3) In-game, not that I know, but there is a manual in the beta directory, which has information on the units role, their strengths and weaknesses, and what the upgrades do.
4) From my experience, two minutes is FAR too long to spend as a Dragon. It is best used for surgical strikes - wiping out that column of infantry, hitting that group of fighters, supporting your troops in the battle. You are not supposed to be playing for two minutes straight as a Dragon, its normal attack is not very effective at taking out armoured units. It's only in the end-game with resources constrained that it's safer to spend more time as a Dragon.
5) The game is indeed very fast paced. I'm not entirely sure yet if it's too fast-paced, I want to think about it some more and get used to it before I decide if it really is too fast-paced.
If this intended to be the normal pace for multiplayer, then multiplayer in general might be too fast. From the Strategy map screenshots, I've seen population counts for countries in the campaign mode are in the 800-2000 range. Skirmish mode has a population cap of 5000. That 800-2000 population will deplete much faster, and there will be less time for clever strategies. Of course, I am forgetting that unit upgrades will carry over, so units will be pre-built for clever strategy usage.
8) When I first launched the game, Windows Firewall told me it had inhibited the app from contacting the Internet. I had to tell Windows Firewall to allow it full public access.
