am i just a really bad player...

[Amhazair]

Meh, I wouldn't beat yourself up too hard just yet. The AI in this game has a bad reputation, and that's mostly deserved: It is predictable, doesn't really have a gameplan, know how to utilise magic, or how to counter a wide variety of common tactics, (And this in a game that's built around counters and counter-counters.) and generally can be gamed by someone who's learned what the AI will do.

However, the impossible AI's do have massive resource advantages, and most of the player's advantages come with the use of magic, thugs and SC, which does require a bit of time to build up, so if you're embroiled in a multi-front war early on things can get very hairy.

I myself am considered somewhat of a veteran player, have won a couple of MP games, and been around in the endgame of many more, but if I (very rarely) decide to fool around a bit in SP and get ganged up on early I will loose more often than not. (Granted, I won't play optimally in SP, partly because I might try a couple of things I wouldn't do in MP, partly because I don't use 'specific' SP tactics I wouldn't use in MP (Massive PD!) and mostly just because I might get bored too quickly to really try my hardest, (And if I survive the early part of the game - which will happen 100% of the time if I'm not jumped by more than two nations at once - it's just a matter of cleaning up for as long (not very) as it remains fun) but still, it's not quite as easy as some make it out to be.

If you're really having trouble surviving the early part of the game just now, I wouldn't feel bad about turning the dificulty down a notch or two, so you can experiment a bit more with magic and see what works and what doesn't against the AI before turning it back up to see if your newfound experience helps you out.