Now as an indy it involves a lot of grabbing, and most often I can't finish a set as I always touch some guy on a bad day and I get into some kind of war or b.s., but i have a question nonetheless. For the experienced industrial people out there, do you find it useful to incorporate military bases at some point to help deter the costs of the beefy military? If so, is it worth it? Or do you take the extra production and lean on sales? The market sales time of 4-6 hours is too long to just use small batches of turns. Or you sell massive amounts of units, but then are open to attacks in which you have to retal and both parties are hurt.

1. Join GDI
2. Don't hit same target more than once
3. Grab people that can't retal right away
4. Sell all possible units every time

But I'm not an expert, that's just my gut speaking!

#4 not true sometimes

That's when all the variables come in play :/

Kakoroto:

1 Indy will outproduce (taking into account 10% commission loss) the savings from 1 Military Base, every time, unless your networth is well over 100 mil.

So yes, you do produce more units and sell more units as a consequence.

The key to Indy (and any strat really) is not to fall behind in land and NW in the first place (in the 1st/2nd week of a reset) to the point other people outgrow you and can attack you without fear of retaliation - once that happens, you won't be able to catch up.

I say this because you mention "but then are open to attacks in which you have to retal" - you don't want to ever reach that stage in the first place - your first 2 weeks should be to grow (typically at the expense of new/weaker players).

first 4 weeks. raw production is more important than efficiency as a commie. Just grab grab grab!
Tech is too expensive to keep up with and land is easy to get at this point. Keep indy tech above 120% but land is priority.

after 4 weeks, you need tech to keep up and it should be cheaper. Get indy tech to 150% and bus/res to 150%. Military should be at least 90%. All bonuses go to expense entire set.

im assuming you are in primary.