I would add - read forum for at least a week, and go over dozen of highly rated topics under guides. Then use search. Then come and ask for clarifications for questions you couldn’t find answer to. Maybe you’ll just end writing bug reports and seeking alliances and never need to open own topic for questions - so far I didn’t need that one, because I could find everything I had questions about. And I had a lot of questions 
Btw, find @Coppersky guide and start from there if you’re totally new in the game. and then there’s that wiki: https://sites.google.com/site/empiresandpuzzlesrpgwiki/home
That should help with basic gameplay.
Then come here for polishing strategies and learning about heroes 
And there’s this new, very useful topic - Advice for New Players, or "All the things I wish someone had told me when I first started."
If you don’t understand some term - search for it.