Wait what...lol.

Stop rushing adventure tech.. go for civics and warfare etc before you start working on those.

Also.. don't send your heros sov etc out all alone.. build some troops to go with them..

Yep, monster difficulty is based on the world's adventure level.  The more players that research it, the more monsters come out to play.  I don't think one player can't make Level 5 creatures appear though.

Its not a bad idea really.  It allows the players to determine how difficult the world is going to be, rather than the game itself going:  "Okay, you're ready for a Level 5 creature at turn X". 

But it does not.

With regards to getting up to speed a little, the campaign is somewhat of a tutorial and may help you a little bit. But note that the game is a lot more fun and has way more features in the sandbox mode.

Main things to consider are:
-. it's all about the tech rush, which means getting as fast and often as possible newer techs researched.
-. some techs unlock new resources on the world, extra food resources are unlocked in the adventure research tree.
-. you can't marry off children if you havent researched the tech in diplomacy, this is an important tech if you want your neighboors to love you.
-. caravans will give you positive standings as well, make sure to send some to your neighboors.
-. cities need to grow, people need houses, people want to live in famous cities; thus housing technology (civics->administration tree) and civic tech like pubs and inns that grant prestige are important.
-. Military wise getting a command post early is important as is unlocking 1st group of equipement sets for your heroes.
-. With your sovereign when you choose a custom one give priority to bonusses over additional stats and forget about equipement.

Advice not to follow:
-. Personally I dont spam cities, I build max 2-3 which I develop as fast as possible, but do get 2 at least. (apparantly it's a better strategy to spam cities)
-. Altar seems to love spamming cities, whenever I spot their pioneers near me I kill them off and start building defense, this seems to refocus them somewhat from spamming cities to attacking (be sure to keep killing those pioneers, sometimes as much as 3-4 are very near to that first one you just killed). (this will lead to war with Altar and it's highly unlikely they'll ever accept any peace offerings you make so be prepared)
-. I dont use magic much or at all even, other then the +1 food bonus for cities. (some spells are really strong so you are missing out, reason I do this is because I prefer to build tech buildings over arcane buildings, i'll get my arcane production up to speed once I start steam rolling the cpu.

@DrAtomic1

I did try the Campaign, but it's so bugged I can't get past the walkway to the other zone. I tried to load a new one, and came across the same bug, but this time once I passed that walkway to the other area, I once again couldn't get past the boulders that blocked to the next step....

So I am sticking to the "Sandbox", as it seems the Campaign has been totally ignored patching/fixing wise.

I am not saying you are lying, I am saying you might be confused as to the two different difficulties and to the fact that you have to set each individual AI's difficulty. Many people are confused by this.

I notice that when I look at other kingdoms/empires, they tend to have between 50-70 guildar production per turn. I usually have 1-3. Not a -clue- how the AI always has 50+ guildar coming in per turn. Even when I out-tech them by 'yes', I just can't keep up with the armies they can field with infinite gold.

Understandable, but he's not kidding; there have been many, many threads where it eventually turns out that the reason the game was not the right difficulty (usu. too easy) was because the person didn't realize exactly how the awkward / irritating / unintuitive initial settings work.  And these are often long-time players / beta-testers / heavy posters that are finally discovering this.  So it's a pretty good bet that he assumed you didn't set the difficulty to what you thought you had, not that you lied about it.  Honestly, when I read his initial reply, I thought he was probably right (since I've seen it over and over again in the forums).

As someone who started playing last week it was definitely pretty baffling and cryptic the first time around. But baffling because of the weird UI and lack of good feedback from the game, not really the difficulty.

The AI seems pretty damn passive on lower levels and only intermittently agressive on challenging - abandoned that game as it was getting too easy. Just starting a game on hard so definitely not an expert yet at this.

Not trying to put anyone else down - just that's been my experience.

I can only get a few turns in on Novice before they will declare war on me. Oh and YES! i am changing the AI difficulty to Novice not the map. By there crest i change it. There seems to always be 1 AI that is doing REALLY well and the rest seem to sit around by me. Like one power rating will be an AI of like 100 while me and the rest of the ai's are at like 40 then the strong ai comes around and kills us. I have checked multiple time there ALL on Novice.

LOL - won't be much you can do without that dohickey.  LOL-BTW great post

OKay, been getting a few PMs since this topic from other "new" players that also have been having problems. Someone even had to use cheats!

So I decided to make a "Let's Play" video of sorts. I don't want to call it a "Let's Play", since I too am VERY new to the game, but perhaps watching someone play might help the others that can't get past Novice setting.

I have found a strategy that seems to be working for me, so I will be telling you guys what I do and think as I play.

I have never played a complete game, but I might as well take you guys with me on the adventure.

Please feel free to add comments and tips as I play. Suggestions and corrections are welcome!

I am uploading them as I play RIGHT NOW. I doubt I will have time to do I full game at one go, but every 7 minutes I stop and upload what I have just done...so this is "almost live".

Oh and forgive any grammar/English mistakes. This is the first time I have ever recorded/posted for YouTube.

Here is video Part 1, which is how I created my character etc. The other videos should start coming as I progress.

EDIT:

Dear god I hate hearing my own voice...

Well, think that's Game Over.

The Novice AI did indeed beat me thanks to city spamming... It boxed me in, and I could not get my Pioneers out. Just look at the last video to see what it did.

This should be a good example of how the Novice should NOT behave.

In my opinion Novice should NEVER pass the players Tech level, Kingdom strength, Troop development etc etc. It should only be lower than me. Next step up in the difficulty, then the AI should keep its self EQUAL to me. Then the next after that it can develop slightly higher etc etc