Thanks for taking the time to play! I was feeling pretty self-conscious about it by the end of the jam and I'm really glad you saw the positives.
The lagginess is honestly a result of poor design on my part. I've been working on a major redo that performs much better and I'm looking forward to sharing it when it's out.
Assimilators aren't explained in the manual because I added them super late and didn't playtest the late game much. By the time the jam was over I was just tired and set the project down.