hm yeah. he sent one of his first five wisps to build the ancient of war in my base (right next to my first moon well, actually) so I usually wouldn't scout that early. my usual order goes
Alter > Moon Well > Fill Up Gold Mine > Scouting Wisp > Lumber/Ancient of War
I would've had to scout with one of my first five wisps to catch that I think. not sure what I should've done differently. the opening game was basically his rooted ancient of war and a DH vs my DH, an Archer, and my AoW I uprooted, with a wisp repairing my moon well whenever he smacked it.
the game lasted a while longer though, and yeah I think a long term solution would've been to sit in my base behind some Ancient Protectors building up my army. at the time though I didn't know what he was cheesing the whole way through, figured he was building an army or expanding. basically thought I was playing a real game after a cheese opening. so I'd go out with my units, he'd find me immediately, kill them, and TP or Staff out. Moon Wells, then kill more of my guys. altogether kind of frustrating!