Yeah, that mission is "balanced" way harder than any of the other robot RTS missions I've hit so far.
FWIW, the Dominator robots do seem constrained by resource limits after all, even if they don't appear to be at first.
Here's the ham-fisted, inefficient strategy I now use to beat it:
For starters, this strategy probably depends on the base in the north-east corner of the map being initially destroyed. One play through I was able to grab that base right off the bat, and I was sure that I was headed for a quick and glorious win over this sadistic map--then my graphics driver crashed and I had to close the game.
Right at the beginning, I destroy the owned plant building (leaving the turrets) that is up the northward path from my home base and pull those five robots down. I find I just cannot defend that plant effectively so I deny the resource production to the Dominators.
As resources allow, I replace the starting robots with 2 template types, REPAIR and DEFEND. The repair robots have 4 repair lasers and a firewall; the defend robots have 3 launchers, a stunner, a mortar and a firewall. Your mileage may vary (pun?) on the choice for mobility type, but I always go with the fastest selection--the anti-grav, I think.
To defend the plant to the immediate west of the my home base (I'll call it 1-West), I ensure all 3 turrets are missile launchers and I stack 3 repair robots just below the western turret (the one right below the plant itself) and a defend robot within repair range. I stick 3 more repair robots in between the other two turrets, and a defend robot within repair range of them. The defend robots worked well for me when placed right next to the respective ground turrets, with clear firing arc on the attackers' approach.
This placement generally allows my own robots' AI to survive attacks on that plant without need for me to micromanage the fight from inside a robot. I do lose a turret or a robot here and there, but at a replacement rate that is below my income level. I find it necessary to keep tabs on the battle to watch for losses, even if I don't have to intervene very often.
As soon as I can add another robot (although it'll take owning another couple plants first), I usually add another repair robot to the group repairing the two eastern turrets. This allows 2 or 3 repairers to keep up the elevated turret while leaving 2 or 1 repairers for the defend robot and the ground turret. As I take plants, I bolster the other repair squad with a 4th (which I send out for mobile repair), and create a reserve defender.
From inside a defend robot, I manually take the plant next over to the west (2-West) and build 3 missile turrets there. Then I manually take the plant next over to the west (T-Intersection), but I build 2 heavy cannon there instead of more expensive launchers since I expect to lose that plant repeatedly.
From inside a piloted robot, I continously fall back while firing on the line of attackers whenever they approach from that west side. I find I often fall all the way back to and past plant 2-West before killing them all (especially if one of the Dominator armies has already been eliminated). One thing I've noticed is that the enemy targeting-AI seems to dislike switching away from you if you've initally triggered their hate--even to the point of halting their fire as they try to manuever around one of your cannon to shoot you. Sometimes you can "tank" 3 or so while your cannon kill them unmolested just by running behind a cannon.
If ever an attack occurs from due north of the home base, I'll manually control a robot north to greet it, then fall back firing. Because the north-east base was destroyed, and because I blew up that starting plant, it seems an attack from this path is rare to nonexistant.
Any time a force comes south from inside the center walls to attack the T-Intersection plant, I rush'n attack it to thin it out, let it take the plant if their numbers insist, finish off their force and then retake the plant. As the enemy grows progressively weaker, it becomes less necessary to allow them to overrun this plant. After I expand to own the plant across the bridge, west of T-Intersection, I get a defend-type robot there for manual control to engage attacks from the road on its far side. Even without a robot there, that bridge plant can often defend itself with 3 just missile launchers as long as a new missile turret is built immediately when one is destroyed during a fight.
Then I just play a game of attrition, using the periodic reinforcements as my attack force to expand around the perimeter.
At this point, I'm usually fighting only Blazer. If he seems strong, I'll destroy the next plant down the road from bridge to deny him the resource. If his map ownership is weak, I'll take it and hold it--but only with heavy cannon, treating it like T-Intersection and falling back if overrun.
Periodic reinforcements grab the perimeter plant in the north-east; then whittle cannon defense and grab plants moving in from the north and east. As needed, I send a repair robot from 1-West to fix buildings before they break, and turrets when possible.
By now, victory is mostly assured against the AI. Overcoming the insane starting resource imbalance seems to be the real fight against a computer that doesn't do much more than throw all its units at the same attack points. I can sometimes speed it up by darting a small force in to ninja the central base when the enemy's main army is engaged attacking me elsewhere.
