Stage One:  Opening Maneuvers

Diplomacy

     First, it's important to line up allies and safe borders and pick targets. I like to start by going after two people on opposite sides of me and enlisting at least two of my neighbors to help me (preferably one in each war), making sure everything else is a secure border.  Start by scouting your location.  You should move the map around so that you are aware of every player who is next to you, even if separated by mountains/water. The world map button (found in empire info) can be a very useful resource to look at the state of the map as a whole, and who is at war with whom.  Clicking on the home region should show you who owns it and what titles they have.  If you are unfamiliar with the titles, go to the "lobby help" page to see how many points are required (which will give you a sense of how experienced your neighbors are), or even better, go to the "top player" page to see where people are ranked in the overall standings.  If you find yourself next to one of the top ten players, you will either need to ally with them or get 2-3 allies to help you out against them.  Keep in mind that they have these rankings due to a lot of past success in the game.  It is generally a good idea to try and ally with the more experienced players and to choose the less experienced players as targets.  However, this is a rule of thumb, not absolute.  There are experienced players who make bad allies (XXXAngel for one), and there are new players who make great ones.  If you're new to the game and can't tell the difference, it is a good idea to e-mail all of your neighbors to sound them out on the possibility of cooperation.  Click on their name within the citadel to bring up a player info page, right below their "statistics" should be a link to the "Player Review" page for that particular player, I cannot stress how valuable the information there can be, use this as insight as to how well this person has worked with others in the past. The first few turns of diplomacy are crucial, because essentially everyone is sorting out friends from enemies.  Some are going to gang up; others are going to get ganged-up on.  You want to be in the former group and not the latter.

• Open all your options by communicating with everyone around you.
• Be polite, concise, and open-ended in your first contact.
• Offer specific options for cooperation in follow-ups: cooperative fighting is better than a nonaggression pact, but a nonaggression pact is better than an unsecured front.
• Be flexible in your positions; don't make promises that you may later need to break.
• As a corollary, be aware that some players will imply an agreement without actually agreeing to anything so that they can later betray you.  Be prepared to shift your battle stance. Also be careful that you both have the same thing in mind as far as your agreement, some players regard aiding their enemies as a clause for war, peace pact or not.
• Be prepared to make territory concessions for peace where you need it.  It's better to give up the T in the short-term than to be stuck with an additional hostile front. But don't let yourself get bullied, a player that is trying to force a sort of fealty out of you is not likely to do things on your behalf, and is far more likely to use you.
• Don't start more than two wars in the opening push; don't start more wars than you have allies to help you fight.
• Always be willing to compromise, and DON'T let the more experienced player take the superior stance diplomatically.

Tactics

     The second key is to expand outwards as quickly and efficiently as possible.  You can get an edge in territory simply by getting somewhere faster than your neighbors can.  You can also concentrate your forces in particular directions by agreeing to preset borders in the diplomacy stage.  

The first push

In the initial expansion, try to group your lessers in a particular direction, head towards chokepoints or regions that border many other regions. Get an idea of where your borders will eventually lie, and try to rush towards there. Try to pick up as many swamps, plains, and dunes along the way, in general though avoid entering forests with anything more than a scout, (there can by anywhere from 0-5 neutrals in there and they are not worth much anyway). Also try to avoid sending large groups through dunes, on average 10% of your men die in these regions. Generally try to use forces 100-50% better than the defenders: the bigger your advantage, the fewer lessers you lose, the more quickly you can regroup to take another territory. Keep buying as many lessers as possible, and divide them up according to what directions have the most free space (including hostiles) and keep a continuous flow of forces heading to every active front. In general try to rush the front with the first wave, and pick up regions with the second and third waves. One trick is to save up some treasure on the 3rd tick (estimate what you will get the next round, and save up such that you will get 100) this will allow you to make 2 fortresses on the 4th tick and speed up your resupply in the long line in places where it matters.

• Spend all your T on lessers
• Plan ahead a move or two.  Expect to lose the same number of lessers as are defending a territory.
• Attack in overwhelming numbers; the closer the battle, the more likely you are to lose the battle and/or lessers.
• Forests have a maximum of 5 lessers in them, so don't be afraid of pushing through them to get to important areas if you have groups of larger than 10 lessers. Usually try to hit them with 1, you might get luckey, and at least you will know what's in there for the future.
• Continuously resupply in all directions you are expanding in.
• Fill in behind the front lines as you move reinforcements up.

  The first fortress

When your about to reach your enemies (3-4 turns, usually), save enough T from one turn to build a fortress the next. If you've done the initial moves right, you can hold the frontier for 2 turns with the reinforcements until it's built, and then you have a stronghold to work from. You should build a fortress about every third territory to keep speed and fallback positions in the best shape. Building fortresses in bottleneck positions is a good strategy, so are forests. Try to avoid Dunes whenever possible, but sometimes you just have to.

• A fortress three moves away from your initial one will resupply troops one turn faster.
• You will get the fortress defense bonus the turn the fortress is completed, but not when it is under construction.
• Position your fortress to cut off as many angles of attack by your enemies as possible.
• Do not build a fortress in a region you cannot defend; giving your enemy a fortress is a major mistake.

Additional Tips

• Do not cast any spells in the first five turns.  Save your Fury for the first Black Between.
• Do not choose a religion early on (in open-religion games).  You will want to wait and see what religion is likely to win so that you can get the religion bonus, it is also a good idea to see what forms your enemy is using to best counter it.
  Exception:  in team games, choose a religion right away so that you can share Fury with your teammates.
• Do not make treaties with all your neighbors; this will leave you with nowhere to expand.