Seems to me that the "official" walkthrough missed a very important strategy that I have found the easiest way to win, and at the same time research up to and build strong enough forces.
- Usually the first real headache is the Gorilla/Reaper/Wasp attack from the West. After a zillion tries, I still don't know if turrets are worth it. I found Triple Plasma Knights in FP just blow away the Gorillas. You do kinda want to build an antiaircraft gun just north of the original mine.
- Take advantage of the ready made researcher labs and use 1 tech for the civilian lab. Get the Scavenger deal going, and get an aircraft factory. Wjat blows is you are limited to the plasma wasps, so I just make APCs, about three.
- All the while you should crank out Triple Plasma knights with your limited BMU's. Recycle the Mek. I used to build Leviathans but I don't anymore. Knights in FP do the trick.
In the walkthrough, the idea is to push up the main "road" and infiltrate and reclaim the buildings, This is fun, but the enemy is very busy attacking your bases - usually with turret reapers. You can get caught out here.
Thats why I get APC's going, and do an "end run" around the whole thing, capturing the buildings in the extreme NE of the map. I bring knights builders and at least one transporter. You can capture the air unit factory and smelter there and just press forward, capturing or destroying as you need to and then its attrition once the smelters are captured.
Just WATCH OUT for the ion cannon! If you can capture it, well, you can kick some major metal butt!