[JimMorrison]

You are really weak for the first year or so. Not so easy to kill, but not capable of much other than not dying. You want to maximize your gold income during this period, and get as many castles started (in concentric rings around your capital!) during this period as possible. Once the castles start completing, build temples in each one. By restraining the spread of your dominion at first you maximize gold income, then you translate that gold income in year two to an explosive avalanche of dominion that will swallow any who come too close.

It is absolutely critical that you get multiple new castles up before you piss anyone off - your non-castle spawns are simply garbage, they are the chaff that you use to protect your chaff.

Also, the 200% tax+patrol is brilliant for Ermor, I forgot that in my first post, thanks rdonj. <3 Tax+Patrol will net you far more income than Pillaging, even as your dominion candles stack up. If you handle the first year efficiently, you should have 4-5 castles by spring of year 2, and probably have a few more started, and potentially have a little stockpile of gold to keep things rolling even as you start stacking temples.