Follow the MC1 system will be a massacre for the bandwidth. Every time a bot cut a tree, the information need to be shared to every player active.
If you use the tethered system? A player need to place a "tree treatment plant" close to the forest, and will see some units cut down tree.
Of course, the "tree treatment plant" should be connected to the main transport system.
For consume less resources, the forest won't have 1'000'000 individual trees, but many sectors, one units per sector.
The player will see something like MC1, but consuming less resources, no individual tree, no bots army.