Yes what you are asking here is the secret of TW2! The thing with this game is that what works for one person doesn't always work for the next. However there are some broad guidelines that apply.
01. Always (apart from 1st villa and convert it as soon as you have more than 1) have either offensive or defensive villas. NB a church is always defensive, there isn't the room to have a decent nuke in one.
Nothing to add here.
02. Never attack with defensive troops, it just don't work. The exception to this is when you need to change your troop build and either attack yourself or another player (be prepared if you do, you may well get attacked back).
Or here.
03. Never defend with offensive troops, that doesn't work either... Also if you use them for defense and they get killed, you can't farm to replace them... If its a desperate situation try it, but don't be surprised if you find your self rimmed...
A. The exception to this would be to defend attack counts similar to what Zaen listed in his train, see point 06, by placing troops (in an emergency) after the main attack and killing the weaker noble complements. See point 09 for an explanation of what a train is. Sniping is a contingency defense to stacking.
B. The best defense is a good offense. As such the best defensive use of your offense is to kill your enemies offense, take opportunities and experience to practice timing out when an enemies nuke should return to the village (discipline in this game adds complexity and uncertainty to this) and time your nuke to hit the second after. This tactic is known as backtiming, and is another contingency to stacking.
04. Rams are needed in a nuke to take walls down. Most people use about 300 per nuke.
If you are doing it right, you are always misdirecting your enemy. Make him think you are attacking one village and hit somewhere else, 220 rams will still take down a level 20 wall here. 250 rams gives room to send fakes, and then you have a meager 300 to up your offensive power with 50 berserkers.
05. Rams and cats need to have infantry escort when taking walls/buildings down.
Last I heard this mechanic was changed (1.6?) to siege requiring any offensive troop to see them through the attack, this means players are now building cavalry nukes with siege and no infantry.
06. Nobles need escorts! If it is a barb and no walls or troops are in it it doesn't need to be a large escort, 200 axe or 100 LC will do. If it is 1st attack on a player owned villa full of troops you may want to clear it first with a nuke then send noble plus escort. If you are confident your nuke will clear then you can send a noble with the nuke. Only 1 noble goes per attack. There is no point in sending more than 1. The loyalty will not be lowered quicker.
A. To disagree slightly with theblackone, while the game is still in beta, there is probably more of a benefit to nuking first and nobling later, when you have numerous nukes you will likely be doing this anyway.
B. Typically, or at least in tribal wars 1, nobles would die when 50% of the accompanying infantry died, with more than one noble in a main attack, chances of a noble surviving increase and you are more likely to effect the required loyalty hits to the village you are nobling if one of the many variable factors cause you to lose a noble in the main attack. Though Zaen is true in saying it doesn't lower it quickly, sending more than 1 noble isn't necessarily devoid of strategy.
07. Everyone has different ideas on the perfect nuke. However in this world MA's are a lot more effective than in TW1 and so you are advised to build more of them than you would there, in TW1 i used to only have 320 of them. How many is up to you. Broadly speaking a nuke will consist of axe, LC, MA, rams and some cats to knock down a building or help knock down the walls. When you have Hall of Orders you can choose to build berserkers. These are highly efficient fighters and though they cost a lot they can do a lot of damage especially when out numbered. As you get more villas, experiment with different nuke/defence ratio's to find out what works for you. I can't give you the ideal as i haven't found it yet....
Speed over strength for an aggressor, it would benefit me as a player who likes to fight to be able to build a full offense in 16 days, than a stronger nuke in 3 or 4 weeks.
08. When attacking and nobling out of province you need to use your pally, have your statue up to 5 and use what ever officers are suitable if you have some.
Nothing to add here.
09. To noble a villa you need to send a noble with escort at a cleared villa. You can send 1 at a time and bounce back and forth or you can send a train. A train is consecutive nobles and escorts. How much you send is up to you. Remember the 1st noble needs to be either with a fat nuke or to be hitting a cleared villa. It is possible to get a villa with 3 nobles in quick succession (seconds apart) but usually it takes 4. Sometimes your nobles get drunk and distracted and it takes 5. Loyalty grows back at 1 per hour on these worlds.
The Paladin weapon called Vasco's scepter increases the minimum and maximum loyalty damage of his accompanying noble, to a maximum of 50, allowing each player the potential for a 3-noble train.
10. When you noble a villa that noble stays put and can't be used again till the villa is nobled off you, so you will need to mint more coins to replace him.
True
11. The 1st villa you take out of province should be a church villa to allow your own and supporting troops to fight at full strength, no church and they are at 50%.
True
12. Barb nobling is seen as a sign of noobishness. When you noble barbs you are depriving yourself and others of a farm and the resource generated. The exception to this is when it is a tactical move such as to get a foothold in enemy territory, to get a church up in a new province or you have grown so fast that your area doesn't have any fat live targets. It takes time to develop a low point barb into a decent villa. Far better to take a high point player villa and to be able to get the troops built quickly to enable you to take more.... Meanwhile farm the barbs and use the resources gained.
Currently, the game is very defensively biased, makes it much more challenging for aggressors, barb nobling is a valid tactic here, especially early on so as not to affect your growth during start up. While I advocate you clear your province and own it, you want to keep your troop losses to a minimum for farming to maintain an effective startup, I'd say for at least 10 villages, but you aren't really out of the slowest stage until about 20 here imo.
13. Once you have another villa it is time to decide what to build in it. If you are a highly aggressive player it will be O, if you are more cautious you may decide to be a turtle and just build D. If you are new to game it is wise to have a mix of both types of villa so you can self support and defend while still having O villas to nuke from. The ratio is entirely up to you and will be determined by experience and evolving game play style.
Joining a tribe will be an imperative for you to have a chance to learn and continue from each mistake or strategy that doesn't work out for you. Even if you join a group of similar new players, you will all gain a small contingent of defensive troops through start up, enough to discourage any aggressor as long as you are all active and selfless in supporting each other. An attack on a tribe mate should be supported as if it were an attack on you, because otherwise the next attack might just be on you.
14. Using spies can tell you what lies in wait at the villa you are after. You need green reports to see accurately. But do remember that troop numbers can change, especially the longer you leave it before you hit the villa. The player can get support or it is already on it's way, arriving just after your spies.
Can't think of anything to add here...
The only way to learn this game is to play. Join a good tribe, ask advice either in forum or by mail to leadership. If they are any good they will help all they can. If they don't look for a better tribe! Remember that if you are attacked and switch tribes you may well be claimed as a refugee and can get kicked.
The truest of truths.
Click here for a link to the wiki, it is full of useful information and is a great help.
Hope this helps. Am sure there will be posts point out error in my advice, but thats TW, there are many ways to play this game.