Sorry to hear about your loss
Dominions 3 is definitely a great game. Up there with Civ, in my opinion. However, I feel that Civ4 has a far stronger single player game. While Dominions3 SP will challenge you, as a new player, for a good amount of time I don't think that it can compete with Civ4 in that arena.
That said, Dom3 totally blows away Civ when you turn to MultiPlayer. The range of strategies and tactics is just mind boggling, even after playing for some time. Ample room to lose yourself in!