Don't worry, it's not really linked to your normal cRPG character except that when you play cRPG, you also earn gold in Strategus. So you won't lose anything in cRPG due to Strategus.
If you 'die' in strat (lose a battle), you get teleported to a random spot on the map.
As a clanless player, it's very hard to be useful in strat. You can go look for a village to recruit troops in. But watch the hourly fee. Owners of fiefs can set the fee between 0 and 100 gold per hour.
You can also try and earn strategus gold by working in one of the towns.
You can sell your troops and gold in strategus. Some players and clans pay cRPG gold for strategus gold and troops. Or you can try to group up with a few other players, pool your resources and start a battle somewhere.
Most villages have already been taken by clans, but if you can get over 500 troops together and a lot of strategus gold to buy equipment, you can try and conquer that village. Or maybe you want to start a battle with another player by attacking him.
I consider Strategus to be a fancy battle-scheduling machine. ;)
Be sure to install the eye candy script(s):
http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,10412.0.htmlIt makes navigating strategus much easier.
And:
http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,11210.msg159686.htmlIt's old and not updated, but it still seems to work fine.