Yes, I've noticed that if one of your friends has bad internet or the servers are under a lot of pressure (or the US-Australian connections are having a lot of traffic), direct connect can be the best route. Just go to "Multiplayer" instead of Ironclad online, possibly using something like Hamachi if necessary.

My memories a bit foggy, but I played a game with someone via LAN without being on the same network with direct connect. I think they hosted though so I don't remember if port forwarding was necessary or not.

Well LAN and direct connect are done with the same interface in Sins, and I did direct connect over the internet.