I tried playing this game... Or maybe I didn't. I'm not sure what exactly I played.
After seeing how the deck is stacked against my pilot, I stopped playing by the rules.
My pilot saw that they have more in common with enemy mech pilots than with the Colonel, and used this newfound understanding to send a secret message to an “enemy” pilot, and they together devised a plan to stop the war.
After this, the cards showed what others thought was happening, and not what really happened. And I kept taking tokens off without rolling.
The situation got tense when my pilot leaked the Colonel's plan to the other side, but they managed to get away with it.
I feel a bit bad for turning a sad game into a power fantasy, but I've really enjoyed it.