You are joking, right ?

If you really find yourself hopeless, get online and ask someone to help you out in a team game.  You're playing pretty horribly if easy AI can get you.  There are probably some fairly important things you've missed that will show up in that setting.  I'll do it myself if you don't mind the satellite latency.

I'll second the entrenchment recommendation though, the beefed up pirates and near competent ai do make diplomacy a lot harder.  I had to change tactics for those damned pirates.

I just re-downloaded the game.  I've never so muched as finished a game, so maybe you and me can learn off each-other?

Don't be a quiter!

then just use the entrenchment execution file

each game has its own execution file so you don't need to worry about Diplomacy yet then dont, go to Entrenchment and play there (the pirates are also a hell of a lot easier, too easy actually)

I got stomped my first 2 or 3 games on Vanilla Sins. It takes a bit of time and practice to get the hang of things. Best thing you can do is start on a small map with one other AI player (and I'd recommend Entrenchment -- Diplomacy has some issues with pirates being over powered). Aside from that, follow the tips above and you should do alright.

Definitely play regular (AKA Vanilla) Sins. Its an exectuable file and it should be in the start menu with Sins- Entrenchment and Sins - Diplomacy. Dirty Sanchez advice for starting out will get you going. Most importantly though (a mistake soo many new players make) is underdevelopment tax. If you mouse over a planet and where it says "Tax" is red, it is taking money from you. To correct that make sure the planets infrastructure is upgraded. It took me several games to figure out that red = bad and green = good. You can also mouse over where it displays how many creits you have to get a breakdown of where your moneyis coming from. If any of those numbers are red, go make sure your infrastructure there is upgraded.

The tech trees can be a bit overwhelming at first. But Id recommend spending some time to look at the descriptions of each tech as they become available for you to research. To start off, I'll tell you that the ones that unlock units are generally the most valuable. Second to that are the ones that upgrade your units health, shields, Armor and weapon damage. Those will all be in the military tree. In the civivs tree, look out for the techs that allow you to build trade ports and culture beacons, as well as the two techs that allow you to colonize ice and volcanic worlds.

Thanks for the advice guys- Pirates weren't a problem (I found where I could turn them off), neither were the gray small ships that were found in smaller numbers.

Tech tree was overwhealming.  I still don't know why when I set the AI on easy they seemed to have unlimited resources and ships.  I will investigate just playing vanilla until I get used to how the game works and will take another look at the tutorial. 

This looks like it should be fun- kinda a mix of Ages of empires style game, starcraft, civ, and others. I'm just as baffled as the posters who said "are you kidding?"  I've been saying this for every game I've played so far.

also remember to upgrade your planets.  if you expand too much and the planets arent upgraded, you will have income troubles down the road.

You ARE building mines, aren't you?  I don't mean to be harsh, but if you forget that, you get almost no resources at all.

Haree's egg sucking academy for Sins

1) Upgrade any planets you occupy as soon as you can. It's the Planet Icon with a wireframe going over it when you click on a planet and then it is the top left option in that sub menu.  It's something like Planet Infrastructure, it allows more population (more income and safer planets) and also more importantly stops new planets COSTING you money and starts them EARNING you money.  Hint:  The Home Planet always starts off with 1 upgrade not being done, I recommend against AI you spend your starting resources to do this.

2) Build a Cap Ship Factory as soon as you can at your homeworld and get one Capital Ship built, the first Cap you build is FREE!

3) 1 or 2 Research stations of either type are worth getting.  In the Tech trees the stuff on the left is the cheapest and best value for money.  The upgrade for Terran planets is often a good investment if your homeworld starts as one.

4) Still failing?  Set up a game with something like 3v3 in 1 star system.  You can make the AIs on your team more powerful, watch what they are doing.  They may not be the best tacticians in the world but sounds like you could learn from them anyway.

5) Build Resource Collector mines at captured planets.  They are from the Logistic Upgrade icon (Looks like a cog if I remember right) and then the 2 icons on the left hand side, top and bottom are for building mines.  Do this as soon as you can, more often than not the first thing you build.

6) You can buy Crystal or Metal on the blackmarket if you really need it quickly.  Either do this on the Black Market screen or in the top right of your screen are 2 quick buttons.

7) When the pirates are nearly raiding then make sure you don't lose the bidding war!

8) At the start of the game build as many scouts as you have phase lanes coming out of your homeplanet and as they get built right click the Mangifying Glass icon they have as an ability.

9) Gun defences at planets aren't that helpful other than to back up other defences such as hanger bays, repair bays and star bases.

10) In the long term try to catch a planet that will be a choke point, get it well defended, upgrade it's planet infrastructure and also it's planet defences so that it will be able to take bombardment longer.  Use of a Star Base at that planet is recommended.  All Star Bases have a researchable ability that means you don't lose control of a planet until after the Star Base has been destroyed, this can be invaluable in high threat areas that you don't have your main fleets near.

Spam LRFs until you encounter lots of strikecraft. Then add some flak frigs. If you went colonizer cap first (Akkan/mothership/evacuator) then it is a safe choice to take an anti-strikecraft capital ship as your second one (Kol for Flak Burst/Halcyon for Tele push/Kortul for Weapon Jam). Remember to fire those Anti-strikecraft abilities yourself.

+ never neglect civilian infrastructure upgrades on planets - a planet with no civilian upgrades reduces your income instead of adding to it.

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PS ignore mines, they suck. They're too expensive for general use! Make a fleet instead. A fleet can move and help elsewhere, a mine won't help against a ship half a screen away.

I have found the AI very hard to beat since Diplomancy, try going to Entrenchment and see.

If you have played through the tutorial and understand how to play and still get stompped by computers, an easy way is make sure the game settings are not set to fast.  Many players enjoy Fast ship speeds for online.  If you want it to be calm and learn your own strat slowly, try locked teams ( like everyone else is saying) Vs. 1 easy comp and side your self with 2 other hard A.I.s  Watch what the computer does, turn off pirates cause they will slow you down.  The computer will always rush with A cap ship + 10 to 20 ships.  However (TEC) build a repair station, and have your fleet waiting at the entry point of your base, they will attempt to fight you there.  Your reapir station will help you from losing your ships and the AI wont try to lure you out of its range   A few def building will help as well.  Try a level where you have one way in and one way out.  So you can focus on the one entry point at the front part of your base.  Levels where you can get hit from all sides Make it difficult to get a good Defense down.  Good Luck, if all else fails go online and look for someone who will teach you step by step how to play.

Requirment Play tutorial first!!!!