I used to play EE1 on release but cant remember the difficulty and i loved it.

Im trying to play and started off on ww2 era with 2 cpu on normal.

I am just getting things started as quickly as i can, i haven't even completed my 3rd building and a ship comes from the shore and blasts all my workers then from the other side i get attacked by some units. Then its game over.

There is no way they could have built stuff so fast, is there some fix for this or is it how the game is? i think i will just move onto EE2 if so.

Tell me about it.

I can't even win on Easy difficulty. I think the problem is I can't direct a group of soldiers and manage my empire at the same time like the robot AI does.

And they have such an unnatural ability to cover their empires with guard towers, not to mention spread across the map so just when you think you've got them, you find another settlement channelling soldiers towards your bases.

It's probably because it's not a true AI - it just gets resources automatically.

its rlly easy just take ur first 5 units and get food and wood as much as possible. then halve them up and use up to 10 to build structures (defensive first, then military, then civilian support structures like churches and hospitals. make a perimeter that is easily defensible and expand it unitl you have completed world domination.
make two armies, one for defending the heart of your empire and your primary defensive structures and one for attacking enemies.
use lots of siege weapons for your attack army and troops to defend it.
defensive armies should be range units and cavalry