I think this is probably my longest 1v1 yet.

Things I should probably decide and execute faster next time:

• Amass bandits against hammer spam
• Take reclaim earlier
• Amass rogues against knight spam
• Sweep earlier and with more units once the south ulti revealed itself
• Raid whereever there hasn't been combat in a while
• Remember that the tacsilo is a good factory on small maps

Things I should try not to derp on next time:

• Be more careful with the early ball
• Keep air units away from the artemis
• Don't suicide the scorp - and with the then game state, merlin was a much better call
• Maybe hold off on the first north nuke until I can be sure it will kill the merlins
• Make sure the widow is under the shield before stunning the anti when there are shields around (I didn't actually realise what had happened the first time, I thought I had accidentally told it to move too close or something)

Things I'm unsure about:

• Setting up the middle hardpoint - bad idea, or needs doubling down on with harder porc?
• Bandits against Knight feels worse than expected?
• Some of the mass bandit raids - especially once the merlins were online, and it's hard to not bunch up, but maybe it was still worth it for the chance to hit something tasty?
• Taking the nuclear option - it feels more tempting now that funnels can't block shockley as easily, but Merlin attrition hit earlier and maybe is a better option for the same goal?

Thoughts, comments?

Here's a pile of running commentary.

* 5:00 The lack of early raiding hurt. rewdrfe2 had a big eco advantage due to his free expansion in the first 5 minutes that he didn't properly capitalize on.
* 6:00 You ended up with a few turrets in the south west that weren't going to be very useful (anything that could get through the front line would kill those back turrets and even a single Kodachi can kill a lotus), I'd personally recommend blocking chokes and then filling in the back lines with eco. You were somewhat lucky rewdrfe2 forgot about his kodachis in the north west.
* 6:00 Relying on light defences doesn't work well vs tanks. If rewdrfe2 had taken his Minotaur+Ogres and just driven along the south there was nothing you could have done to stop him with what you had. Try and use Stingers as much as possible (stardusts are ok too against individual Minotaurs or a number of Ogres).
* 12:00 shieldballs are all about low attrition overwhelm. From what your Ravens had seen you already knew your opponent had at least 4K of army in the area, a 3K shieldball army will just feed (particularly against units you'd struggle to run away from like Knight, Minotaur and Ogre).
* 10:00-13:00 The Ravens really didn't work. This was mostly due to rewdrfe2 ensuring there weren't any soft targets around. Though in general tank armies are much worse targets for bombing than, say, spider armies. Both because tanks normally aren't one-shot and because Ogre is powerful a short ranged AA unit.
* 10:00-14:00 You had a little remnant army in the south east that could have picked off the undefended mexes nearby. It might be wise to zoom out every minute or so to see the entire map and remind yourself of the strategic situation.
* 13:30 The only reason you aren't entirely doomed is because rewdrfe2 is badly mismanaging his eco. He's been very E starved and has excessed 1800 metal. He's also failing to use his big armies and Tremor to push. There aren't really any good options at this point as you can't realistically push vs those superior forces.
* 15:30-16:00 rewdrfe2's half hearted and piece-meal attack here is a life-saver, costing him hugely and putting you back in the game.
* 16:30 You really need more caretakers.
* 17:00 I'd strongly recommend getting an Aspis once your shieldball starts to go above 3000 metal. It allows you to redistribute shield strength from your back Thugs to your frontline, making a huge difference to attrition in skirmishes.
* 19:00 I can't really fault you for continuing to push with your ball even though it cost you a lot. That many Slings would have destroyed your porc pretty quickly if left unchallenged.
* 18:00 Given your opponent has a huge Sling army and you have an air factory, this might be one of the few times it's worth building a few Phoenixes (I have no idea why Phoenix doesn't cost 240 metal). Or maybe a fac switch (missile silo for the Inferno, tank for Emmissary/Tremor or jump fac for the Firewalker seem like decent choices).
* 21:00 I think a Funnelweb wasn't really appropriate here, you're facing arti (including a Tremor!) and gunships pushing you on a fixed front. I don't think a Funnelweb offers you anything here (its shield is useless against arti and you aren't going to be porc pushing here so the build range isn't useful either). A Merlin would have been ideal and you can follow up with a Funnelweb afterwards if you're not happy with Aspis protecting your Merlin.
* 21:30 You have a Funnelweb now, so you should set it to high priority and set up a metal reserve for flash porc (in this case your income is larger than its BP so a nominal reserve of like 10 metal would be best). You don't need that functionality yet, but you probably will in the future and it's best to set things up ahead of time.
* 22:30 Good on your for pulling your Funnelweb back to allow its shields to regen, most people neglect to do that. :)
* 23:00 At this stage in the game it can be wise to make a few storages to be able to take a sudden reclaim influx. Lack of it costs you a good 1000 metal.
