"Oh, why hello little lost wolf..."

Build a study, research some gear, buy gear for Sov and champions, then kill the wolf.  If you buy a staff for your Sov, and your Sov isn't a total pussy, he should be able to kill a wolf on normal difficulty fairly easily. 

Don't believe Xia, he's working for the wolf!

The Wolf, Gmork serves me!  I am the Nothing!

Wow, i bet a few users are too young to get that reference.

I NAME YOU.... SALLY

When creating a new SoV, provide hinm/her the means to defend themselves, give him/her a weapon. Any one will do.

A 0 (zero) attack is just that, SFA.

ATREYU!!!

Um

Why would you amass peasants? They're not a great unit choice. Design a better unit instead.

Also research some equipment, like Xia said.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but you can only visit/buy from the store in your zone of control. So if you're out exploring, you're SOL. You need to get the unit you want equipment for back to your territories.

Actually, your heros can sometimes purchase items form the neutral, and/or other SOV's stores.

Yea, if you have non-aggression pacts or alliances, you can go into a friendly kingdom/empire and buy gear they have researched.  And if the Neutral faction is around, you can go up to their stores and buy Longswords, and if you are male and of the race of "Men" you can buy pressed iron helmets and chest armor, and they rock early in the game and have no dodge penalty.  I love that shit.  Sure wish there were more neutral factions and that everyone could use the special items sold at them.

 yup. What she said.

1. For Rival factions your hero must be in thier ZoC (zone of control) and NOT be at war with that rival. You can do that via the diplomacy menu and signing a Non Agression pact, or peace treaty. You can also use the shop by stationing a hero on that factions border and waiting for that ZoC to expand. (this option allows you to use the shop without signing a 99 season non agresion pact)
2. For Neutral factions you must have a hero adjacent to that neutral factions city.

Best early attack weapon is the "Boar Spear" which you get at Level 2 city..

Played at "Ridiculous" mucho muy difficulty for the first time, wolves and spiders kept attacking my city, continuously, but.. after entering combat, I just escaped from combat and my fledgling settlement wasnt destroyed :-o (it *was* destroyed later when the pack contained a bandit, but by that time I had got boar spear and I reloaded a save, fought and defeated that pack instead of running).

Nice reference,

The luckdragon strikes again.   When I played "i'm thinking of an animal" with with my kids (on long drives... lol) Atrayu was always a fun one to use.

Since 1.1 there is a bit of a 'missing link' in combat terms at the start of the game. In earlier game versions you could get things like flame dart or archery quite early (depending on setup choices) but now, all these things are tucked away behind a large technology barrier.

You are pretty much forced to select military tech first up or happen upon a minor race. In my case, i always build my own maps and ensure several minor races are nearby - problem solved!