Always upgrade your resource producing buildings as high as you can. The more you upgrade the resources, the more resources you'll earn per hour. Always check the Heroes tab for rare heroes to pop up. It's rare, but it is possible, that a three, four or five star hero will pop up every once in awhile. Your military is the key to dominating other players. If you are still building up your military to a competitive size, then when you get notified that an attack is coming your way, send your military out on a mission (especially on a mission to counterattack someone who is attacking you). Your only method of winning is to have MORE troops, especially as the attacker. As the defender, you have other methods of defense, but your troops are still the primary. Level up the castle to increase your militia size. Have more than one settlement and upgrade Counter-Espionage as high as you can as it allows you to detect spies or attackers, and thus to be ready for attacks. If you capture an enemy hero you'll earn more silver. Joining an alliance has all of the same benefits as having multiple settlements, except multiplied. You and your alliance members can send each other resources and troops, in order to back each other up, and even make plots to band together and take out other alliances' members one by one.