You need to get your villiage headquarters built up a little so that you can build things faster. get it built up to 5 or 6 and then get a barraks. you can build troops while building up structures. for now that's all I know, but it seems that wood clay and iron are god so get as much as you can by getting villiagers and buildings to make or reap as much as possible.

me and bodeist are real close so we should be able to dominate the area soon enough. pelion, if ou joined same time you may be close too.