Rainstorm: PBW is the best, bar none. There are usually at least a couple of newbie games you can get into, and you can be a replacement player. Then, even if you do horribly, you can save face by blaming it on the mess the previous occupant left behind.
In short, TDM makes the single player game tolerable, but it doesn't compare to PBW.
One word of caution, however. PBW is simultaneous move only, so you might try a single player game or two with that setting, just to get used to it's quirks. It has several, stategic combat only being the biggest one...
Re: Some basic questions
Threaded Mode