No I think that's normal, the community has always been pretty dead...I tried to get into multiplayer a year ago and it was the same...very few games, with people way better than you. I'm getting back into the single player now. Iron Clad Online is a terrible shock since I've become used to the vibrant Starcraft 2 play on Battle.net.

The best time to play is eastern time US in the evening and on the weekend.  Diplomacy is the main one played in my experience.  Be sure that you are clicking for ironclad online rather than the multiplayer button.  Alloy is something they added to allow people to host games without forwarding their ports.

[_]-Greyfox