If you look at a (owned) city in the admin interface, it shows you all the buildings, their cost, what they give you and what buildings/units they allow. Note that some units/buildings have more then one prerequisite.
If you create a army in the admin interface (by clicking on the box that says no armies->new army) then click on new unit, it shows you a list of all the units in the game as well as their costs (although not the buildings required to build them).
As for resources: Every tile you own produces resources each turn. A tile's resource output can be improved by building an improvement on it (which range from farms (+1 food) to mines and mana taps (which allow you to use special resources on the tile)). Improvements require that you own a city either adjacent for size 2-3 cities, or sqrt(5) of a size 4-6 city.
Land is claimed by clicking on the "Unclaimed" button (while you have at least one spare pop). Cities are built on claimed land by clicking on the "Uninhabited" button (again, while you have at least one spare pop).
You gain 1 population by consuming Population/2 food, and each population eats two food per turn (so if every population you have makes 3 food, you get 2 more population per turn, but if your average is 2 each, then you gain none). It is because of this that having higher food income is very important. E: If you have more food you grow faster and can support larger cities, which allows you a significant advantage. This is why you probably want to start near the river (since it will result in you having a faster initial growth).
Building anything requires labor, which is gained based on the size of your cities. Size: 2,3,4,5,6 cities produce 0,1,1,2,3 labor (size 6 cities require a special building to build however). Since everything requires labor, the more labor you have, the more total production you have. More labor is also extremely important. The person with the most labor will probably win, since they are able to grow the fastest (due to having the most production), and build the most and strongest troops.
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With all that said, I still need your and darkpaladin's starting positions.