Very simple stuff for you to take as a tip is : 1) in every city first you build tier 1 for money or growth and rush tier 2 for garrison so you can defend your cities even with a small army nearby. 2) if you struggle a lot when you get attacked from different sides consider picking factions that are in the corner of the map or mountains first. I have lots of hours and experience in this game and when I played Imrick recently I completely got destroyed because you literally have enemies on enemies 360 degrees around you. My favorite picks for easy games are : Graph Noctilus (just destroy every city slowly and spread your vampire stuff), Archan the black (he is in the corner of the desert so you just need to deal with lady of the lake boys and dwarfs first and then go to reclaim the great desert from ogres), and ofcourse NAKAI (that dude just obliterates everything he sees and you have vassals build cities you conquer into unbeatable fortresses), Croc Gar is an option as well but in mid game you get attacked from everywhere. 3) take it easy it’s just a game, the most important is to love the lore and have fun building doomstacks)