Once you select your island and place for your HQ, you must do some research for better weapons and defences. On the roof of your buildings you can put protectors like archers, gunmen, boiling oil men, and later on even laser turrets. If you send a team of unarmed men into an unoccupied square, they will build an additional base there, with larger armies completing this more quickly.Later on higher levels, you'll also build mines and factories, as you'll need to dig a certain material for higher level weapons, depending on whether the area you're on is rich with a certain material or not. With each next level, you'll start from a higher technology level and be able to progress to one higher level up then the at previous level.If there is more then just one enemy, you can make an alliance until you crush the other one - three of you can form an alliance against fourth enemy. For what its worth, a certain numeric level of defence is always stronger from the same level of attacker, and men that are not armed (conscripts) can only kill enemy soldiers, not destroy or attack enemy fort.The main thing as it always is in strategy games is to be the sole survivor and lead your men to victory, experimenting on vicious technologies, equipping your men, making a perfect soldiers out of them, produce shields, weapons, planes... to dominate the world and crush your opponents. You can do the battling only in a certain quadrant, but don't be long as your men will automatically start building the fort, and it will be at the bottom of age level and you'll need to invent everything for that one again.