BTW regarding raid/steal … I play Heroic. Febuary 19th I have activatede 12 bases and build an additional 5 Manticors for a total of 6, which all have armed and armored teams (some part Scarabs) - without stealing from/raiding any of the other factions.
I have fought other factions on special/story missions … Didn’t like to, but sometimes people disagree on certain matters.
Have diplomacy 75+ with all 3 factions, but "war"with pure.
My teams do not have optimal gear, but make do. Some grenader launchers and lately the back-mounted missiles and by now most assaults have scavanged Bulldogs.
I do not savescum, but do reload, when I’ve made obvious stupid mistakes, so have lost a few soldiers on the way.
My point¿ - don’t belive you have to steal/raid.
I do spend some time in real life/in game trading.
So don’t use up all ressources the minut you get them, but keep the first hundreds to trade and make them “Work” for you.
My take.