Yeah, this is my first game and it's on a fairly low difficulty.
You say keep the workers automated, but I think it's better to instruct them what to build. Do they assume that you need a farm over a mine, etc, when you automate them? I've done it for a few and I guess they build roads and stuff, but for forts and other structures it seems like you need to control them yourself.
Also, I guess I'm used to the console version (where you cant build alliances), but that is possible in this game?