well when i play Thor (i play Random so i have experience w/ other Norse as well) i put about 5 dwarves on gold, then like 4-5 on food, and the more on wood/gold. with those 4-5 on food, you can advance at about 5 minutes. that way you can end up with way more gold / wood when you hit classical and then you can build buildings and throwing axmen.
with other norse i have to put like 15 people on food in order to still advance at a decent time and constnatly pump villies before that. in a thor game, those villies (which are actually dwarves) can be doing other stuff.