Overall the game feels unfair. There's the matter of what counts as a save or not. If the shooter hits the crossbar and it doesn't go in, that should count as a save (as much as counting when you block the shot and it goes in anyway as a goal). Second, this 3 blocks = 1 pt system is not fun. Say the game is tied 2-2. You then need to block 3 shots to win the game... But, if you miss just 1, you lose the game. This is just plain frustrating.
Couple of tips: Upgrade party capacity asap. Keep sticks in inventory, as sometimes thieves will steal them instead of your gold or cargo. What worked for me was focusing stats on combat. I only have maybe 3-5 stats in Trade, and I was easily able to get the most expensive vessel. Keep reputation near 0 until you're strong enough to fend off strong parties. Stick to trade materials that you can buy alot of. The more you have of it, the less likely you are to be affected by it when half of it is stolen.
I beat Axel Sludge using a Cruel Twist team of Viprillos and Grawlions. I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed that they were able to accomplish what my main team couldn't.
Make some way of favoriting or hotkeying items. I like using the juice box with the 7% boost to accuracy but it gets tedious to continuously stroll across my boost items to use it. Also consider decreasing monster awareness as the gap between wild monsters and the average monster level in your party increases. It's ridiculous that I have to be forced to use my party of 60s to slaughter a level 6 Chiroo.
Strategy for public purge: make sure every nest is covered by at least one man, by cover I mean take down as many zombies as they can while attacking the nest. If you can do this behind a window than do so, but remember that this only works if you keep most of the zombies from reaching your teammates (i.e. DO NOT focus only on the nest unless a teammate is focusing only on zombies). What usually happens on a mediocre team is that everybody focuses on the same nest. The nest(s) that aren't covered generate a truckload of zombies and forces the whole team to spend the rest of the game running around like a headless chicken. If you're up against a Boss zombie, do your best to eliminate it as fast as possible, although your main focus should still be in taking down as many zombies as you can. If your shotgun is up to par, it is ideal for taking down bosses while decreasing the zombie population.
 "Goalkeeper Premier"){kind=icon}
 "Frontier"){kind=icon}
 "Outernauts"){kind=icon}
 "Strike Force Heroes"){kind=icon}
 "Earn to Die 2012"){kind=icon}
 "Dungeon Blitz"){kind=icon}
 "Man in Gap"){kind=icon}
 "Morse"){kind=icon}
 "Cloudstone"){kind=icon}
 "Decision 2"){kind=icon}
 "SAS: Zombie Assault 3"){kind=icon}
 "Nuclear Plant"){kind=icon}
 "The Last Stand 2"){kind=icon}