Several commentators have raised the question why games of this kind have timers. Well, the gameplay is basically mindless (thankfully, CotD has autoplay) and easily hacked, so imagine how fast players with bot scripts would level if there was no timer! It also helps select an audience of players to whom this game has long-time appeal (like a hobby) and who are thus more likely to eventually pay money for it.
Sleepingpill wrote; " it needs a little something, (like strategy for once). [..] there is little reason to bring an archer unit with only 3 attack range, first off the AI is too dumb to use its movement to get the first attack, and secondly, after my archer attacks, the AI will just walk up to it and bash it... " -- strategy is to let the AI walk into archer range (ambush!), shoot it, then retreat out of range. If you can't see the strategy, don't claim there isn't any! (All I ever used were pirates, rangers, and berserkers - 4 MP ftw!)
Generally, the game's a bit slow, and there might be more difficuly levels - or perhaps achievements (star badges on each level?) for beating the level without powerups or with a specific party/setup. This would probably be an easy way to do challenges: when a level is beaten, add three checkboxes next to it, and each stands for a certain choice in party members and certain equipment (might be unavailable until the player has bought the requisite equipment) which is more difficult to do. This would do a lot for the game's replay value. -- But before I'll play the game again, it ought to lose some of the sluggishness - please detect when no movement is left and no attack targets are in range, and maybe switch the lunit light from green to yellow when it's been been moved or attacked but still has points left - green would be "not used", yellow "partially used", red "turn over". And give me some way to move units much more quickly, please!
The quickest way to build multiple towers is via the number keys - 1 - click - 1 - click -1 -click 1- click 1- click 1- click, that way it takes less than 6 seconds to build 6 tesla towers, then move the finger over to 2 to build the anti-aircraft towers and finally place the mines - I usually have some seconds to spare that way.
Why should "pay to win" not be badged? Since Kongregate makes a cut on these games, it makes a lot of sense for them to promote those - it helps keep the other games free.
To make a successful "pay to win" game does take effort to create. You need to get the potential payers playing long enough and over a long enough period of time to get them hooked.
The ca sounds are weird, and the sluggishness feels strange for a driving game. I like the bullet time drifting and the control I have over the cars, though.
Grind $$$ on the first level, getting more health and then new team members every 5 retries or so, removes any money worries, because you get money based on the health of your team.
The game gives new in-game badges after it reports the score to Kongregate, so if you want that to be accurate, play one more mission after you finish the game. I did do it with the H-bomb lvl 6; it takes a few upgrades until you can really earn with it, so the frag bombs are the easier upgrade path. If you don't like to aim, upgrade the plasma bullet to full and then go for the frag bombs.
 "Clash of the Dragons"){kind=icon}
 "Hired Heroes"){kind=icon}
 "Wheely"){kind=icon}
 "Cobra Squad"){kind=icon}
 "3 Pandas"){kind=icon}
 "Tesla Defense"){kind=icon}
 "Legacy of a Thousand Suns"){kind=icon}
 "Crazy Valet"){kind=icon}
 "3 Hot Girls Kiss"){kind=icon}
 "Red Ball 4 (vol.1)"){kind=icon}
 "Gravitee Wars"){kind=icon}
 "American Racing"){kind=icon}
 "Notebook Wars"){kind=icon}
 "Cloud Wars"){kind=icon}
 "Death vs Monstars 2"){kind=icon}