[KissBlade]

1) Forts are for strategic locations rather than actual troop generators. Their other main function is to build mages which requires very little resources. So build them on important sites or chokes.
2) Pretender, good troop forces lead by indie commanders or occasionally mages. Don't worry about hyper expansions, aim for 15 provinces by end f year 1 to stay competitive.
3) Completely depends on situation, nation, settings. Generally, good rule of thumb is focused research after you hit site searching spells.
4) First manual search, then swap to full remotes. Holy sites are more bonuses than something you should be actively searching for.
5) It is a slight exaggeration. Summons builds up faster than nationals as game progresses. Similarly most troops serve the same purpose for just sitting there and soaking damage or dealing pure damage but not great at soaking. The best choices are also the ones that allow some sort of discount or efficient mage time. here are some basics.

Nature: Vine Ogres + crown
Earth: Mechanical men, buried in sand, cave drakes with dragon master
Water: Naiad Warriors, Buried in Snow, frost drakes with dragon master
Blood: The four elemental demon types , devils, forces of darkness, etc (Blood has the best troop summons in the game)
Death: You rarely want to spend gems on troop summons for death, commanders are just so good. Banefire Archers and Longdead horsemen are occasionally seen.
Fire: Fire snakes, Summer Lions, drakes if you get a dragon master that can do fire ...
Air: call of wind for patrolling/sieging, corpsemen for emergency spam. Air gems are so good for other stuff ...
Astral: Better saved for other stuff.