get volleyed in wc. hit the forgottten ones that just started. buy bribery gems with the volley money. make sure you hit the item phase (bribery gem) at start of every forgotten one you do. once you are big enough to hit ambush hit ambush b2b. then when big enough hit haunt.
Follow back and ill help you, the basics are, explore lands put guilds on them, get max plunder with allies, hit the eb ambush and GROW!