1. Unlike other games of this nature, lack of food will not result in loss of troops. Which leads to the main point, explore the interface, learn how things fit together, and look at some of the videos that explain the various relationships and possibilities of playing...

2. The ability to gain necessary components to create gear intermediate to the best gear comes, almost entirely, from the ability to attack Invaders. Early on, gain the ability to effectively attack Invaders by upgrading Knowledge for Invader Attack. This also means gaining the knowledge of how, and when, to upgrade Energy Resources. This leads to learning which paks to be purchased from Bank that compliment attacking Invaders...mainly Hero Energy....

3. Hero and Shaman are not created equal...you gain greater early benefit via Hero than Shaman...Concentrate on Hero upgrades, especially in Sustained Attack and Hit Power...Energy regeneration is not important because if you cannot purchase paks for Hero Energy, you will never be able to keep up...In that case, join Clan that will allow you to hit Invaders after a Clan member (or someone else) has reduced the Invader Energy to a low enough level you can hit it one or two times to kill it.

4. Do not waste time Forging Gear or inserting Gems that are less than Legendary. Do not deconstruct Gear you no longer need...advanced Gear will ALWAYS demand the use of other Gear...that means you will need Inventory spots to keep all the Gear until you need it or no longer need it...that means you have researched the gear you will need and know what it takes to acquire it.

5. Do not create all the Troop Types...Early on, learn which type you want to use and which troops each is effective or weak against. Concentrate on compatible troop types that allow for your Attack and your Scouting...Do not fall for the typical ploy of using siege engines to farm resource spots...use your Level 1 attack troops to yield...that way ALL of your troops can be fully developed and ALL can be battle ready!

6. Try to maintain an upgrade balance between Knowledge, Building, and Troops where your highest level of Influence is Knowledge. At the beginning, get rid of any advanced troops you cannot upgrade...they increase your influence but you cannot upgrade them...they become victims for bigger players and a waste  gathering resources...try to keep your Military/Troop Influence at about 10-15% of your total Influence...that way, a devasting troop lost is not as devastating.

7. Pay attention to your Ranking...if you advance to fast, you miss the benefits of any particular Rank and are forced to gain benefits from Events against bigger and stronger players...being a whale among minnows is the advantage you seek..learn how the Ranking system and Events can work to your benefit.

In the end, everything will depend on a good, solid plan of advancing...nothing beats planning but research...do your research, ask questions of advanced players and learn how to play at the beginning, rather than after spending time and money on needless, unnecessary things.

Almost forgot! Forum, Forum, FORUM....The information here is much better...the details of what does what, where to get what, and general knowledge about differing aspects of game are ALL here...With the videos that players have made available on places like youtube...you can become a badazz really quick.

The Tips from Deathmiser are good but i would like to add something which is also important. 

1. VIP-Level

Especially for beginners it´s a big boost on everything. I recommend to join a big clan and spent all your gold in the first weeks on shields and vip-tokens. They can be purchased directly if you click on the VIP-Symbol on top of your screen. "Get Points"

What VIP-Level does = which benefits you have you can look in the forum. There is a hole thread about this.

https://plarium.com/forum/en/vikings-war-of-clans/666_game-database/126052_table-of-vip-levels/?post=594949

Higher VIP-Level = More Tasks, More Hero points, More Loyality points, better Prod. on and on and on

A good goal is VIP 18/19 for the beginning.

2. Quests = Upgrading Hero

Each time you fullfil a quest you will get a reward. The most players will take the reward right away. I recommend not doing this. While you upgrade your town you will notice a building called Heroes Abode. If you click on it you find a Line "Increased Hero experience %" . That means the higher that building, the higher is the % --> more hero experience points for upgrading your hero.

I would reccommend to save all those rewards till the point you reached lev 20 or lev 21. Than buy from the store "Boosts--> Hero/Shaman --> Hero´s Experience --> 24h Accelerated Training 25 % " for 4k gold. After this you finish all your rewards. this will speed up your Hero upgrading because you gain from the high building % and from this item.

3. Ress / Production

If you are really new you should always ask for ress in your clan. Upgrading to lev 21 seems to be big in ress for you but´s a joke in ress for a good economy player. So ask for it and start building and upgrading knowledge. I recommend always to upgrade economy tree. Because if you have a running production whilst not fighting you can support your SH or Clan Bank with ress. As a beginner you can have multiple ress farms in your town. Go for 6 each first and upgrade them all. it helps the whole clan if your production is always running. Once you need the ress for knowledge, traning, building or whatever you ask for them  from clan bank. This way you dont jump around with big ress and risk to beeing hit by someone faster than you. Always keep your production running ( at lev 21 ) 

Hope it´s a little help.

Fly

Having played for a couple of days, I am struggling to see the point of this at all.

Chat is in Russian the whole time.  There is no chance of any interaction with other players because my keyboard doesn't even have that alphabet.

Upgrading takes hours, even days.

The first time I tried to get some gold from the global map, I was attacked by a complete stranger and lost all my troops - for 6 gold!

It sounds like you are in a new kingdom and these tend to be more frantic, however you also seemed to have run into one where experienced Russian players , who would tend to be more  aggresive,have novice jumped and taken over this new kingdom.

They do not want anyone one to challenge their claim, so do not give any one a chance to do so.

Haggai said:

Having played for a couple of days, I am struggling to see the point of this at all.

Chat is in Russian the whole time.  There is no chance of any interaction with other players because my keyboard doesn't even have that alphabet.

Upgrading takes hours, even days.

The first time I tried to get some gold from the global map, I was attacked by a complete stranger and lost all my troops - for 6 gold!

At what point does this even become interesting, let alone fun?

If you ask around in the chat bat you might find some English speakers but it's easier to find a clan that speaks the language you want. 

Sadly you've also hit the one thing that puts off new players, anyone can attack anyone. A nice idea but a level 60 hero with 500k troops can roll up and attack low level hero's with low troop count. It gives them easy points in challenges. 

Join a clan and get them to help you but in the end you can never beat the biggest clans or players with real cash backing.

Once you're in a  clan and can get help with your upgrades. I guess the fun comes from the clan helping you grow your hero and town and then everyone doing well in challenges, chatting with your clan members for a social relaxing time or organising a good strategic plan.

 Sadly there is no way to "win the game" just to get your clan to the top of the leader board for prestige. 

Skål!

Every day, new recruits arrive in Vikings: War of Clans. Having just entered the northern lands, they face a lot of questions: what should they upgrade the first, what equipment should they choose? 

Experienced Jarls, imagine that you're just starting your path in the Viking world. What would you upgrade first? Is this a different approach from your first steps in Vikings: War of Clans? Share your wisdom with the newbies! 

CSVSD.

Why is your post above even here?

Why do players insist on quoting the administrators post in full, especially when its connected to a competition where its an extremely long post, and then not writing anything?