First he probably put them towards air cost and land cost decreases (maybe land range as well), then when he saw the TML went straight for TMD, then went for shields on his tanks (which are surprisingly rp expensive). Just guessing based on what I would do and how the game went.
Neph, why the fail? You probably would've (or at least could've) won if you hadn't left yourself so open to a snipe.
yeah the shields probably would have changed the outcome, but if he had shields I wouldn't have gone for the snipe. I could see he was unable to get under it if I just played it well. In case I went in for the snipe and he managed to move under the shield I would just continue walking into his base. He would have to chase me or for base swap, I would win the base swap because I was already by his base and if he chased me he would lose. There was not many options for neph after I got teleport, so the game was over.
Match 2