For those watching, no the ducks weren't grouped when SS333 mentioned it, but it was one of the main points we discussed, and he knew I'd be doing it as soon as I had enough to group. The emphasis on duck alpha (and therefore wanting to roll with enough ducks to not require a second volley) is spot on.

A few quick notes:

Recluse nor crabe can deal with grizzly. Recluses are killed one shot (possible double rail too?), have slightly lower range, and lack the burst to kill it before it retreats. It's easy to keep a grizzly alive while dealing attrition against recluse. Crabe also lack the single target dps to tussle with grizzly, and if they are hit while moving, or get caught out they're dead metal. The only things that work against grizzly from spider are fleas and infiltrator, both of which can be screened for.

With duck vs. venom/redback: this example might not be representative, because dorsh was a little slow to expand (I was kinda slow too, but managed to also suppress his expansion). A redback and two venom (standard riot squad for spider) costs 700 metal, or around nine ducks. You should have more metal to spend on army as amph because you only need enough defenses to control flea infestation. Since both venoms and redbacks take four shots each, your initial burst has the potential to skew their comp, removing either all their venoms, or all their redbacks. Redbacks without venoms are not scary to ducks, and so long as they don't get a total lock, you're winning if you take out all the venoms too. It's not until they have a larger spider ball that venom/redback can contend with ducks, even though they're slower and classed as riot. For this reason, it's probably a good idea for spider players to throw in some hermits to absorb some shots and keep venom/redback alive past the initial volley, at which point it should be trivial for them to clean up.

Weird game, just a single Flea hiding out on the map.