if you go and look at the history, we both got our 1 and 2 choices. w russia was his 3rd choice and my 5th. so how did i get it but not him?
http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx
You linked to the muktiplayer game page, not the game itself.
However, I would wager that your 3rd and 4th picks were his 1st and 2nd picks. So you got your first selection, allowing him to take his top two selections (your 3 and 4) which led to you getting your next two highest selections (2 and 5) and then he got his highest remaining selection.
If you want to post a link to your game, open "Settings" panel in that game and copy text from "Link" field (it looks like *http://WarLight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1000000* ).
Without proper link, my best guess is, his (this is 1vs1 game, right?) first and second choices were your third and fourth. When starting positions are assigned, your picks aren't compared by their numbers; instead, players get territories one by one, and every player receives highest ranked pick that is still free. In this game, you were chosen to be first in that queue on first turn (order changes every turn, if I remember right), so something like this happened:
Turn 1:
- your turn, you receive your 1st pick;
- his turn, he receives his 1st pick (your 3rd or 4th).
Turn 2:
- his turn, his 1st pick is occupied, so he receives his 2nd pick (your 4th or 3rd);
- your turn, your 1st pick is occupied, so you receive your 2nd.
Turn 3:
- your turn, your 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th picks are occupied, so you receive your 5th;
- his turn, his 1st, 2nd and 3rd picks are oocupied, so he receives his 4th(or 5th, or 6th, if you already occupied his 4th or 5th).
