Hi, I'm new! And.. uh.. help?

[Nick_K]

Don't forget to build lots of temples. I've seen more than a few posts in Dom3 and Dom2 where new players have lost the game because their dominion became too weak.
Against the AI, I first conquer a few provinces - usually all the ones connected to my capital - and then expand at a slower pace while building up a province defence of 10 in every province or 20 in ones which border an enemy and putting a temple in every single province. It's worth cutting your troop production down a bit to build the temples.

Also, choose your enemies carefully. Underwater nations are a bit tricky to defeat when playing as land ones so you might want to avoid fighting them at first.

[Endoperez]

About the nations suggested:

Ulm, EA: nice troops, nice mages. Blade Wind rocks in the Early Age, so aim for Evocation. Some Conjuration or Construction could help after that, to get either Earth Boots (item) or Earth Power (spell) to boost your mages' Earth further. Your troops have nice protection for EA, and can deal with heavy-protection units quite well.

Ulm, MA: very tough troops, decent mages. You can do only few things, but you do those well. In Evocation, you can go for Magma Bolts, Blade Wind and eventually Magma Eruption. Conjuration and Construction are good as well. You wil probably want other types of units, like archers, because your units can have trouble actually killing your enemies. Also, you NEED Production 3, but thankfully will lose quite little from Drain 3.

Man, MA
Build Longbowmen and protect them with infantry. Alteration up to Wind Guide would work really well with your longbow armies.

Arcos, EA and MA:
Astral works well with Thaumaturgy. Random elemental magics work with many different paths, including Evocation. You have good heavy infantry units in both ages, and might want to try tramplers (Chariots or Elephants). The latter are often risky, especially because they have a tendency to rout OVER your commanders.

[Gandalf Parker]

Its interesting to see how some people overlap "easy to learn" with discussions about winning. Oh well, there is a reason for "Those that can, do. And those that cant, teach."