I had an advantage to begin with. On a large map, having ducks vs. glaives? For some reason I was expecting aggression from GF, when such an attack was basically impossible. He expanded rapidly in all directions and I was clumsy in keeping on top of it.

On the other hand, I was also really slow to expand. Conch's are expensive and slow, but at least until GS came out, it would have been easy to protect a more aggressive expansion of my own. I was also failing to consolidate.

The grizzly and krow... I'm not sure how bad the actual ideas were, but the execution was laughably bad. Both times, I had enough information to know they weren't coming back, but for some reason committed anyway. I think I was just overtaxed and yolo'd needlessly. I felt like I was behind and needed to change things up drastically.

I was super hesitant to fac switch further for more appropriate AA. I went from amph to GS to planes, each time thinking I would have the air game solved. This is the main takeaway for me, that only a mixed air/ground force can take on a mixed air/ground force - and ducks can't at all compete with rapiers. While GF and I did talk fairly extensively afterwards, I thought about it further and have come around to using more statics. If I'd put down razors in the middle that would have heavily restricted the mobility of his rapier squad even if he never fought it head on. He would be less able to evade my own rapier squad, and less able to react to my raids to the sides.

I don't think the warrior drop was that bad, but maybe a little forced considering I had GS. If it'd come around the other side it would have made cost and given you good tempo. It's the sort of thing where it looks bad in retrospect, but habitually doing those sorts of unpredictable things puts opponents on their toes.

Rapier+gramlin is a difficult combo to beat while also maintaining a proactive stance. I like it.