Yeah, I didn't close my defences proper, my manpower issues were crippling, when you could summon a pair of panthers easily since you were able to stockpile manpower no problem since you could stockpile that.
My ammunition and fuel was very well stocked, manpower... killed me. It was vice-versa for you since I let you get to that point in the tech tree. 1000 manpower for two Panthers? Damaging against the 800 manpower per Crocodile and 450 per Firefly.
In my mind, your manpower conversion was more effective.