Well, the cutting line was "less than 10 MP games played." and when I joined the game, that was true. By now, I have played over 10, and my learning curve has been exponential(which is normal for dominions).
The reason why your armies did so little is because I am so far ahead in research and the battle was underwater. To go to the mechanics, it was because of fatigue. Since your guys aren't natural ambhibians, they were at 7 encumberance underwater. This is extremely bad for units with high defence like your white ones, since each 10 fatigue lowers defence by 1. Practically each 3 combat rounds remove their defence by 2 and attack by 1. But what is more, I cast Curse of Stones, which increases fatigue on a unit, making it even more terrible for your guys to fight. And finally, I cast School of Sharks and Army of Gold and Lead. The sharks are useless normally, but with the Army of Gold spell, their protection increases by a massive amount. What this means, is that your white ones have to hack away at them for a longer time(and underwater it means more fatigue). By the time my naturally ambhibian agarthans arrived to the battle, your guys were severely tired, and with each round, they became even more tired(since my protection is immense, so while my guys are terrible at fighting, they can remain in the combat for a long time without being killed, which means more fatigue for your guys). Not to mention my powerful battle mages(earth magic 5 for many) cast Magma Eruption, which practically killed everyone in it's path, and my Pretender cast Prison of Sedna, which freezes a full 10 squares of white ones(they can't act, and they take more fatigue).
And as the final point, I had Sword of Aurgelmer on a guy, meaning all of my guys were under the effects of the Luck spell(50% of all damage sources are cancelled.)
Overall, you had just 2 battle mages(siddhas, with 2 air and 3 astral magic levels, both of which are some of the worst for underwater battles(except for high level unit boosting spells), while I had at least 6, among which were my pretender(fire 6, water 5, earth 5 or something), an agarthan with earth 4, one with earth 5, and one with water 5. I also had two great krakens, who, while being not so great as spell casters, are unstoppable underwater in combat unless countered with heroes specifically designed to kill them.
Overall, it was a battle of attrition due to my high level spells and liberal gem use.
Had it been not underwater, but over water, it would have been different since: a) I couldn't use my great krakens, b) couldn't cast the shark spell, c) your fatigue and defence situations would have been massively better since you wouldn't have had the underwater penalty, d) I couldn't have cast prison of sedna.
For the smaller battle, I had 3 poison golems with expensive gear and area kill weapons. It's no wonder why they won, since they're worth at least 100 gems each and you had no way to counter it.
This late in the game, mundane armies aren't that useful as killers. They're more useful as targets for mages and slowing enemy SCs down. With research and item use at such a high level, mundane troops lose much of their power. At least until you reach the research I have, since I can cast Weapons of Sharpness(halves protection) and Army of Gold/Lead(upps protection by a massive amount). Other spells exist, like Fog Warriors which are super good.
With the resources you had, you couldn't have done much differently, it's true. Your mages and troops were ill suited for an underwater battle against my naturally underwater guys and powerful mages.
I am by no means a great player, this is the first game ever I'm on a position where I might actually win. And that's due to great luck in the beginning. Playing against actually great players is a horrible experience, where they send out Bane Lords with flying boots and the like by turn 20, and you can do little except weep as your troops get killed as they hop from province to province while avoiding your mages who might stand a chance against it.
I hope this helps your morale, you haven't been steamrolled yet, I have barely touched your provinces. If you coordinate your attacks with Abysia properly, you should be able to counter my advance, and it would be wise to recruit allies against me.
The point is, choose your battles where you know you are going to win, and don't fight against a large enemy army without first knowing what sorts of units and tactics they use, unless you have a great advantage due to some factors, like I did.
As for your problems with mages in the beginning, use a lot of worthless troops(like markatas). The enemy mages will cast their spells on them and soon they will be without fatigue and can't cast anything. Then your better troops that were behind the monkeys will attack them. Using expensive units like White Ones against mages is generally a bad idea(especially unsupported), since they don't have much ranged or magic defence. Their advantage is melee combat
And there are indeed huge differences in beginner players. It was stipulated that one should have played less than 10 games. Yet, the difference between 1 and 9 games is huge, since you learn a massive amount playing against humans rather than the AI. I have also been studying how the game works by checking
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Main_Page and
http://dom3-mod-inspector.googlecode...?mod=CB1.94.dm
Knowledge is power.