Yeah, just play through the tutorial. Then stick to Early Age for your first few games. Middle Age and Late Age games are slightly more complicated due to some ... unique ... nations with hostile dominion effects.
I have to agree with HotNife: Your first few games will probably be overwhelmingly complicated. Don't worry about it. Dom3 has a
steep learning curve, but that learning curve is a direct result of the unbelievable amount of STUFF in the game. Once you start to get the hang of it, everything will start to make sense.
As soon as you've exhausted the "vanilla" races and gameplay (which will be a few years from now), then hop over to the "Scenarios, Maps and Mods" subforum to download some user-created content.
