Doesn't this mode favor range more so than normal(unless I'm reading something wrong). Since you are firing twice as fast, and doing twice the damage per hit, this is an effective damage increase of 4x, but only a movement speed of 2x. Thus, cruisers who are going to die to fighters if the fighters get in range in a small number of hits, can with support of bombers kill a greater number of fighters before they reach the range in which the fighters hit back (aka clear a larger group of fighters with minimal or no damage). This seems like it makes focusing on cruisers in the early game almost vital in this game mode(I have noticed people talking about how they always upgrade cruisers first, though this is also due to the fact that they seem to get a slightly larger boost from upgrading to level 2 and 3--fighter level 1 -> level 3 gets a 3.33 damage boost and a 2x life boost, cruiser gets a effective damage boost of 6x(3x damage, 2x fire rate) and a life boost of ~5x). Imo either just a firing rate increase or a damage increase would get you the combat speed up without messing with the unit balance (firing rate would be better to avoid overkill problems though).