Um... Am I playing this game right...?

So, I played this game a little when young, but don't think I ever got past the tutorial. Playing again now, I can remember why. The Greek campaign, the first "real" one, is hard. But that's OK, challenge is good!

My problem is, I don't seem to have any sort of logical way to win. The only way I am progressing is by playing a mission, getting my teeth kicked in, learning the map, and then retrying with my "magic foresite" to know where all the good defensive spots, resources, enemies, etc are.

That's... not very satisfying. It's kinda breaking my immersion. I don't feel like an ancient Greek commander, I feel a dumbass gamer banging his head against a wall until it breaks. It feels like "brute forcing" a puzzle, not as satisfying as solving it properly.

As an example, the first Greek mission, I tried to play "properly". I scouted for a good base site with plentiful resources, set up quickly, build my houses, farms, barracks, got lots of troops early to defend myself, set up a watchtower for recon/defensive cover fire, got troop upgrades... and then the red guys swamped me. I tried again in a new position, same story. Third time, I said fuck it and rushed them (already knowing their start point) with my handful of clubmen and peasants... and won easily!

Bottom line: I'm seemingly only able to win by trial & error, learning the map and cheesing the enemy with early rushes that rely on foreknowledge. Is this just how the game is, or am I crap/dumb?

Thanks :)