Hey Lord, always happy to see a new player enter the fold.  Stay positive, and try to learn something new every game.  Pretty soon you will be the one making some new guy wonder how you owned him with a huge fleet before he got 3 planets. 

Best advice I can possibly give you is this: don't shy away from games against skilled people.  Make sure your autorecord is on, and when you see a player dominate a game or use a strat you'd like to incorporate into your own, go back and watch the replay from their perspective.  You learn a huge amount this way.  Also, some of the discussions on this forum (strategy, rebellion, and multiplayer) can yield a lot of great pointers for improving your strategy.

My steam name is the same as my forum name (Mr_Book).  If you see me online send me a whisper I'd be happy to do a couple 1v1's and show you the ropes.  I'm not the ultimate Sins player but I do hold my own pretty well in skilled games.

I think it's actually on by default... but in game go to your settings, one of them should say "record" or something to that effect.

To watch a recorded game go into the single player load screen and click the button below the saved game field (I think it says something like "game type..." forgive me I'm at work and don't have the game in front of me.  You have to click that button a few times to get to multiplayer recorded games

My pleasure... is your steam name LordDaem?

I will check this evening when I get home.