in my 2nd game, I'm farming up, cranny up and not building any army.  I've been trading though for good returns.  I will build an army eventually but I am curious how long i can last w/o and army or an alliance.  No one has recruited me or raided me yet, although I have been scouted.

Ahhhh the residence defense value is this:

2 times the level squared... so say you have a residence 10, thats  2X10^2 = 200 defense value... thats the same as 5 legionares or 10 macemen.  Not shaby.

now also consider that i have a wall level 10, that is a 34% defense bonus... so 264 points of defense that i don't have to feed and does not get killed.

Cool, nice to know!  Where did you get the info...? 

I am SO slow in getting back here!!

google search
travian plus what ever I want to know about... it indexed their formus nicely