I recently joined into the game. Technically I'm in the bottom of the food chain. I'm in constant attack..

It can be a very difficult game when you first start out. The best thing to do is join an alliance, if you haven't already. Find a strong alliance and you will be safer as many have friendships and agreements with other alliances not to attack each other. If its your first alliance you should be able to teleport close to them for free. Check the list of alliances and find one with open recruitment.

I would suggest being a farmer class, initially anyway. You can change class for free every 3 base levels you increase. Farmers have a depot protection that safeguards a fixed amount of resources if you get attacked.

Troops can only be kept safe with shields (that cost diamonds) or by sending them to other alliance members as reinforcements.

Don't worry too much about training lots of troops to begin with. Build / research whenever you can to help yourself grow. Try to reach level 13 when you can train T5 troops which are stronger. Before long you will be one of the bigger fish.