This is an addictive game. Here is some brief advice

Mors.Magne

This is a very addictive game - it has elements of:

• Being creative and growing your village
• Tactics and forward-planning
• That feeling of winning lots of battles which required varying amounts of thought
• Being surprised by player-driven things
• You could easily play it every waking moment - it will work on your iPhone and on your iPad very well. You might find yourself waking up in the middle of the night to check on what's happening
• Fantastic meta-game - there are lots of YouTube demonstrations and websites where you can learn and plan new things

 

If you feel tempted to make in-app purchases, buy builder's huts. There is a massive drop-off in value between these and everything else on offer.

 

Buying 'gems' as an in-app purchase to speed things up is really expensive (1 gem = about 8 minutes), so I only use these if a skill change is required during an important unexpected meeting at work. This is because, generally speaking, the second most valuable commodity in the game is time. This is followed by gold, and finally elixir.

Tekd

Agreed with all of the above. The only other items I think that might be worth spending real money on are the resource collectors since they are also a real investment that keeps on giving like the builder huts.

sumdumguy1

I played this game and couldn't get into myself, but I have a few friends who play on their phones.  They seem to enjoy it and if you are as well, as it appears, have a blast!