It's been a while since I went through the beginner training, so some of this is from my somewhat faulty memory.
- I don't know if the bandit camps have hints built in, but adding intelligence into them, along with good guidance would be an opportunity to let new players learn how to attack, and with what. A level is only successful if you attack with the correct type(s) of units, with the right numbers. If you send the wrong type, there should be pop up hints before you launch the attack about what you are doing that might be wrong, and if you proceed, you might not get the reward. Additionally, there should be bandit attacks to teach how to defend. There should also be some off-island bandit exercised to teach those aspects of the game. It can't be complete, but would give a broader set of experiences, with good feedback.
- There is nothing currently on how to conquer a city. At the start of the game, some portion of the anchor points on each island (maybe half) should be reserved for beginners conquests. These would be filled with small/moderate size cities that are game run (light weight AI) to simulate someone defending against a conquest attempt. There is already a beginners quest to conquer a city, which right now relies on attacking another player to take their city, or founding a new city. This would provide targets few new players without impacting the player base, along with providing practice and hints on how to conquer. Probably limit to 1 of these cities per player.
- Extended beginners protection probably isn't a great idea, but 'bully' protection (for lack of a better name - this is why I'm not in marketing) that would extend for some time after beginners protection based on point differences might help reduce some of the impact early gold has.
- I believe there is currently a beginners activity to form/join an alliance, maybe add an activity to have a PM conversation of more than 3 messages with more than 3 other players?
- Modify the alliance limit to reserve part of the limit for new players for the first 3-6 months of a world. This might help shake up some of the existing cliques by encouraging them to take in and train some new people.