If you're trying to advance and clamber your way up you probably want to log in daily. Or you could just set your empire to vacation time every weekend (or any other time you can't be on for a while), I'd imagine, so no one can attack you while you're away.
Time-wise, on a daily basis, it usually takes me no more than, say, 20 minutes, to log in, buy mercs (if necessary), make my attacks, build, visit the bank, and log out, but it does take longer when I'm researching potential targets for attacking and/or working on things like answering messages. Still, I've found it to be much less time consuming than, say, KOC, or HOA.
train, you gain money every turn you use when your empire is operating in the green (financially speaking). You increase your per turn income by building Markets and Keeps. You increase your per turn grain production by building Farms, and keeping your peasants housed (Huts) and happy (low taxation). You gain more troops each turn spent by building more Blacksmiths, Mages by building Mage Towers, and you increase your defensive ability by building Guard Towers.
All this building takes land, however. You start out with a goodly parcel to work with, but eventually you find yourself running out. Early on you use turns Scouting to find more land to build on, but eventually, as you build your empire, Scouting returns less and less land with each turn spent, and it starts to make more sense to attack other empires to get their land (and structures) instead.
Troops can be purchased at either market (Black or Public). The ones you buy at the Public market take like, 3 hours, to join your army, but they're cheaper than the troops you buy at the Black market, which join your army immediately. You can also sell excess troops and grain at either market, with the same time/price differences. At the Public market though, you have to wait even longer for someone to buy your stuff after the 3 hour "in transit" time is up, so, especially early on, you're probably better off selling your excesses (when you have some) at the Black market.
Finally, my empire's name in this game is Dûrost, but you don't need that to join the Alliance. Just go to the Alliances link over on the left, click it, then scroll down to the join section of the page. Click the drop down box to find our Alliance (it'll either say CPA or Casual Players - I don't remember which). Choose it, enter the password of magic, and you're in!
