Unlike AOC,  players' civilization is not preset before game and there is no random option. All the games are either using existing civilizations in EE or custom ones. For both, my advise is that to emphasize on navy and air force. Besides, Speed of constructing buildings and their ranges (Mainly Towers and Anti Air (AA) Guns) are important elements to the way of success.

 Units and buildings Variety

Nearly every players of this game know that the well known feature of this game is its numerous different kinds of units. There are at least 8 entirely different armaments generating buildings that you can choose from at the age of Nano, which means you are facing many forms of attack as soon as you enter the game. It's obviously stupid that if you decide to build every kinds of them as you won't have the resources to create sufficient stuffs of same kind to fit your enemy unless you are rushing.

 Nano Wars on islands- the general gaming concept

The main frame of this topic is entirely different from other ages and land wars, AA are gradually growing stronger from WW1 onward, with the use of tempests at this age, constant massive bombing is no longer the way to win. Land forces is basically useless not just because islands separate you and your enemy, but the existence of SSBNs is a de facto containment of most of them. Though the prophets are still deadly opponents of the SSBNs, but the temples with improved range at Nano, obviously provided storms proofed shelters for your navy to approach your enemy's base step by step and eventually bring a prompt and utter destruction to your enemy with the sight shot of the Library of Alexandria and Pharos lighthouse wonders.

 What to build at first???

Always start with Anti Air and towers first to defend against any air and land units. Then task around half of your citizens to do the jobs and leave others for building settlements and upgrading them to town centers (TC). Right after you finish the A.A. Guns and towers, you should have your airports, docks and naval bases up followed by the creations of air force and navy. By the first 7 minutes of a game, you should have around 25-35 citizens and at least 3-4 TCs for economy, 10-15 Phoenixes, navy of medium size which includes SSBNs, AA and towers for defense.

 Navalism

Navies are the outermost protections of home islands, a strong navy would definitely be equal to an assurance of your home island's safety. In general, by carrying out naval containment and the use of SSBMs, achieving victory is believed to be a time problem.

 Frigates

Frigates are light equipped and fast speeded ships used against submarines and buildings, they can destroy AA guns, towers and submarines quickly but they are of low resistance against damage except submarine's missiles. Just turn them away if you see battleships, cybers like Ares and Hyperions (very usually come in a large number) and air units like bombers.

 Attack Submarines

Attack submarines are slow but can do high damage against all kinds of ships except frigates, they are also known as killers of Hyperions lol. They are godly stuffs to conquest the sea whereas there are AA cover because they are weak against sea kings.

 Battleships

Despite of its highest damage per hit among all combat ships, they can't counteract against attack submarines and air units. Owning to the special low resistance against the former, very slow speed and recovery rate at docks, this greatly reduce its usefulness through they are anti frigates. Fortunately, high HP enable them to stay alive and act as shields of other ships.

 SSBNs

Well, I have nothing to say about SSBNs, they are auto killing machines of all land units, having 1500 damage at the highest, they can destroy most of the land units in 1 single shot and all buildings in a few shots.

Once enemies have been seen, they are locked on and SSBNs will keep on firing until the death of the target is confirmed. Since they are under sea like attack submarines, you only have to cover them with cruisers for guarding purpose or else destroy your enemy's buildings with protection of your fleets. Most probably targeting lighthouse wonder and temples in order to reduce sight and remove storms proofed shelters of your enemy. But be aware that few numbers of these may not be enough for tones of Hyperions lol.

 Cruisers

Cruisers work in the same way of other AA guns, the more of these are preferred to safeguard your submarines since their damage per hit isn't high. Although their AA damage ain't high, they do have a relatively high resistance against other ships but not cybers, so it's quite a good idea to push them forward as shields and let your ships fire at the back, together with their fast recovery rate at docks, they would be of great usefulness. But you're reminded that they may not be able to handle tonnes of bombers especially B-122 Wyvern which have high HP so it's better for you to prepare some tempests to cast anti-matter storms.

 Carriers

Carriers at Nano Age offer you Avenger fighters/bombers with low abilities at a low cost (60 gold/60 iron) The Avenger fighters/bombers can be regarded as semi rubbish when compared with those from airports like Phoenix, it's better not to mind the extra cost of 40 gold/40 iron to create a Phoenix unless it's a low risk and prolonged mission in which your carriers can move near to the target so as to  extend  the flight time per turn.

Back to the carriers, they have 0 resistance against any forms of attack so you better improve their speed and HP first before tasking them into missions.

 Naval weapons' abilities comparisons

 

HP	Original	Improvements from civilization bonuses	Improvements in game(1st)	Improvements in game(2nd)	Highest total
Frigates	2100	525	314	314	3253
Attack Submarines	1900	475	284	284	2943
Battleships	8600	2150	1289	1289	13320
SSBNs	1000	250	149	149	1548
Cruisers	3800	950	569	569	5888
Carriers	8000	2000	1199	1199	12398

 

Damage per hit	Original	Improvements from civilization bonuses	Improvements in game(1st)	Improvements in game(2nd)	Highest total
Frigates	100	20	15	15	150
Attack Submarines	250	50	38	37	375
Battleships	380	76	57	57	570
SSBNs	1000	200	150	150	1500
Cruisers	110	22	17	16	165
Carriers	-	-	-	-	-

 

Range	Original	Improvements from civilization bonuses	Improvements in game(1st)	Improvements in game(2nd)	Highest total
Frigates	8	2	1	1	12
Attack Submarines	8	2	1	1	12
Battleships	8	2	1	1	12
SSBNs	24	5	4	3	36
Cruisers	8	2	1	1	12
Carriers	-	-	-	-	-

 

Speed	Original	Improvements from civilization bonuses	Improvements in game(1st)	Improvements in game(2nd)	Highest total
Frigates	17	3	2	1	23
Attack Submarines	13	3	1	2	19
Battleships	12	2	1	1	16
SSBNs	13	3	1	2	19
Cruisers	14	3	1	2	20
Carriers	12	2	1	1	16

*You can only do 5 times improvements in game among different areas (HP, damage, range and speed) to each type of the ships above.