Hi, I'm new! And.. uh.. help?

[quantum_mechani]

nonsense said:
I know it'll vary from nation to nation, but is there sort of a baseline amount for, say, how many mages you should hire to research? How important is it to look for sites? Can fortresses and temples and so forth wait, or are they a more important investment than the initial army?

You should be hiring, at minimum, roughly one mage per turn. Think of 'provinces-that-can-recruit-mages' as another resource. Site searching priority varies, but if you have the early remote search spells researched, and the gems and mages to use them, it is rarely a bad idea to take advantage. Forts and temples are mainly important once you have more gold than your starting fort can make good use of.