Definelty not a clue as to what I'm doing

Just relax.... have an open mind and after afew hours on sandbox mode and you should understand ALOT MORE.

The first hour I spent on the game in campaign mode was just like you say.. i was pretty lost.

But as the day went on and few hours past, I really started to get a hang of most the stuff.

Frusterating at first, but rewarding and awesome later on (;

Keep trying bud!

It took me a while too mostly because the campaign mode is more like the total war series which is slower than most strategy games.

Basically the way I play now is to give each hero and city a queue of jobs to do, sometimes I jot it on a pad.  Then each turn I cycle through each unit and city and move them toward their goal(s). 

Example:

Soverign - Buy travling boots, -- Recruit new Hero, Look for gold resource, teleport back home when found.

City1 - Improve Farm, then Build Hut, then get population to 25 before building uints.

Then when I see things on the map and I don't have any free heroes or armies or cities to do them I just jot them down to do later.  eg:

Kill spiders south of Capital -- Build a squad of forward observers, then send to kill spiders with Xena.

Investigate inn east of gold city -- Send Janus when he's free

I cross stuff off the list when it's done.  It's kind of like work but it keeps me entertained because it's way too easy to forget what you wanted every single character and city to do from turn to turn.  Espeically if you like a few beers while playing.

MAIN WAY TO NO GET BORED.  When you have nothing to do....Research ADVENTURE TECH and BUILD PIONEERS

Keep trying what though? See, that's my problem. I don't know what it is I'm supposed to be doing each turn. Is there in fact something I'm supposed to do each turn?  Am I supposed to build troops?  (I assume so, but...)  Do I sit idle and just hit end turn until a building is completed before I do something else?

I know it sounds whiny, and it's certainly not my intent.  But telling me to keep trying isn't much help if I don't know what it is I should be trying to begin with...

Thanx Greggbert, I must've been typing when you posted your response, so I didn't see it...

So the people you recruit, you move them around as well, doing certain things?  Surely not any combat tho, right?  They dont just stay in the city?  How soon should I be looking at building troops? 

Look at building troops when you guildar income is about 5 or more (per turn).  The other heroes are great for picking up goodies on the ground and scouting.  If you run out of those (the goodies and inns and stuff), you need to research adventure techs.  Eventually the heroes will have trouble with the harder troops and monsters so I just add supporting troops like peons and observers and stuff  to the heroes stack until they're not in danger of getting killed.  Strategically having a hero lead your troops doesn't do much, but I kind of like the way it looks so I play it that way.

Also the heroes aren't really that weak at the beginnig of the game if you buy them equipment and speedy travling boots.  They can't take an ogre, but they can kill a group of 4 spiders or darklings.

I tend to use the sovereign the same was as you use a scout in civ during the early part of the game. Pop goodie huts, uncover the map and try not to get eaten by the local fauna.

Running Away, for cowards and those that just like their limbs and appendages where they are:

For tactical battles

Tilt the camera so you're closer to the ground, (hold middle mouse) there should be some tiles around the edge that are glowing, if you get to there you can escape and survive if you get jumped.

City building:

I build all the basic +1 buildings in every city i found. Then specialize from there on based upon the nearby resources.

Troops:

Push for logistics early  (first tech under military) , a party of peasants is devastating believe it or not. Particularly if you play empire.

1. Use your Sov to mission around at first and pick up any gold or anything that is near. Then start up a city near some usefully stuff.

2. Start upgrading your first city

3. Build another city after you have taken your Sov out to mission around again and to look for a new spot for another city

4. Continue to upgrade your two cities as you see fit.

5. Start building an army at each city you have, slowely at first

6. Train a Caravan and move it from your first city to your 2nd city (it will then put a road from 1st city to 2nd).. do this for each city you build.

7. Attack any low level bad guys that are around, with your Sov and any army you have. This will level up your Sov.

8. Keep upgrading your cities and making new ones as the game goes on.

Dont forget to do your research,etc... also

I also like to keep medium sized armies in each city also.

Its really all up to you how you go about doing things.

So much more I could list but I would be here all night hehe, those are just some basics.

I'm quite amazed that Prima Publishing hasn't put out a strategy guide for a game as rich as Elemental.

I hope the eventually some generous Elemental player will record one of their games, similiar to how Civ players did, and post them on YouTube.  I know that each game and player will be different, but I'd certainly be interested in watchng a couple just to see how things progress, and get a feel for the overall process.  I've seen a few that FrogBoy did, but they didn;t really cover a full game, and they really didn;t explain why he (they) were doing what they were doing...

I know I'll eventually get the hang of it (I hope), I just don't want my learning to take forever, like it did with Civ IV... Actually, a small confession, it wasn't until Civilization Revolutions came out that the full Civ IV finally clicked with me.

I'd recommend these videos:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/391280

They'll give you a rough idea of early flow.

Other recommendations.

Play a kingdom faction so your sov starts with teleport.  Any time you get in over your head early, like after you explore way out in one direction, tele home and start off in another direction.

Learn lvl 2 spell ability asap and then learn how to summon an imp.  Imps are weak but still a decent early companion, and it introduces you to summoning.  Mana burns up quickly, a summoned critter will help you thru many battles where tactical spells leave you mana free and stuck.

One of the early warfare items to research is logistics.  This lets you build a super unit that's 4 combined units acting as one (group/squad/company).  Even your low tech units are fairly strong in the group of 4 (gets 4x the health, attack, def).  Your early units are very weak alone but in groups they're not so bad.  It's one of the key mechanics to building strong armies so figure it out early.

Also, the unit designer is pretty simple and the units that get automatically designed for you are usually weak and cheap.  You might wanna create your own variants with extra armor or different weapons - something to experiment with.

The adventure line of tech features one branch that will expose more resources on the map, this can be helpful early to get more resources hooked up and bump up key resources for other growth.

Usually every city spot has a fertile plot for a farm nearby.  You usually wanna build a workshop first to get materials flowing.  Then a merchant to get gildar flowing.  Then the +tech building.  Lastly the +arcane building.  About this time you probably have enough to build a farm on the fertile plot, click on it, and build the farm.  Once your farm completes you should have surprlus food, letting you build huts.  Build 1-2 huts - this will let your city grow and level to level 2, opening up more potential structures to build.  For later cities, build the 1st 4 buildings in whatever order suits your present needs/priorities.

Your sov builds your first city, after that, you need to train pioneer units.  It's usually a good idea to roam your sov around your 2nd intended city plot once you build that pioneer because pioneer units tend to attract attention and get mugged/killed if they head out totally alone.

For your 2nd city plot it's nice to be nearish your first city within reason, and to ideally be near resources you don't have immediately at your capital, namely a gold mine to get more gildar flowing.  Something that boosts materials or metals is nice early too.  Decent troops require healthy amounts of gildar, materials, and metal to train.

As you develop more cities, research diplo branch to get trade, which lets you build caravan units.  Build a caravan at a city and direct it to another nearby city - it'll build a road between them and start a trade route for extra gildar.

And so on...

Don't do it too early. It only reveals resources in your own area of influence, so if you use it with just one city you're basicly wasting your research time. It's a judgement call when to research it.

I was wondering about that, good to know.  I would probably wait til I have my core cities established and primary expansion done.

But the AI can research it too before you, so basically you want to have the largest AOC asap.

I've never seen the option to research it disappear or anything and it's always revealed atleast 1 or 2 new resources for me, SO, in theory shouldn't this just make resources appear in their own tiles when the AI researches it?

Which you then get when/if you take their city. So in theory you could wait for the AI to research it, take their cities and research it again for extra resources, hmm