Da Flunk,that's rubbish.In 10 turns you'll really need that metal,maybe,so don't risk it unless you're sure you're safe.

Im still new but from what I've seen, the only resource I'm never out of is gems. I can never get enough of the others.

~dilbert

Gems are essential in the initial part of the game when you need them for buying techs.

Tarim - depends on your plans, as already said. If you train a lot of one troop type, you'll be short in some resources and not others. Generally, I tend to find stone is my surplus, for what it's worth....

If you can whack up the marketplace to it's max. capacity and THEN try selling 500 gems yoy'll get a nice surprise...!
Just be careful not to make any sudden shortfalls for buying techs and troops - not much worse in this game than when you sell off your resources only to find your R+D (research and development) won't be able to move for the next 10 turns because of it :-)

i think a good thing to do at the outset is go long with your initial comms. try and get as many resources as possible far away from your castle, leaving the ones near you untouched. you can get those close to you once you've trained enuff comms out of your barracks. also, you'll be able to see what other players are active/inactive. send scouts long as well to gather piles and look for resources. expand your area of influence as big as possible and then retract and concentrate in your region, all the while teching-up. just my thoughts,cheers.

Minor hitch. What if you come across an early attacker?

he doesn't have that problem, he allies with the one person who is allied with 1/2 of the other players on the map thus giving him NAPs or allies across the map.

He neglected to add that part :-)

Hello Im still fairly new to this game and i was wanting to see whats wrong with my stratgey. I have 3 games going im first in all 3. Un one ive allied quite a bit and i owe that as a part of the reason im still on top of course but only cause they havent attacked me for the most part. But anyways I start out buy getting all the buildings close of course and the stock piles to. Taxes firt tech then militery then market place and then dpending on how bad im needing troops i either save my cash till i can get the extra tax tech or upgrade my troops but basicly i try to grow fast and attack instead of hoarding troops till i have abunch dont get me wrong i got several at home but im in turn 25 and lower and im attacking with spearmen and scouts still i have archers on there way to battle and i have lots of higher lvl things im learning in my barracks lol sorry such a long winded message but to sum it up my strategy hit hard hit fast catch the other guy using commanders to the max results easy kills with a few reserves thx and again sorry and im always listening ) LOD would love some more input )

well I ment selling stoneinstead of metal,.. I seem to be short on wood en metal always and I keep selling sthitloads of stone ( prolly because I dun feel like taking back all those mines again, I'll win anyway(fast2) , I'm a bit lazy I guess, but in other games I dun feel much like takes back all those mines either,... it takes so much time,.. I usually spend 5 minutes to play 3 games,

but about selling the stone, I never need stone ( so far)
and buying falconiers?!?!!?! I still can buy about 700 now, but I dun like em that much I just buy heavy cav or knichts and marksmen, anything wrong with that??

Newbie, what will ahppen is, you'll pretty much keep up with gathering and taking over and building, coz nothing much happens for a few turns. You might get flagrantly attacked after that and not know what to do about it, or you might go out wandering and have to run back or get in trouble or mayby catch a bad guy, but be thoughtful, and slowly develope some kind of defense and be warned that even though it is a game, it takes some APPLIED INTELLIGENCE, and a cool head.