You have to play cRPG now to craft/recruit in Strategus. Every time it shows you getting xp/gold in cRPG you also get 1 crafting tick and it takes 2 crafting ticks to make one good/troop per hour in Strategus. So to craft for 24 hours in strat you'll need to play about 48 minutes or 5 hours per week if you wanna craft 24/7. If you don't have any crafting ticks it sets your character to doing nothing.
Under 50 troops you don't pay any upkeep on them, so you should recruit 49 before you make any goods/equipment. Without troops you'd move really slow carrying stuff too.
If you need a place to work, we'll pay you in strat gold or equipment to make goods in Fisdnar. It's the village up in the very top northeast corner of the map and pm for details.