Interesting - I only played it irl a few times with someone else's copy but I do have the digital version and we were having similar issues (including with quite experienced players of other games) - not to doubt your experience in any way. I might try playing on advanced AI if I have time and see if that makes a difference.

Because we do have one of our online group who is a massive fan but unfortunately it doesn't really gel with any of the rest of us do it would be cool if we could find 'a way in'