A few general questions about Dominions 2

[Ugrok]

Hello there, ive been playing the dominions 2 demo for the past few days and i must say the game looks very rich.
But i have a few questions concerning the long term playing of this game.

-First of all, is single player worth it? I mean, is the AI challenging for a few months, or, as we often see in strategy games nowadays, is the AI as stupid as a yoghurt?
(I play jotunheim in the demo and i am always losing).
-Is this game as deep as it claims? Maybe i am totally missing the point, but in the demo i just make one big army, conquer as much provinces as i can, then getting beaten by the other gods, then rebuilding a gigantic army, etc...etc... Hmm maybe thats why im always losing.
-How is multiplayer handled? Does everyone play by email, or is it possible to have fast games? Playing 1 turn per day seems boring (but again i havent tried), is it really?

Last question : what is a good province conquering strategy? At the moment i always conquer from my starting province to the adjacent ones, but after ive done it, should i go in one direction, as far as i can (thats what im often doing and it doesnt seem to be a good idea ) or make multiple armies and go in several directions or ... ?


Well, thats a lot of questions, sorry for my terrible english, thanks for reading (and answering ! ) .