Wow, I am sorry but if you are getting killed on novice, I don't know what to tell you. The game is not difficult and on novice it is a cake walk. Keep trying.

The lack of a tutorial make the game somewhat obtuse in the beginning

Step one, build a farm and a hut.

Step two build 2 workshops

Step three build a study

Step four research weapons get equipment

Step five buy AND EQUIP head gear 1d, body gear 2d, arms 1d, now I usually get the +1 movement cape and boots

Step six design a warrior that has all the same gear + get the oak spear.  Three warriors plus  sovereign should be fine to start.

Step seven, build an alchemy lab and start learning spells

blarg I always start with sorcery and raise my character as a mage. Early game is tough but late game is so fun when my character and a few others are running around the map with a shit load of summons. All hail mages !

yeah and start training troops, they suck and will die but once you build the troops I described you can use them as expendable explorers

Did you set your opponent's difficulty to novice? Some people set the world to novice thinking this affects the difficulty of the computer players.

 Heya; sorry to hear many of you are finding novice to hard. ( I wont mention that ridic is still to easy.. well not more than once^^promise) Heres a few tips that will make it more enjoyable for you since it will help you survive. (I hope^^) I'm rushing with this post, so I may omit some things... or you know, be unclear.. sorry in advance but my time isn't my own today...grrr

1. Custom Sov & custom factions: Make your own. They are more powerfull than those offered in game. Note; when chosing techs in character creation you'll see there are 4 techs for kingdoms & another 4 for empires. So only take those techs that will affect the type of faction you wish to play. Also the food bonus trait & the mana bonus trait are strong additions for eary on in the game. Play around with the diferent things you can choose, you'll find the ones you like the most. Also, there are numerous threads relating to this. Do a bit of surfing and read up on what others have contirbuted. Oh, almost forgot an important detail. Those spell books offered in character creation are unique. If you want to have access to theiir spells you MUST choose them in character creation. As a general rule I allways take all of them; but many people only choose a few like Mobility & Enchantments. You decide which you want...but my recomendation is to take them all. ^^
2. Initial city location: This can play a HUGE role in how successfull your attempt to found your kingdom or empire is. If you start the game with sweet f-a then perhaps you should try again. In my opinion, 2 main resources are the most important. Food & Tech. Ideally you want to start with 2 or more Food resources & 2 or more Lost Libraries. This will allow you to build your city with little initial headaches (pop + city growth) and keep you on par technologically with your rivals. Other resources like Mana Shrines & Gold/Metal mines are a close 2nd for importance in overall success. But are not crucial for initial strength. (though gold is allways a beutifull thing..*cough)
3. Initial City Build CHoices: Early on you don't have ANY choice in the matter, you must have room for your citizens for your city to grow; as well as enough food to build your housing needs. So allways build only as much housing that you need to grow to the next lvl. Later on you will research techs that will make this housing better & more efficient. These techs are crucial for growing your ciities to lvl 5 in a cost effective manner. As mentioned above, if you choose Food Bonus in character creation you do NOT need to build a farm right away (this will save you some gold earl on, but keep in mind you will need to build that farm sooner than later), since you will have just enough food allready for your fledgling cities needs. Next, build 1 workshop, you will need those materials for future builds. Then build 1 Tech building & 1 Lore Building so you can begin researching technological impprovements you will need & magical spells that will aid your efforts. Do not build more than you can afford early on, these building have an upkeep...be frugal but try to think ahead also. Generally speaking, the most important buildings early on are Tech, Housing, Lore, Materials (though if you research explore/adventure techs you will find alot of this later on in goody huts)
4. Starting Reasearch: 1st reasearch is Military & I choose 'armor'. See #6 below for details as to why. Afterwords my research allways focuses on being able to reasearch more quickly, then explore/adventure techs, then housing needs. But it's all dependant on how the game is unfolding. To compete with the AI I find researching explore/adventure techs crucial, this will allow you to be able to steal there goody huts that are unveiled as they research that tech. Doing this can greatly increase your reserves of gold, metal, materials, etc. But it really depends on your playstyle. ^^ Do what you think is best and msot fun for you. Oh, Diplomacy tech is important also, if you do NOT want to declare war on rival faction early on & still be able to explore there ZoC for your looting needs... as I said... depends on what you need & when. Good Luck.
5. Your Fledgling Army Choices: Early on building up an army is a decision that will affect how fast you can build up your city/cities. Each troop you build costs Gilder to maintain; as well as costing resources you need for buildings. As a general rule I do NOT build a single military unit for a long while. I rely on hiring wandering Heros to fill out my army. The reason for this is because heros cost NO Gilder to maintain because they cost gilder to buy. (though I've seen some heros cost nothing) Also, heros can buy/sell when inside rival factions ZoC, they can imbued to cast spells (if there Int score is high enough), etc. Heros are more versatile. The only non-hero units I will have in my employ in the 1st 50 seasons are those I recieve when my city levels up. For more info see #7 below.
6. Weapons or Armor: Note: Both weapons & Armor (as well as numerous other tiems) can be purschased from Rival factions & Neutral Factions; to be able to do so you must have a hero inside that factions ZoC, note that you can NOT use there shop if you are at war with them. Alot of people take 'weapons' as there 1st military tech choice, while I agree getting your hands on a nice dmg dealing weapon early on is nice, its not allways the best choice. If your Sov or Hero can't survive the battle then whats the point. More often than not I take the 'armor' choice as my 1st military tech that. Survivability = success. You won't be able to afford to buy armor for every location early on, but you should be able to buy 2 peaces, look at the diferent ones, chest,gloves,etc, and buy what you can afford that will give you the most armor points. Weapons; You do not need to research these early on in the game. Though it is fun & later on (mid to late game) it is crucial for success that you do. Instead you can buy them from rival factions as well as the "neutral" faction. Generally I scout agressively early on in the game so I can buy weapons from the Neutral Faction, they sell a strong 2 handed sword that in my opinion is OverPowered early on in game. They also sell armor that your male heros can wear, but to date, not 1 of my Sovs or female heros has been able to wear that armor. That is why I research armor 1st.
7. City Level Up Choice: When your city levels up you are given a choice as to which bonus you wish to pick. In my opinion the best pics early on in the game for city level up 1 & 2 is to choose the Random Garrison Unit. The reason for this is because you get that troop with NO associated build cost (though the troops receieved will still cost you upkeep) Note that the untit you receive is random, you could get a wolf or even 5 wolves but heres the 2 best choices you want to receive. The 1st time your city levels up you want to get the THUG unti. The reason for this is because he has ok Attk & has ok Def, but most importantly his attacks can NOT be countered. This means he can live much longer in a large fight early on in game agaisnt those wandering spiders & bears. The 2nd time a city levels up the best choice is the YOUNG OGRE. He has a slighty lower to hit rating than other troops, but hes tough as dirt & pretty damn strong. Plus he looks cool when you fight with him, he's huge.^^
8. Early Game Tactical Combat 1: Never just rush the enemy; make them come to you. Ok, as I mentioned above armor will help you keep you alive but thats not the end all for defnese. For city battles where you are defending you will see that you have a small area inside your towns walls. Its enough space for protect 2 troops with a 3rd troop filling that entry space. I don't suggest that area as a good defendable location, but if you want to protect 2 units from being hit for as long as possible thats your only choice (though having 1 very strong Defense Unit in that square with 2 ranged Units behind him is a good strat when fighting meellee only opponents). Instead, I sugest you take a good hard look at the entire tactical map. What you are looking for are tiles that give you +10%defense, especially those tiles with that defense bonus that are surround by tiles that have -5%defense associated with them. If you allways do your best to fight in these +10def tiles your Sov & heros that have armor will do much better. It will not make you completely invicible..lol.. but it sure does help. Note, those +def tiles are pretty damn useless if your being hit with ranged weapons or magic... so in those case do your best, kill off the meelee opponants and then rush those units as soon as you can. Often times the opponant will ignore your strongest melle unit (with the best Def ratings) you can use that unit to rush those ranged units, while hoping your others will be able to hold out.
9. Early Game tactical Combat 2: Two other important points you should be aware of. While fighting a strong enemy its a good idea to hit him/her/it with units that are expendable or those that have the highest Defense 1st. As you hit an enemy your unit uses up t.c.movement points, hit him a few times with those expendable troops, then stop when you have only 1 point of t.c.movement points left; then move that unit 1 square away from the enemy. In this fashion an enemey unit will waste 2 movements points on the next turn if they chase those damaged units. Helps a little if you want as many of those units to survive as possible. Also, as you hit them and they counter attack they will be using up there own t.c.movement points. When that enemy has none left, all following attacks against it will NOT be counter attacked. This lets you then hit it with higher dmg dealing units that have less, or no armor at all. WIthout any damage being directed back at yourself. 2nd thing is your Sov & Heros can use Potions & Salty Pork to heal in tactical combat, but only if they have it in the inventory. So allways buy some for your Sov & heros if you can afford it & want to have the best chance of living through a tough fight.
10. War Declarations: Currently the following Diplomacy option is exploitable (so you will have to practice self restraint if you wish it to be more fun). When you decide its time to war with a rival then don't simply attack that unit or cross that border. instead, 1st you should contact all the rival factions you have made contact with & find the one that HATES the faction you are about to attack the most. Go to the TRADE menu while talking to those factions and see how much Gilder (or any other tradeable resource they currently produce) they will offer you for declareing war on that faction. Once you find the one who offers you the most, declare war in that diplomacy window.Doing this will help ou get mroe for your actions.

