game was created by warlords(another turn based game from the 80s) geeks, many things here dont add up to anyone who didn't play that game nevertheless game is still fun.
to win you'll need to attack as many neutral castle+ruins before you meet the enemy.
the best hero for easy neutral castles is the barb and with experience you'll learn how to abuse the 90% rule (i have an excel) so your barb will grow.
you should aim for 7 to 15 castles at turn 7 once you manage to do that you'll start winning games.
you need to get into ruins the ranger/HL is best for that
on PVP strategy:
1. creators made sure defence sucks.
2. for a good hero+alias offer you need gold+luck
3. you loose gold once you loose castles
4. once you start gaining castles and enemy losing castles the game is over u win so make sure you are on the attacking side.
did i miss anything?