The overall best way to upgrade is to run the campsite "blob bonanza" after you have 2-3 levels in nova. You get tons of drops including cash and food items, and the experience isn't terrible. Running the semi-boss on hilltop is faster experience, but blob bonanza gives tons of items.
I would rate this game a lot higher if the optimal strategy didn't involve zerging with the tier 1 unit. Even in hot seat multiplayer, there is very little reason not to zerg (particularly with Klosian) and if you don't zerg, the game is terribly slippery slope. If your opponent gets more than 2 or 3 resource points ahead of you, the game is basically over. 3/5 because the presentation is good, the rotating board is nice, but the 1 energy ships are just so good that there's no reason to buy anything else.
The biggest problem is the monk heal upgrade; it vastly increases your army efficiency. Upgrades in general are very overpowered, but the monk heal upgrade and the footman attack upgrade are the biggest offenders as they make a super efficient midgame army.
Great game. Most of the stuff in the game is overpowered and basically uncounterable. Things like mass torpedo turrets + repair drones create basically unbreakable defense, even with artillery ships. Stealth is really overpowered, etc etc. There are a lot of ways to win, which leads to a lot of experimentation which is really good. 5/5, but as has been stated already, ship pathing sucks and needs to be fixed. Not a huge problem once you get used to it, since you shouldn't be trying to skirmish around planets much anyway unless you've already won.
You gain your first point around turn 13 or something. Optimal play is to buy off vomiting ASAP, then coughing. Buy something that increases infectibility (anything), then buy off the rest of your symptoms. Then, slowly buy airborne, waterborne, resistance, incubation, etc. then wait until you infect every country in the world (eastern europe, mainly). Once you have the world infected, buy all the most deadly symptoms and you win. A little easier than 2 but P2 is pretty easy.
Not terrible, but kind of easy. It also really suffers from a lack of good sound effects. The music is good, but totally makes me want to fall asleep. A good idea, but not well-implemented.
You can totally control where you're shooting. The ragdoll fires away from the direction you are drifting, so you want to often move less rather than more in order to preserve your aim. Super awesome game. Someday I'll get the hard badge (which -really- should be Impossible)