I searched, couldn't find a solid explanation, i'm not familiar with ticks.
With Strategus Ticks (Tickets) you can use them to recruit troops or if your troop cap is set to max at settings you can gain gold (10 gold per hour) and it charges ''ticks''.
You gain ticks or tickets by playing CRPG either Battle, Siege, DTV etc.
Basically to play CRPG you need ticks.