1) when you que up a spell to learn is there a way to tell how many turns it will take? Qued up a spell to learn and it took a long time, at one point i wasn't even sure it was working but then a few turns later it showed up as learned. Apparently working but can't tell the progress.
There's a bar for spell research progress just on the other side of the screen from the tech progress bar. It fills in red, and lists how many turns are left to finish researching the spell. It only shows turns left on the current spell, though, can't see how many turns additional queued spells might take. Since it sounds like you're playing the campaign, there's actually no spell learning in it. You're given spells to use as you progress. When you play Sandbox, this is where the progress will show (assuming you have arcane knowledge income).
2) havent been able to research anything. It says i have no scholers researching. Is this just because the campaign hasn;t introduced them yet? Or is there something i am missing?
The campaign doesn't have tech research. Similar to spells, you're just given techs as you progress. In sandbox there are city improvements, resources, and heroes you can hire that will generate knowledge for tech research (same with spells).
3) Armor. is there a way to tell what items can be used by what units before you buy them from a shop. Bought 7 pieces of armor from the shop to equip my 7 peasants only to find out after i traded the armor to them that they couldn't equipe them. I'm assuming they cant wear armor OR this is a bug. But if it is the case that they are not allowe to wear armor is there a way to tell who can use what before you buy?
Only heroes and your Sovereign can be equipped. Non-hero units that you train from the city just get whatever their design has. In case of peasants, just a club 
So only use the shop to buy stuff for Sovereign and heroes.
3) harvesting crystals. I'm assuming that i have to learn this through technology research but i found my firast crystal and can't harvest it. If it is something you learn through research that leads me back to question 2.
If you're talking about the crystal deposit that was being guarded by the ogre, just found your city next to it, click the crystal deposit, and you should be able to build the mine on it (just like you built the farm for your very first city).
Hope this helps a bit
