So i've played the single player games (the sandbox version where you pick your race and get dropped in a world with a bunch of other races).

Recently.. i loaded the game back up to play the CAMPAIGN which, oddly enough, i never noticed even existed.

I set the difficulty to CHALLENGING (only ONE step up from NORMAL).... and i'm telling you... i had the hardest freaking time winning the very first stage.

Now i did win eventually... but i swear... there were times that it looked like i was going to totally lose. When my big starting-$$ ran out... my economy fell into complete sadness. I only built research and factories.. so i was making NO MONEY. Since i was making no money... It was very diffcult and slow to get some farms to increase the pops (and make more money).

Anyway else have a hard time? is there a secret to beating level 1 really quickly? It took me about 5-6 hours.