Had a discussion with another player about this and thought I'd get everyone's ideas. When picking on a big map with lots of players (e.i. Big Africa with 15+ players) , ignoring the bonuses where do you tend to pick if you were only given 1 pick. What's the better ideas? What's riskier and what's safer? Corners peninsulas or edges giving you only one front to defend but also slowing you expansion? Or central or middle and open parts of the map risking being stuck between players but also possibly giving you much more faster and open expansion? Also islands like UK or Madagascar easy to defend if you can secure them, but often heavily contested :P

Just looking for an Informative conversation

islands = suicide, you generally almost always have 2-3 ppl there.

Depends on the map; in africa, interior is best. Europe, you can get away with coastline/islands.

I hate getting sandwiched more than anything, but corners can be dangerous too. With only one choice I'd go for a central territory do or die. Although coastlines are what I tend to choose, but I'm far from a good player specially in FFA

Edited 12/28/2015 03:24:09

Large number of people almost certainly mean a few people will be gunning for corners/islands where they can try to defend themselves. I would avoid those areas and try to maximize expansion. Interior areas of maps are perfect for expansion, but they should only be chosen if you are a good strategic player and can navigate around fighting multiple fronts early on. I tend to be bad strategically so that kinda forces me to stick to coastline areas. It really depends on your level of skill in my opinion.

Central. In Europe: Italy, Balkans, Germany, Ukraine, Sweden and Central Europe are good.

Central

Nigeria FTW!!!

But you mean big team game or FFA? In the latter picking a center of the map is suicide.

For FFA I always pick in the sides, though not in the corners. Portugal, Iceland, Norway and the two bottom corners, depending on the map in question, are always the worst picks.