I was hopeful about this game because I love the other ones in the series but, the battles seem less fun to me. The units and element concept are good but like others said I hate how I have to replay missions to get more gold to upgrade my army for the next mission. I also dislike any game with the energy system. I hope that if they make another one that it will be more like the previous ones and combine it with the good things about this one.
A good way to get the hard badge if you already started a game on an easier difficulty is to go to another city with level 10 survivors. You can go to another city by drafting a constitution and it will ask if 5 survivors want to rebuild a new city. Drafting a constitution is the only way I've won so you may be able to do this with other endings as well. All 5 of my survivors are maxed out in at least 2 areas and it gave me a good headstart.