Thanks for sharing this, always interesting to see how lower player level players are seeing the game these days.
I'm not going to comment on your experience with the game so instead let me give you some advice I wish I had gotten when I started playing. Always keep 3000 credits on you; you will want to unlock every unit and the store is one of the better ways to do so in the beginning, its far more important to unlock counters and expand your options than it is to rush unit levels. Second, Find an alliance full of good active people to join, donating units you don't care about is a great way to shore up your credits when you're just short of something you want, getting donations will help you level the things that are important to you faster than you'd otherwise be able to, and you can learn a lot about the game by sharing replays with other people.