Hope this helps... I wrote this as fast as possible so keep that in mind. There are other ways you can go about things and lots of other strategies you can be following instead. But if you follow the ones I gave you, you should find that novice is pretty darn easy if your NOT unlucky and have some wandering DRAGON spawn early in the game. Good luck and happy hunting.

A topic about how the game is too hard is totally giving Frogboy a boner.

And Diar, if that is the short version, Stardock needs to hire you to rewrite the manual.

On a related note, any possibility of having AI difficulty default to world difficulty like it used to? This isn't just a rather unfriendly newbie-trap, even veteran players miss this one until they see it mentioned on the forums (I know I did).

On topic: The key is getting 1 level of military research (choose equipment) asap. Then you can outfit your sovereign/champions with some basic padded armor and oak spears, and start training some decent regular units with the same. From there you can do what you want, the next tier of gear isn't as drastic a jump in effectiveness, but that first level of equipment is essential. You literally can't play without it, it makes me wish that basic stuff was available by default so we didn't have a "no brainer" tech to always get first. It's not like you need adventure research to collect basic goody huts or hire some champions, or civilization research to build workshops/farms/huts - padded armor is just as basic and essential for the warfare side of the game.

I played many computer games with no problem on difficulty. On this game easy is just not easy. I love this game its alot of fun but i cant even get a real game in.

Its refreshing to see people complaining about the game being hard.

oooops! and where can i find the key? i can't start...((((((((((((((((