Looks pretty dire. Maybe get a Grizzly. HLT seemed like a good stalling tactic and you're not likely to lose while building a Grizzly.

The units that came out of the Amphbot factory from about 6:00 to 7:40 cost a total of 2000 metal. The Jumpbot factory made two Firewalkers in this time, which only just come online at 7:40, so there isn't a materiel imbalance by investing in a Grizzly. Grizzly is pretty good against Moderator, especially when supported by a Lobster for retreat, and Moderator was the main trouble.

Lobstering a 2.5k army into Moderator seems like the wrong approach. I would also want to see Buoy tried at some point, but don't expect that much from it. Duck would seem to overwhelm Moderator but can be countered by good Pyro support. Perhaps get a Cloaker.

Edit: Also, by most metrics that was a fairly even game. Both sides had room to switch while matching each other for Metal Produced, Total Value, Army Value and Value Lost.

quote: but the games where I managed to get grizzlies up turned into some of the most succesful chaotic matches I've ever played.

Getting severe flashbacks of Godde using cloaked moderator on Gecko to flash-cook Grizz.

quote: I think the main and bigger problem for Amph on top Moderator in this matchup is getting zoned out by Firewalker. Grizzly doesn't really solve that and has to live in constant fear of Skuttles, Placers, Pups and jank kills by Juggle. Jumps has all the tools while Amph has very little to work with on its own.

What would gounson8989 do?

Theoretical tacticl: Forget moderators and firewalkers. Once you know where they are, you need to double/triple lobster around and past them into their jugular. It's either a base swap or they retreat to catch up and lose anyway.