Four resources
Food trains villagers and most soldiers and pays for the ages. Wood builds almost everything. Gold pays for the best soldiers, monks and the later ages. Stone builds walls, towers and the Castle.
A villager carries 12 of a resource at a time and walks it to the nearest building that takes it: the Town Hall takes all four, the Mill food, the Lumber Camp wood, the Mining Camp gold and stone.
Food
A Berry Bush holds 125 food. Hunted animals give more: a Deer Carcass holds 140 and a Boar Carcass 320, but a boar fights back, so send several hunters.
Farms feed you for the rest of the game. A Farm needs a Mill, costs 60 wood, and holds 450 food, worked by 1 farmer at a time. When the crop runs out the field lies fallow until you reseed it for 60 wood; switch on auto-reseed and the field replants itself whenever you can pay. The Mill's Horse Harness, Mouldboard Plough and Three-Field Rotation add more food to every field.
Wood, gold and stone
A tree holds 100 wood, a Gold Vein 800 gold and a Stone Deposit 600 stone. Build the camp beside the resource, not beside your Town Hall: the walk is the slow part.
Felling Axes at the Lumber Camp makes villagers chop wood +20% faster, and Gold Mining at the Mining Camp lifts gold mining +15%. Handbarrows at the Town Hall lets every villager carry +25% more and walk +10% faster.
Population and houses
Every unit takes room: a villager 1, a Knight 3, a Trebuchet 4. A House gives 10 room and a Town Hall 15, up to the match's cap of 150. Build houses ahead of need; a full town trains nothing.
Advancing the ages
Ages are researched at the Town Hall. The Feudal Age costs 500 food, the Stronghold Age 800 food200 gold and the Dominion Age 1000 food800 gold. Each needs a number of different buildings of the age you are in; Town Halls, houses, farms, walls and outposts do not count. The ages page lists what each one opens.
Trading at the Market
The Market buys and sells food, wood and stone for gold, in lots of a hundred. Every trade moves the price against you, and prices drift back with time, so trade a little and often. Gold itself cannot be bought.
Keeping villagers alive
Villagers who are gathering, building or idle drop their work and run when an enemy soldier hits them; a villager you have just sent to move or fight keeps to your order. Homespun Cloth at the Town Hall gives each villager +38 health, and the Town Hall shoots at raiders within 7.