[Wauthan]

You should have expanded first and researched later. This game is not kind to slow starters. If you are making more money then you spend you know something is not right.

If you want to go the "magic" path you need to go all out and produce mages all over the place, summon monsters to guard them and research so fast that when the hammer falls your way you can shatter it. Building magic around a basic theme (like say firespells with fireimmune summoned monsters) is usually a better way then giving the mages "shoot at will" and using ordinary troops.