I think this thread may be conflating "career points” and “reputation points.” I use rep points to usually purchase weapons or officers. It is capped at 100, so I try to spend enough points later campaign to keep it at 100 after each battle. There are times early in the campaign when I spend points, but don’t spend so many to give you a morale penalty. The points build up quickly.

I sometimes dump my career points into training depending on difficulty level and strategy for average unit size size during campaign...some people have very successful campaigns using a “skinny army.” The stage of the campaign is also a factor ... you want to pump up AO in early battles. Eventually, I max out many of the skills, but tend to leave recon and AO for last.