From one newbie too another, let’s start at the top. First doing great because you are reading and asking questions, forget anyone who gives you any flack about research, not everyone does well with that. Now I can’t find your entry so let’s do it this way. I went with 3 forge’s to cover one later with the barracks. 6 farms because I had difficulties maintaining enough food. 3 Iron,wish I had six. Fixed that by not harvesting until I had to or they were at Mac capacity. I don’t know if it makes any difference but it made me feel in control. NEVER FEED A ONE!!! Focus on two’ s and three’s and if you are going with the concept of building one team at a time or two or what ever has been recommended by the big sisters and brothers ( I chose one at a time and known have three OK teams. Feed the hell out of the with any extra you have to include unneeded two’s. My thought is with using others experiences that by the time you need another two you are looking for three’s or four’s. Can’t remember the rest. Understand something they are teaching us to avoid what the did so we can write the new best practices from our experience. The best way to honor their efforts is to be open because if you follow their suggestions you will experience something completely different to share with improvement ideas of your own. I apologise, to many years of training and teaching. Talk or write too much. Good Luck. 
You are the bomb. This has been plaguing me, with all the other games you are like an inmate, get with a crew quickly so you can survive. I am glad to hear you can wait and still enjoy and obviating be accepted. Thanks
Great advice @NPNKY 
I was wondering if you (or anyone else) can tell me how many Mines and Iron Storage (and what levels they need to be) to enable SH11 & TC11.
Thanks in advance for any advice
I don’t know specifically. I just kept checking my maximum capacity compared to what I wanted to level next, and leveled them as needed. I can tell you that you need your iron storage all at level 18 for SH20, and your food storage all at least level 14 to research TC20.
Thanks @NPNKY, I’ve just worked out how to check my max - wish I’d pressed on those buttons before I spent the gems on filling it up 
. I’ll be keeping a close eye on it now
I can answer my own question now 
. 3 Mines @ level 9 & 3 Iron Storage @ level 8 allows you to bank 355k of iron (enough to upgrade SH 9-10 - 301k iron).
I guess it’s a good idea to keep the mines and storage for at about the same level as the SH, at least until you get to TC11 and then re-evaluate.
I know i needed all four of my iron storage at level 11 to upgrade my stronghold to level 13 to get TC 13. Currently taking a break from training at TC13 because i have enough 3s and 4s to work on. So, it is a slow grind to the top. Especially when it takes days to upgrade once you get to the higher levels.
What does:“DON’T FEED AWAY YOUR FIRST BANE!!” mean?
‘‘Feeding’’: using a hero / multiple heroes to level up another hero.
Everyone of us received Bane as their first 3* hero. He’s a great 3* hero in general, so don’t use him to level up other heroes. Keep him in your collection.
Your first daily summon gave you the golden harmonic slam genius Bane. Absolutely right.
If you receive another one from summons or training camps then you might want to keep his duplicate also. Nevertheless, until you have at least 30 3* (or above) heroes you better keep all of them. A 2nd and maybe even a 3rd Bane are useful early on for color stacking in raids, alliance wars, titans and later on they might be worth it for special events beginner levels.
What should we do with MAX level trainer heroes? Use them as feeders?
Really?
Are you not supposed to have one of every color in a defensive team?
I didn’t know you could have a uniform same color team
This is regarding your attacking team for raids. Many people use the tactic to use multiple heroes of the same color which is strong against the color of the tank (central hero) of their opposing team. It gives them the advantage to take down the tank much faster. You can of course use 2, 3, 4 and even 5 heroes of the same color in your attacking teams.
But as you said, it is better to have a rainbow defense team. Some people do use 2 (and rarely 3) heroes of the same color in their defense team. For example, Boril (blue) as tank being flanked by Kelile (red) and Boldtusk (red). But in general a rainbow defense team is more effective. It also just depends on what heroes you have available.
Okay
That being said… I now have another curious question… Is there a particular way they should be arranged on the screen when selecting them? Or does that make no difference? Or does the game allow little to no control over the order in which you choose for them to appear in battle order?
- Does this make sense… I’m not sure if I make any sense to me
It does make sense. Here are some topics, which might answer your question and future questions about hero positioning: Hero Positioning Questions - #5 by RedPython & Best Team & Hero Position Ideas - #3 by Firedragon.
In short: yes it does make a difference.
The game controls the order in which your defense team heroes fires their special attacks. The AI fires special attacks from LEFT to RIGHT. Of course, this only matters if more than 1 special attack is charged (and fired) in the same round. Also take in count that your central hero + both heroes flanking this hero will most likely have their special charged up first, since most people aim to take down the tank first.
You have 5 positions to put your heroes in, from left to right: 1, 2, 3 (center), 4, 5.
Heroes on position 2, 3, and 4 will most likely have their special ready first.
Idealy you want the order to be:
- Attack buff of your own heroes / Buff removal of the opposing heroes (Kiril, Boldtusk, Wu Kong, Sabina, Melendor, Belith, Tyrum, Caedmon etc.)
- Elemental defense down debuff of the opposing heroes (Guardian Falcon etc)
- Defense down debuff of the opposing heroes (Grimm, Gormek, Tiburtus, Isarnia etc)
- Damage dealing at the opposing heroes / Snipers (Lianna, Caedmon, Sonya, Balthazar, Kelile etc)
You also take in consideration the placement of colors strong/weak against each other. Especially for your tank. In example from left to right: Green, Red, Blue, Purple, Yellow. An opponent who stacks green heroes to kill your central blue tank will deal way less damage with tiles to your red hero flanking your tank.
My team consists of: Caedmon, Grimm, Chao, Rigard, Colen.
Knowing that 2,3 and 4 will have their special up first the order of my special attacks are:
- Grimm: defense down of the opposing heroes (removes defense buffs also)
- Chao: damage dealer
Idealy I want Caedmon on the spot of Rigard, but using this healer in my team would be useless then. Corner heroes have their special attacks charge a lot slower, and since Rigard has an average special I doubt that he will use it on time. However, it is important to have Caedmon in the left corner instead of the right. In case he get’s charged at the same time as Colen or any other hero, I make sure that Caedmon fires first and removes a possible (elemental) defense buff.
If by now you are not sure in what order to place them, you can list your team here and I’ll make a suggestion.
My Tank is Balthazar who is purple
My second Strongest is Bane who is yellow
Then Toril blue
Jenneth green
Last Zudak red
I tried putting Balthazar in the middle because he the tank but he keeps getting killed faster that way… I like putting him farthest right in position #1 because he stays alive longer and just gets damaged
Try Toril first, in the far left corner, where his attack buff will help your other hitters. Then Balthazar, Bane as your tank, Zudak and Jenneh.
Thank you so much. It’s really helpful…
@NPNKY has made a good suggestion for your team. Try setting up your team like that.
But, don’t forget that your team consists of two 3* heroes and three 2* heroes. Quite a few players in the beginning of the game have spend some money obtaining better heroes. I myself play on an alt account without spending money and have experienced big troubles in the beginning as well.
Manage your expectations correctly and you will see that with a little more patience you will make great improvement. It’s just a matter of time until you’re lucky to obtain a nice hero from summoning or until you have reached training camp level 13, which gives you guaranteed 3* heroes with a small chance of obtaining 4* heroes! 
