Being a noob is ok. I was dubbed KingNoob
at one time by some but hey look, now I am rank 2 at r9 :-)) Everyone has to start from scratch. Go to university and start building em, you may want to consider having a high level of university before doing anything else example lvl 6-8 uni before you get second province(my style), secondly don't get a fortress lvl above other provinces, example if you buy fortress lvl 6 and u still have fort lvl 4 in some provinces, I don't recommend it because one fortress lvl higher than previous lvl is 4 times as expensive, so you should get all equal lvl fortress for all provinces. Every fort lvl gives you 10% more production. Try to also get higher architecture lvl because it will make fortress cheaper to build. If you have any questions feel free to give me a private message and I will do my best to assist you :-)