(motd spoiler alert for you,don't read until the game is over)
nice points turtle
btw,that was you who did it vs motd(game is still going)
so for those did not understand,here's my critique to what turtle did in that situation and why that particular move should never be done(i won't talk about the other picks but just so you know,they are not associated with the current situation):
here's the distribution:-
so as you can see turtle wanted to blind counter the 2 turn bonus by motd as he thought motd would pick 1 or 2 bonuses in the south west
this was his vision and he did not know about motd being there since he got all his 1/2/3 picks
reason why he attacked next turn
was because he thought motd might go for that bonus and try to get 11/12 income in 2 turns which is the most you can get on that map in standard settings
he did not take into account many things while doing this
1.he did not know motd was there
2.there was no ftb(first turn bonus) threat for him to attack motd
3.even if you are in such a situation where you are bordering your opponent in that position,never attack the neutral in 1st turn,reason being that even your opponent knows there's a possibility of you being there
so if you attack neutral,you're basically wasting your ability to complete your own bonus,wasting 1 army in the process,your opponent can just sit there and do nothing in turn 1 while going for some other bonus
4.after you took that territory you realize there's nothing and you lose 2 tempos as well as 1 extra army which will sit there in that bonus doing nothing
5.later in the game you'll get 5 armies behind in 2 turns as you can't get your original bonus in time,you can't reach longer distance before your opponent,your opponent might not let you have the new bonuses you'll try to take later,you can't deny your opponent's expansion
basically unless your opponent is not knowing what he's doing,you cannot comeback into the game