It's easier to farm with NOD in the beginning, and NOD is also better for early PvP because of the venoms and verts.
All Supply Points (SP) should be used to buy Command Points (CP).
Do not collect the 5-hour RT reward for completing the "Repair all units to full health" quest in the beginning. Save this reward for later when you need the RT during PvP.
Before Base 3, keep repair buildings at level 9 and sell and replace them with power plants/refineries whenever you're not farming. You don't need to level up the repair buildings past level 9, since Repair Time (RT) costs will be kept very low.
Keep most army units below level 10. After every attack, instead of repairing these units, sell them and buy them back. This will save you RT, and the RT you save will add up. Using this method will allow you to kill outposts using almost no or very low RT even with repair buildings at level 9.
You should be able to save up at least 2 days of RT by the time you get Base 2.
Get Construction Yard to level 9 and the whole base to level 7 so you can move within the first two hours.
Add a Command Center right away and focus only on putting tib, power, and crystal production on your base for the first 12 to 15 hours.
Sell any refineries, defense facility and defense HQ after the initial game missions are done. And always sell the repair buildings when you're not farming.
You can keep the harvesters at level 9.
Once you can move, do not start digging Forgotten Bases! When base is level 7, move to a level 13 Tunnel. You will need 5 players with level 7 armies to begin activating the tunnel. But your army will need to be bigger (level 8-9) for you to kill the Outposts (OPs) in one shot.
In worlds with malus/morale, farming will always be more efficient compared to hitting Forgotten Bases. Many players will use an alt account to help get POIs in the beginning. Reactors and aircraft POI are especially helpful early on. (It's up to you if you do this or not, but don't burn your account trying to dig out POIs.)
Wait until your CC is level 10-11 and army is level 9 to be able to shoot level 11 OPs in one or two-shots.
While waiting, do not waste CP hitting small camps (level 2-7) for the "Do 8 combats" mission. It's okay to kill one small level 2 camp for the initial "Attack the Forgotten" mission, but afterwards, wait until your army is bigger.
After 12-15 hours of production, your army should be big enough to farm with. This is when you should convert Base 1 to credit production. Keep your accumulator, power plants, 6 touch tib silo, and six tib harvesters. You don't need crystal production – the resources you farm will compensate for no crystal production.
If you can't find any level 11 OPs to one-shot, you can kill some level 8-11 camps, as long as they are one-shots, which will give you resources to get your army bigger. But the majority of the CP you use to get Vertigos should be spent killing level 11-12 outposts (or higher) in one to two-shots. Do not waste CP killing OPs in three or more hits.
NOD Army Setup: At this stage, NOD armies will use nearly all infantry units (militants and rocket squads), but armies should be tailored for each outpost (OP).
You should have a lot of level 7-9 units and a few level 10 or higher units. The level 9 and below units can be switched for other types of units. So for some OPs, you may trade a few low level infantry for more rocket guys or a reckoner or some venoms. And for other OPs, you may need only infantry.
As mentioned previously, the level 9 and below units should be sold and re-bought every single time, instead of repairing. They will also help protect the higher units from taking damage. By doing this, RT costs should be 0 to 15 min. per attack, so you will save more RT than you actually spend farming.
Continue leveling up refineries to reach 25,000 credits per hour by the end of Day 1, which will give you a 3-day timer for Base 2. (You'll end up dropping faster than this because of the credits you will farm and by leveling up refineries more.)
By the end of Day 2, your Accumulator should be level 15, Command Center at level 14, and Construction Yard at level 11. Also focus on leveling up your 4t and 3t refineries to bring your timer for Base 2 down further.
Move up to the next tunnel, with 4 other players who have the offense level that can activate it.
NOD Army Setup: NOD players should switch to having mostly air units (vertigos and venoms) and focus on leveling up two verts as high as possible. Add two small verts to help absorb damage to the bigger verts. Because they are sold and rebought instead of repaired, this will keep RT costs low. The two high-level verts will allow you to kill many Outposts efficiently. Infantry and vehicles are mostly used as decoys for luring enemy units at this stage.
You should still have mostly level 9 units in your army to sell and rebuy instead of repairing, or to switch for other units depending on the outpost setup. The only units above level 10 should be the two big verts and two venoms.
You should be able to drop Base 2 within 72 hours after the server started if you are able to get the Research Points using your available CP.
This is why all Supply Points need to be spent on CP – your RT costs should be so low at this stage that CP will be your only constraint.
How big you are by the time you get Base 2 will depend on how efficient you have been during farming. So the goal is to find as many one-shots as possible.
On Base 1, convert setup to have two power cubes, get CY to level 12, and as you continue to farm, use resources to get ACCs to level 15.
Base 2: Add in crystal and tib production, along with refineries. You don't need a full power cube yet (4-5 power plants connected to an accumulator should produce enough power for the cash base). Look for a minimum double 4t tib layout with enough space for at least one power cube (3x4t tib or 1x5t tib is better).
You should drop Base 3 about 7 days after researching Base 2. Total credit production will need to be around 70k/hour by Day 4 and then increase from there (mostly by leveling up refineries on Base 2).
Prioritize getting a level 18 CC and increasing OL to move up to the level 18 Tunnels as quickly as possible. After four days of farming, you should be big enough to move up to level 19 Tunnels and possibly also level 20 Tunnels.
Repair buildings: RT costs should still be very low at this stage, since your army is mostly made up of level 9 or lower units (plus a couple big verts and venoms and maybe a big scorpion). You should continue to sell and buy back the small units instead of repairing them. Repair buildings can stay at level 10 and you should replace them with refineries when you're not farming.
By the time you drop Base 3, you should have 7-8 days of RT saved up. Keep increasing your RT capacity so you can keep saving it up.