Some observations:

1. @ 1:50 - Allocation: That mex could have gotten up sooner, been rushed, and then terraformed/given a lotus.

2. @ 2:00 - Strategy: I'm getting bogged down facing MrGristle here. I need to rotate my con to where my com is, build a lotus or two, let him finish his stardust (I literally don't care, I'm not pushing that) and continue expanding to the right. Catching him at right angles with jmicz3d could be beneficial.

3. @ 2:00 - Strategy/Allocation: This split was dicey, and the terra was expensive. Overcomitted on the bandit (4 daggers to oneshot) which left my com very vulnerable.

4. @ 3:00 - Strategy/Allocation: Currently paying for my delay here. It's been over a full minute and I haven't shifted right, MrGristle was able to use that time to mitigate my ability to push there. I pulls back, but I'm reasonably certain that his com + 6 glaives wins against 5 daggers and 2 scalpels if he spreads the glaives out.

5. @ 3:00 - Tactics/Control: Stupid scalpel loss here because I only microed the one back.

6. @ 3:30 - Allocation/Retasking: Felon spotted. I build a mace here momentarily, but I need either more scapels to suppress the felon's shields or halberds to tank the fire. I think given the limited size of the shield ball here, my solution is to go hard into scalpels to suppress the felon's shields.

Strategic Note: The glaive threat is currently minimal. While this feels like a 2v1, MrGristle actually currently has very little meaningful threat to bring to bear. In terms of metal value, we're actually roughly even at the moment.

This is partially an issue with a lack of knowledge of the matchup.


7. @ 3:30 - Allocation: When expanding on flanks I'm not sure if I can guard, I think I should switch to a two con approach- one building energy back at home that can also assist in boosting out another con if I'm having trouble with metal management, and one building mexes at lotuses. My southern expansion right now is very slow.

8. @ 4:00 - Allocation: Metal management problems, again. Need to make that part of my decisionmaking loop. Before building any unit, consider if I'm about to have overflow problems.

9. @ 5:00 - Allocation: I'm not sure what the answer to felon/rogue is for hovers, but it's not a mace. I'll have to check with others, but I think at this point halberds are the strong pick- tank the felon, relatively immobile targets. MrGristles glaive threat can be mitigated by fallback static d.

10. @ 6:00 - I don't think Lance is actually the correct choice here either. It can drain shields, yes, but that's also ~5 halberds I'm turning down. Incidentally, a halberd and a lance have about the same DPS, but you can't run down a halberd the way you can a lance.

11. @ 6:15 - So, a Felon's total burst is about 2k damage. That's a lot, but not an unmanageable amount. Two halberds would completely drain a felon's shields, but I think even with my mace comp I might be able to just accept that I'm going to lose probably ~2 out of 3 maces and then run down the shield ball. Even odds we both wipe, but I think I might be able to win that given scalpel missiles track and rogues do not.

12. @ 8:00 - Strategy: Lance is out, felon is wounded, I have a 3:2 metal advantage. Now is the time to start pushing out daggers and finish the shieldball. I need to get into the habit of finishing my opponents, not just driving them off to lick their wounds.

Strategic note: Something I have observed higher players do against multiple lower rated players is that they rely a lot on defeat in detail. I should be doing the same.

Pausing for now and saving this, returning to this later.