No offense, but having learned the game without the help of any guides and evaluating what I did right and wrong when I found the forum guides and tweaked things, I have to say that I feel sorry for anyone who follows this guide.

It was much more efficient for me to focus on one or two resources when I was a noob. I focused on lumber. Had two cities that did nothing but lumber. I should have done 1 lumber an 1 iron. Point being- I bought all the food I needed from the market with profits I made selling my spare lumber. I quickly had 1 billion gold. Then 2 billion.

Of course, one reason that I grew my gold reserve so fast was that I didn't have to buy food off the market ever again after I made my first NPC farming hit on a level 5 with ballista and transports. I got all the food I needed for myself simply by farming for exp. Yeah, I didn't care about the food at all- just wanted to level my heroes and the food was a bonus.

But yeah, I would advise knowing more about the game before you make a guide japanpimp. I never played Age I. I started with Age II and learned on my own in the beginning. I am glad I didn't have this guide to work with when I was new because I see a lot of holes in it. Resources are the most important thing to set up when you are new as they allow you to grow faster when you set yourself up right. I think you have failed with the concept of resource priority and management.

No offense intended- I'm just giving feedback.