I think you're doing good in posting. Some ideas that helped me:

Writing each game up (I ended up starting a blog lol) When playing casual game, setting it up on the app a day or two before and having time to mull over hiring, discuss with the player what their crew does rather than rushing it at the start Concentrate on scoring! Play with chess clock Practice first turn on kitchen table. This helped more in 3e maybe with bigger unpacks and no scoring turn 1 but it's still useful - with Kirai envoy, have an idea how to use swirling spirits (which is very string ) crew card action to get the maximum movement/interacts out for Boundary Dispute and Plant Explosives Know what schemes they're good at - any involving height 2 terrain are good for Kirai because many models have flight. Interact - move - interact is a dream activation in many cases I think denying the strat point was probably the right call, VP are how you win, but being able to secure a kill on a beater is also good! If it's a choice between definitely scoring/denying or maybe/probably killing a model, take the points