Sure I read somewhere that just having a level 1 treasure chamber also helps with your culture points (10 cp which isn't bad for a level 1 building) and hence settling new villages.
Search found 2 matches for Verny
tips about catapults - Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:36 pm
Hi,
I've foudn this quite useful http://forum.travian.us/showthread.php?t=45026, especially on using Catas to crop a village (rather than zero..sorry Kurten ;-)

