If you are planning to take a barbarian village as practice nobling your first time, troops shouldn't be an issue, just remember that a noble MUST have some troops with it otherwise he trips over his own shoes and cracks his head open walking into the village.
Having one noble, you will need to keep sending your noble until loyalty is all the way below 0, this might take 4 or 5 sends.
When you get used to the game, you will be better off saving up nobles so you can send 4 consecutive attacks (helps against active players), but that of course delves into experiences you are yet to have, one foot in front of the other, one step at a time.
As coolnite said, there are no stupid questions.