>8 glaives.

Did you leave out the part about the strike commander on purpose, or did you leave the inconvenient fact out to better prove your point? Because the Commander did the majority of the damage to the Venoms.

You used the spiders poorly too, by letting the Recluse get ahead of the Venoms. You always keep your Riots in the front and Skirmish units in the back.

But Kitty is right - venom can get easily surrounded.

You can't expect someone to make 1200 metal in Venoms+Recluses to get riots - and spiders have not even raiders!

It may be better if venom uses a stun target+AOE and area-stun(outlaw style) combo - 1/2 damage each.
Low ranged things between Venom and the target - or close targets - could get 2/2 damage.