Elemental needs to work on its foundation, not its penthouse suite. Right now, it's an utterly generic tile-based TBS with bland game mechanics. This needs to be the focus of attention, and then you can work up through its haphazard managerie of content, and only then graduate to grander things like co-op campaigns.
As it stands, competitive multiplayer is out of the question entirely. You'd have to completely rework a lot of the game mechanics for it to even be worth consideration. If you're looking for serious meta-gaming the game devolves into first-strike and scorched-earth gambits.