Back to the sugar bush
Nothing to install, ever

Four worlds in a tab
that keep going without you

Four worlds, four tabs, and not one installer between them. Each is free to begin and each carries on quietly with the browser shut: a tribe turning villages into an empire, a walled compound trading sieges with its neighbours, a football club working through a season, and a single settlement dragged forward from thatch to iron and glass. Choose whichever sounds like your sort of night and you will be playing inside a couple of minutes.

Travian key art
01 · Tribes and village empires

Travian

One village, one tribe, and a map full of people who had the same idea. You clear forest, raise granaries and barracks, settle a second village and eventually a tenth, and the server runs towards a finish instead of drifting on forever. Who you stand beside ends up mattering more than what you build, because troops travel in real time and so does help.

Good for
Anyone who likes a long campaign with a real ending to it.
Typical session
A short look in, a few times a day
Where it runs
Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Cost
Free to play; optional in-game purchases.
Your first session
  1. Learn what your tribe does badly as well as what it does well, then plan around the gap.
  2. Settle a second village as early as the rules permit, because one village stalls quickly.
  3. Choose alliance mates who are awake when you are; reinforcements only help if they arrive in time.
Play Travian freeOpens travian.com in a new tab
Combat Siege key art
02 · Bases, artillery and sieges

Combat Siege

Everything revolves around a compound: the walls you thicken, the guns you park behind them and the rival compounds you go and knock holes in. Losses are expected rather than ruinous, repair work is half the loop, and an alliance exists largely so that somebody notices while you are being hit.

Good for
Players who would rather trade punches than tend a garden.
Typical session
Ten or fifteen minutes at a go
Where it runs
Desktop browser
Cost
Free to play; optional in-game purchases.
Your first session
  1. Patch the walls before buying anything new, since guns behind a hole are wasted.
  2. Leave a reserve at home whenever you go out raiding.
  3. Scout a target first, because the quiet-looking compound is usually the trap.
Open Combat Siege, freeOpens combatsiege.com in a new tab
GoalUnited key art
03 · Football management, in depth

GoalUnited

You run the club rather than any single player: individual training for every name on the sheet, youngsters to bring through, a shape and a set of instructions to settle before kick-off, and a ground and backroom staff paid for out of what comes through the turnstiles. The match engine then plays the fixture without you and leaves the table to be read afterwards.

Good for
Supporters who enjoy the paperwork as much as the result.
Typical session
A quarter of an hour before each match
Where it runs
Desktop browser
Cost
Free to play; optional in-game purchases.
Your first session
  1. Sort the training plan for the whole squad before you go looking at anybody else’s players.
  2. Improve the ground in steps, as the gate receipts are what pay the wages later.
  3. Change shape to answer the opposition rather than trusting one formation all season.
Open GoalUnited, freeOpens goalunited.org in a new tab
Forge of Empires key art
04 · One town, era after era

Forge of Empires

The same patch of ground stays with you from thatched huts to iron and glass, pulled down and rebuilt a dozen times as research opens what comes next. Around it lies a map of other towns to trade with or raid, and the fighting plays out on a small tiled field where placement decides a good deal more than numbers.

Good for
Players who enjoy watching one place become unrecognisable.
Typical session
Twenty minutes or so
Where it runs
Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Cost
Free to play; optional in-game purchases.
Your first session
  1. Work through the early quests before spreading out; they pay in the land you are going to want.
  2. Watch the mood of the town, because a glum one produces badly.
  3. Get yourself into a guild quickly, for trades and for help raising the big buildings.
Open Forge of Empires, freeOpens forgeofempires.com in a new tab

The four, laid out together

TravianCombat SiegeGoalUnitedForge of Empires
GenreTribes and village empiresBases, artillery and siegesFootball management, in depthOne town, era after era
PaceSlow, measured in weeksReal time, round the clockOne season at a timeReal time, taken slowly
Who you play alongsideAlliances with a common targetAn alliance keeping watch on your wallsLeagues, cups and friendliesGuilds, trades and great buildings
Typical sessionA short look in, a few times a dayTen or fifteen minutes at a goA quarter of an hour before each matchTwenty minutes or so
Where it runsDesktop browser; mobile app also availableDesktop browserDesktop browserDesktop browser; mobile app also available
CostFree to play; optional in-game purchases.Free to play; optional in-game purchases.Free to play; optional in-game purchases.Free to play; optional in-game purchases.

Free to play, and what the shop is really selling

Joining costs nothing, and not one of the four walls the main game off behind a payment. A patient player reaches a serious empire, compound, club or town without ever reaching for a card.

What each studio sells is time and decoration: premium currency, instant builds, ornaments for the look of the place. It is easy to ignore and plenty of players do. If the computer is shared with children, set the limits on the studio account while you are choosing the password.

Where to begin, whichever you pick

The button under each entry opens that studio’s own site in a new tab. You sign up there, usually with nothing more than an email address, and your first village, compound, squad or settlement is waiting a few minutes later.

Work through the guided opening instead of clicking past it. Each of the four explains its own economy in a particular order, and skipping that order is how people end up stuck on the third day wondering what went wrong.

How much of your week they ask for

None of the four needs a long sitting. Timers run, troops march, players train and research completes with the tab closed, so two brief visits a day keep any of them moving.

Keep the longer evenings for decisions rather than chores: where to settle next, which shape to trust, when to carry the town into its next era. The quick visits are for gathering what has finished and setting the next thing going.

Passwords, and who should never ask for one

Every account lives with the studio that built the game, so the only place that password belongs is on that studio’s own pages. Use a different one for each of the four, and switch on whatever second step is offered.

No support team will ever ask you for it. An offer of free premium currency in return for a login is just somebody asking for the account, politely.

What these four have in common

  • Not one of them wants an installer or a launcher: open a tab, register, and the world is simply there.
  • Each is free to begin and free to stay with, and the shop inside can be left shut indefinitely.
  • All four tick along while the browser is closed, so a visit squeezed between other things still counts for something.
  • Every one has outlasted years of players and is still being worked on by the studio behind it.

Nothing at all. All four open in an ordinary desktop browser, and the two that also publish a phone app are perfectly happy if you never touch it.

Registering and playing are free in every case. Each studio keeps a shop for people in a hurry, and not one thing in it is needed.

No. Four different studios build and run them, and the buttons here simply hand you over to each official site.

No, it comes to four separate registrations, since every studio keeps its own accounts.

The football club: a fixture asks a quarter of an hour of you and nobody attacks between matches. The siege game is the one that wants watching.

Everything carries on without you. Building finishes, troops arrive, players train and seasons advance, which is why short regular visits suit these four far better than marathons.

Yes. Three of them turn on alliances or guilds and the football one has leagues and friendlies, so there is a way in for anybody you know.