* 24:00 As you point out, the bandit raids on the south weren't cost effective as rewdrfe2 has some heavy porc here (over 1000 metal worth in the two chokepoints). Though distracting the Ogres did allow you to kill that Merlin, it also left a bunch of reclaim. Now, a bandit raid in the north just after the distraction starts? That would have been great.
* 20:00-25:00 You have a bunch of shielded cons who don't take the reclaim around the place. Have you tried enabling the "Auto Reclaim/Head/Assist" widget?
* 20:00-26:00 Your lack of arti is hurting here. That Cerberus is going to do great things.
* 26:00 It's been 5 minutes since the ulti came by and you still haven't rebuilt the mex in your base. That's north of 1000 metal. Though I'm unsure of a good solution other than making a widget that spits markers at you every minute for unclaimed mexes that are in vision and haven't been near the enemy for the past minute. (hmm... that would actually be a useful widget)
* 27:00 Bandit spam is a good choice for fending off the southern attack.
* 27:00 Have you forgotten about your Likho?
* 28:30 Those Bandits feel mismicrod. Leaving the Tremor with 190 hp... :(
* 28:30 You're spending metal and APM building energy when you already have 100% overdrive rather than using those cons to reclaim or rebuild the destroyed southern mexes and grid. This seems objectively the wrong choice.
* 29:30 That first Cerberus was good, giving you area denial and allowing you to eat the reclaim field and get the northern mexes. But why a second one in the same place? Instead you could use your Funnelweb to go take north and then use the eco boost to win. Or build a missile silo for the brutal Shockley spam.
* 29:00 Your radar coverage has gotten very spotty. Might be worth shelling out for an advanced radar on a stick if you don't want to spare the APM to radar spam.
* 29:00 You have 32m/s income and are trying to spend 220 on three separate large construction projects (two fusions and a Cerebrus). Something has gone wrong.
* 31:00 I can see from the replay bar that this game goes on a while longer. I've no idea how this isn't gg.
* 32:00 Ah, rewdrfe2 vacillates about whether to attack or not.
* 33:00 Lots of idle cons, lots of spare mex spots and untaken reclaim. Remember that eco is the most important thing in this game.
* 37:00 One little known fact is that Aspis spam is actually cost effective against Merlins. It's just that Merlins cost 6 times as much as an Aspis so you need a LOT.
* 38:00 Reclaim is nice and all but it's important to keep a sense of perspective. Even the 4k you hoovered up is only 4 minutes of those 4 northern mexes being built and hooked up to your grid. The 500 metal you send your 13 shield-cons to pick up is worth way less than getting that one mex built. In a lobsterpot reclaim is very important as it goes to you rather than to a team full of lobsters, but in 1v1 it's much less so.
* 41:00 Bandit spam doing very badly against AoE arti.
* 42:00 A missile silo and a swift scout would let you cost effectively kill that southern strongpoint (two shockleys to stun funnel and shield, two eos to kill Funnel, then take out Artemis and Cerberus at your leisure).
* 43:00 Some area cloak to hide your radar returns (or better yet, an Owl!) would be good here.
* 44:00 Lack of radar coverage hurting.
* 44:00 Been feeding Bandits and Aegis to Merlins for a while now. Maybe use dirtbags as bait instead?
* 46:00 Your central porc point could really use some defences (other than the single Stinger). Razors and Gauss are good distractions to attacking armies.
* 46:00 I'm wondering if a Bertha would have been a good choice for you. Bertha basically negates Funnelweb shields and will take down strongpoints and armies. And is half the price of that nuke (8K+3k) so it would have been winning you the attrition war.
* 47:00 Rogues seem like the perfect way to slow down that army, very good choice. Though I'd probably make less of them and spread them out more, as Merlins don't care if it's 1 Rogue or 10.
* 48:00 For an unscouted nuke the enemy base isn't the worst choice. Predicting where the army would be is probably too hard. I might have gone for the enemy strongpoint in the south though given that rewdrfe2 has Funnelwebs and thus can avoid getting stuck excessing metal fairly easily.
* 48:00 That nuke has cost too much and delivered too little. (though it caused rewdrfe2 to pull his army back, which cost him a lot)
* 50:00 Ultimatums would be great here to kill off the merlin+funnel ball, but without an Owl/Gremlin/Widow you have no way to know this. Ditto Likho or a Bandit swarm. Intel is vital, a radar on a stick would have given you a decent idea about what they had left and whether they've built defences, then you could have made and sent a Bandit swarm, effectively winning the game.
* 51:00 Decent nuke placement. Maybe a Shockley to hold the Merlins in place might have been good as you weren't as pressed as the first time.
* 51:00 You're trying to spend double your income on Bandits when there's reclaim and unbuilt mexes nearby.
* 54:00 An Ulti really would have been so good here vs north... But in the absence of that, a few cheap units or a Guass or Razor can distract those Merlins for ages.
* 56:00 You got very unlucky with the Ultimatum movements. Though in general you should have your cloaked units try and avoid uncloaked ones that might be a target for arti.
* 60:00 Beautiful nuke. :)
* 60:00 You almost certainly aren't going to need to stockpile more than 2 nukes, I'd recommend setting that as your limit as nukes are very expensive.