I have to say, the AI is way too hard for it's own good on low difficulty levels. I don't think the AI's AI changes at all into higher difficulty levels, I think it just gets bonuses.

Still, though, all you have to do is Blitzkrieg with your sovereign and everything's good.

I would highly recommend reading the stickies around the forums about the various tech trees and what they do.  In the absence of a tutorial or an in-depth manual those posts will be your best bet for learning the game.  This is especially true if you don't have much experience with 4X strategy games and don't want to learn it through some trial and error.

To me it sounds like you're not paying enough attention to the warfare tech tree(which is where you will find the quality and squad tech upgrades), and too much attention to the adventure tree which is what levels up the monsters on the map and makes more resources/quest nodes available.

You know that ridiculous is the hardest right? Just so you dont think its the easiest

Perhaps Dan's having the same problem I've been having. After playing some 'all AI in' games where I got either overwhelmed with the game concepts while having so many AI running about or getting outright trounced by multiple AI warring on me at the same time, I decided to try a few low/dumb AI games just so I can learn the ropes without much opposition. So I pick 'Novice' world difficulty and either no or just one or two 'Novice' or 'Beginner' AI factions, usually Kingdoms so they'd be less inclined to immediately dislike me.

However, invariably right after Janusk shows up, I wind up bumping into another Channeller, usually a Fallen, who is already on his way to setting up a second city. And it usually goes downhill from there. It's like the game said, "Yep, nice choices in difficulty and opponents... but this is MY WORLD!!!!".

I'm still not sure if the game is simply ignoring my choices and filling in empty slots or simply spawning new Channellers at random and they're immediately setting down new cities. I've gone ahead and uninstalled Elemental and plan to do a reinstall to see if it's just some setting file that it decided to cling to that was constantly throwing a full roster of other factions at me (at what definitely didn't seem to the timid and stupid level of intelligence 'novice' would indicate), but I just haven't gotten around to doing so yet.

Currently I think the main issue with AI is that AI players ignore resource levels.  So, when you are struggling for food to make a city the computer is popping more out at -30.  They just zerg units (which they can train in 1 turn no matter the duration it takes normally as empire until that bug gets fixed) and will always have more units than you.  You just have to have better units in general so you can win tons of fights against lesser armies.  Summons are very strong early game.  The earth giant is good but the summon spy spell summons one of the most powerful units in the game as he can deal 10 true damage to every unit in the other army.  Those two should keep you afloat early.  Unfortunately you have no choice but to take every city you see.  Currently trying to have 1 or 2 big cites is impossible as they all max out pretty quickly and you will just be outrun.  Also don't try diplomacy because the ai will always declare war unless you have a bigger army than him anyway.  You need to rush the computer players and take their cities before they build up so much so you can keep up/overcome them.  I hate it, but huge attack rush seems to be the only way to play right now.

I have the same issues as the OP. I like to play a nice, relaxed game, turtling up and taking my time to do research and build up my cities. But it's not possible to do, the AI comes through like a steamroller and smashes everything up. I'm not a new gamer, I've played TBS 4X games since the original civ. And I've never seen an "easy" setting this difficult.

are you setting both AI levels to easy?  world level AND individual faction AI's?

Too hard?  Are you playing Elemental?
I have not had this "problem" yet. But I wish I did.

Seriously,  you think this is hard or are you just being sarcastic?

Hard?

This time I played VERY slowly, exploring all these notable locations and quests I've got in my zone of control.

Basically, the only challenge you have is at the very beginning of the game. In all my games I've started next to other Empire, and had to kill him off in some first turns.

Since AI is moronic, that task is trivial - rush to squad and basic armor/weapon techs, create few 3x units and you can easily wipe your first neighbor.

After that you should be able to turtle till turn 100-150, when you will meet second Empire.

Too hard!? You gotta be kidding me. I played on ridiculus against 5 hostile empires (myself as kingdom) and it was basically a cake walk. I really really like this game but they gotta smartin up the AI .... LOTS.

I have to think we have a large disconnect here.

1) Those who have been in the betas have a better understanding of the game

2) There is a BIG learning curve. Those who were in beta at least get a feel for the dynamics, but it is still tough at times. Newbies have no tutorial and the game is certainly not a typical game. So they have no idea of how cities build, grow, what techs do etc.

3) Why? Because the manual, well, sucks. The LE edition doesn't make it any clearer. It is like expecting someone in Brazil to know American football when they think it is International football(soccer). There is no tutorial, and it is still confusing at times to those who played the betas. Don't shoot the messenger when newbies tell you they don't get it. They are being honest and the beta folks and SD should help (and usually do) but that doesn't mean we did not all miss the boat on ease of entry.

Regards,

BOG