HQ3 basically gets to the stage where you can do whatever you feel is best. at HQ2, increase the amount of steel mills to 3 so that you have a triangle, potentially consider a geothermal if power price is high, otherwise generally take a water tile, unless silicon/carbon is high value and at least a medium tile and ideally not too far away (usually not recommended to get glass/electronics/chems at hq2). You are already given the necessary amount of glass for first HQ upgrade so this will guarentee you reach HQ2.

I.e expansive should generally get 1 high iron as close as possible to your HQ, 1 medium or high aluminium which can be a little further away and some steel mills. In general you should try and get your own HQ upgrade resources excluding electronics/glass at hq1/2. Talking of youtube, philothanics commentary is usually very insightful for beginners such as this one: I believe you answered your own question if you're asking if you started too hard and you ran out of claims fast, the lower difficulties give you a few free extra claims. As i'd already seen a few games i knew how i should be playing and was very quickly playing the 'online' level gameplay (manager i believe? not played in a while) I almost always youtube games before i buy them so i know what i'm getting to some extent.

Offworld trading company steam