If you beat your turn order on a d6 you win, otherwise you need to roll one higher than your opponent on a d6 each. Going early means you almost always win, but you have few tokens. Also, to attack, you need tokens equal to the number of defenders plus the value of the territory. This is to make it more expensive to move last. An interesting addition to the game.
Misery is negative victory points.
Not paying for cards in hand, disasters, and religion advances increase your misery. Since you cannot reduce it until you have acquired one advance in every category, your buying must be spread out at first. As in Civ, you want them all. The essential ones are the first two religions, all the commerce, all the shipping. The rest are useful, but seem to be less important.