So for all new players their is a wisper in the sea and that wisper is Idols(no not the *Place Inappropriate Name Here* kind of girls/guys your son/daughter watches on TV when your not home or not paying attention). Idols is a type of in game currency that you never ever see, like you think you job is bad? You should try working to earn these things legit. Idols can buy you some amazing in game content, to check how much Idols you have and what they can buy you go to your smugglers den and then click on the Idols tab(its this tanish tiki looking mask). You will see a list of things you can buy with your Idols. Anyways you can purchase things like the decoy hider which if someone scouts you it will duplicate your units in a attempt to scare them off, or encourage the player scouting you to attack you more often. You could also buy a increase of the resources you galleons can transport(highly recommend that), and finally you could buy full protection(which does exactly what it says it protects you fully from any attacks on you haven).
*Note the passage above is strictly to grab your attention and make you laugh, I mean no disrespect to anyone including Plarium I just hope I made you giggle a little bit and you won't take anything to heart(especially if its my heart) now lets get serious*
Idols are a bit hard to come by but can be earned in basically any type of tournament including Player Verse Player and Prize Ransacking.
Idols also allow you to buy certain sketches that allow you to research certain discovery such as:
1. Code of Honor allows you to produce a very nasty offensive unit called a duelists(my personal favorite unit)
2. Optics allows you to research the gunslinger a nice defensive unit
3. Electroplating allows you to build aquanaut a very good defensive unit(highly recommend it)
4. Projectile Motion allows you to build the Mitrailleuse(a incredible offensive unit)
You need Idols to buy each of the sketches required to research these discovery's. In short Idols are astoundingly useful, they grant you everything from protecting your haven, deceiving you foes, and allowing you to build units but as a result they are not so easy to come by but they have to be like that in order to make the game fair and they more than make up for it by the incredible potential they give to you.
In final I hope that I make you giggle, gave you a couple good tips, and hopefully you learned something. So if you enjoyed it and it was educational give us a like and a laugh eh? Thank you.