The winning strategy? You may think I have some super-power and extra play-time being the PR guy... actually due to a problem with my main PC I wasn't able to play this until today (spent all day with it so I can speak intelligently on this).
So, after 1 day of play... THP really nailed some of the best tips I have found. The safety protocol seems by far to be one of the best advancements. He hinted at another thing: Take a look at how much it costs to MOVE your ships, managing upkeep is easy but managing your movement costs can be very hard. From what I can tell all war ships require fuel, gold, and crystals to move. Often I find that I have much more problems with Fuel and Crystals than gold (in that order actually). Why? I have no idea, i've only been playing for a day
Motherships: I don't like them. Don't get me wrong, they are awesome in the right situation, but in general, give me a battle cruiser and load it with 2-4 ships. Motherships DO pack a punch and can make units and other ships.... but you can swarm them easily. A mothership will be able to bring down 1 or 2 ships in a swarm but they can't fire adjacent to them, so if you get 4 ships to surround it, game over for your mothership... and even 3 ships means it is hamstrung in where it can move. Battlecruisers on the otherhand can transport ships (efficient travel cost), have nearly the same armor and weapon strength, and MUCH further range, which usually makes up for the fact the gun range is only 2, but with no minimum.
Last but not least, the gold guy's repair ships can HEAL battle cruisers, not motherships.
Ok so here's my 10 minute guide to races, since THP said he likes the undead but gives no reason why (I like them too)
Fire Guys: Ok, fuel is your main resouce and probably the most important.
Ships: High Attack, Low Def, Bad Range (Only the shockwave attack has a range), high speed.
Ship Tips: Use these ships to chase down fleeing vessels. The shockwave attack can nail a lot of targets, think suicide bombing.
Ground Units:
Flamethrower guys can hit MANY targets at once, but the don't seem to do much damage. I don't like them.
I haven't used the firebomb guys, but by the sounds of it you want to use him to pin down enemy units... sounds like it is more useful as a temporary wall than as an attack, but forcing someone to walk through an ambush certainly can be useful!
I haven't played much ground combat with these guys, so im missing some info on them
Ice guys: Crystals as a main resource! Yay!
Ships: LONG range, Low Attack, Low Defense
Ship Tips: Oh man... The huge range on a scimitar means it can hit ANY ship without having it return fire (cept a mothership). The problem is that you cant return fire at point blank. Your first ship type can fire at point blank but has a range of only 2. These ships require balance. Use both ships at the right time. Any ship with range 1 you can easily pummel, but beware range 2 ships, use the scimitars wisely. Have them fire first and then move the close range ships in to block and make sure the enemy can't get adjacent. Scims also get a teleport ability... you cant fire after using it so you either want to use this to send reinforcements to a battle or to get out of a bad situation. Usually you can't use it to chase down a fleeting ship because you'd be dropping a non-melee ship into enemy territory, alone.
Ground Units:
A unit that limits enemy movement, freezes enemies, or just makes them really cold. Limiting movement COULD be useful when fighting a fast mech unit, obviously freezing enemies makes them sitting ducks. It seems most of these units are designed to bring down small armies of LARGE units. In theory, also, a defender could simply run like the dickens if you can hamper their mobility enough and stave off the invasion that way.
Undead Guys: Ore as a resource... bring on the mechs!
Ships: High Armor, Low Movement, and good damage. Slow and steady wins the race!
Ship Tips: You get a good balance, a 1 range unit and a 2 range unit. Both do awesome damage and take forever to kill. You'll have a lot of trouble against a smart opponent who uses hit and away tactics, but if you aren't trying to get somewhere you are basically a turtle. I could see this race's ships having the MOST problems on very large maps. If possible, load them into a battle cruiser for extra speed.
Ground Units:
The ships are ok, but this is where the undead shine in my opinion. You get a suicide bomber, which is mostly worthless since they are easy to gun down and any SMART opponent WILL gun them down. I suppose if you sent a horde of them you could do some good damage, but i'd rather use my points on a big mech. And... it gets a plague spreading, armored, killing machine. Possibly the best unit I have come across, even though it takes up 10 spaces each. Heavy armor, good damage, and plague makes their mechs Mr. baddass. Plague is useful in situations where you are faster than their units (like mortar units). Plague them and run away... they'll die eventually! Otherwise the land armor tech gives these things nearly 90% armor... from what I can tell, that means it takes a regular sniper 2 hits to do ONE point of damage. On the flipside, it takes one of these puppies 2 shots to kill any human unit. Also you can get a guy to ressurrect the dead as undead minions. This works for BOTH teammates and enemies... a smart enemy will avoid fighting in the creepy mist.... the AI doesn't seem to care much. Zombies don't seem to be quite as good as infantry, but you can go into a battle with 10 snipers/infantry and come out with an army! The trick is to know that you are fighting humans, not machines.
Religious Zealot Guys: Resource ... food... totally worthless :/ (Most games I end with around 10,000 food anyway)
Ships: From what I can tell, good at everything except range. No ship they get has range.
Ship Tips: No range will give you a LOT of trouble. Their level 2 ships get the ability to heal damage ships every 3 turns though, and this makes them very dangerous. I typically use the level 2 ships mostly and the level 1 ships to guard the flanks of my armada so no ship can be destroyed in a single round. If they can't bring you down in 1 round you'll be healed and charging forward in no time.
Ground Units:
MEDIC! The healer on the ground will work miracles... but I prefer using him in conjuction with big mechs (less for him to heal). The trick is making sure he doesn't die
The shield unit I have never used... it would be very useful when fighting a horde of snipers... but otherwise, who cares. They also get a unit that can 'convert' humanoids on the battlefield. I prefer that tactic to anything. Show them true faith... and when you are hurt... send in the medic
Well, that gives the tips section a start. 4:00 AM and time for bed!
-Joe