Hi, I do not have this game but am interested in it. I watched a video showing gameplay of it, and I believe I saw that the techs upgrade instantly when you purchase it. Also, the global abilities are instantly applied once you activate them. I personally have thought to myself that it seems like allowing things to be applied, built, purchased, ect. instantly are not good things to have in a strategy game because they sometimes might allow you to not think strategically/plan ahead when you play, but instead allow you to quickly react to a situation. For example, you could have two good sized armies from opposing sides be fighting, and in the middle of the battle one player could instantly boost their health to give him an edge and perhaps save him from losing the battle. This would be able to be done even though he was not initially planning on doing so. What I am wondering is what people here think of the instant upgrades and global abilities. Do they lessen the strategy needed, or add to it? I could very well be missing something here that players here could enlighten me about that makes instant upgrades and global abilities a great strategic element/tool of this game.