:
Reduces or fully prevents building damage
Kills parts of the attacking player’s siege units
Helps protect important structures even if the first wave cannot be stopped
Most attackers place the majority of their hammer in the first wave to clear all defenders. The following catapult waves then expect to hit an empty village. If you cannot stack enough defense quickly enough to kill the hammer, sniping is the best alternative. Even a small defensive group placed between waves can prevent multiple buildings from being destroyed.
Early game: Around 300–800 units is considered strong.
Mid-game: Around 2,000–3,000 defensive units if the attacker sends only catapults or a small escort.
Late/mid-game with mid-cleaner: If attackers include a “mid-cleaner” (5–10% of their hammer sent at wave 5 to kill snipers), expect to need 10,000–20,000 units for a reliable snipe.
Even perfectly timed attacks can only land four waves per second. Because of this, attackers often add a mid-cleaner to wave 5, knowing defenders may try exactly this tactic.
Having multiple troop speeds available gives you more timing options.
For example, a defender with only two troop types may have only two possible sending times. With additional slow and fast units (even just a few), you may have five or more attempts. Training a small number of rams, catapults, or slower units in your defensive villages increases the number of different travel times available. This greatly improves your chances of hitting the exact second needed.
Send reinforcement tests to your own nearby villages during calm periods. The number of troops doesn’t matter—what matters is hitting the exact second. Practice makes real snipes much easier.
Having several defense villages with different distances from the target gives you more possible timing variations. The more distances you can use, the more possible snipe windows you can attempt.
If you leave the send-troops tab open for too long, the displayed time can become inaccurate.
Refresh it frequently and definitely within the last 30 seconds before sending.
Using a reliable external time source (for example, time.is) helps ensure your device matches the server time as closely as possible.
