https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=11079523

Probably he didn't. There were only a couple of roads to expansion open to him because of his starts, so he stacked as he advanced since there was nowhere else to use the armies

Yeah, everywhere else he could go had wastelands

He didn't. He chose a base with wastelands on all sides. When you do that, you expand hard in every direction because you have nowhere to expand to. He probably figured you were not there but he would just use all of those armies to take Africa himself. If you are there, it's a bonus.

Doing that is really dangerous. If you meet early at the only exit(s) and they can hold you off, they'll beat you by being able to expand while you can't. If you figure out somebody did that, don't try to win the battle, just survive it and expand, expand, expand.

^+1

So turn 7 your opponent has this huge stack advantage. Usually bigger stacks implies less income, especially on straight round however your opponent even had 1 more income. You should look into the way you expand, there has to be something seriously wrong about that.

Ya Norman is right, your expanding is not good. You take your 3 starting bonuses good but the rest not good.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. If you're not sure whether somebody is on the other side of a bonus you're going after, don't take any extra neutrals, just cut through the middle.
2. Cut through in a way that allows you to take the bonus the fastest. So you're trying to remove fog + see if he's on the other side.
3. Plan your moves out 2-3 turns in advance and do everything as efficiently as possible. Your moves seem random and unplanned.
4. If you can complete a bonus, do it, unless you need the armies for defense or you haven't made sure it's safe yet.

So if you take those into consideration, you would have taken Chad and not Congo on Turn 3 and you would not have taken Colombia yet. On Turn 6 you would have completed the North Africa bonus and the South America bonus. and you would not have taken Saudi Arabia. That was a silly move anyway, the Middle East is one of the hardest bonuses to get because it's right in the middle of everything. If you head out that way, it's to find him, so take the 2 not the 4. In general always take the 2 when clearing a path, not the 4, save the 4's for last if you can.

I would watch some games of good players and how they expand. I think I'm decent at it if you want to watch some of my longer ladder games.

I don't like this strategy talk, Billy Balls. I want the old Billy!