There are 8 countries to get to get a 4 army bonus. Sure, it's easy to take over the whole continent once you have a large army and its end-game, but there's really no incentive to go there before then.

You can adjust all of the bonuses. Just increase it to what you think it should be.

or just use the medium earth map, it was designed to be mostly balanced, only a couple areas don't follow a simple rule that i see

6-7 territs, 5 bonus
5 territs 4 bonus
4 territs 3 bonus


only exceptions i see are W.china, which is 7 territs 6 bonus, and N And S Africa, which are both 5 territs with a 3 bonus


perfect for those that prefer balance, i suppose

I don't think SAm is useless at all, it's easier to defend than many other countries. OK, it has 4 border territories, but they re connected to just one "foreign" territory.

similar to Aussie and Antartica, but SA tends to end up being more of a link bonus then a capture bonus, to go from Africa-NA, or vice versa

Sout America is weird. Unlike the rest of the map bonuses, you have two very large territories (Brazil and Argentina) that border many others (8 and 6), including each other AND off-continent as well. Brazil in particular borders ALL territories on the continent.
On the flip side, you have three smaller territories imbedded between these two bordering about 2-4 nations, making for tricky exchanges. I have no idea how to defend or attack this place. The attacker has too many options after initial landfall, and doesn't know which territory could attack back; while the defender has to many territories to defend.
All this for a measly 4 armies. And even if you do raise the bonus, it's still tricky ground to traverse.

South America is very nice to have around when your opponent invests his first 3 turns into trying to secure it.

How do I adjust bonuses?

> How do I adjust bonuses?

Select either "Custom Game" or "Customize Template" when creating the game. Then, on the second to last step, click the "Army Settings" tab at the top and you will see a section to override each bonus's value.

Word word. Thanks, RAAAAAAAANDY!

In order to determine the "worth of the bonus" I take into account these issues:

1. Number of border countries that must be defended
2. Number of countries in the bonus along with starting number or armies in each neutral country at the beginning of the game.
3. Number of choke points in the country
4. Geographical location (A "link bonus" like SAm is)

Given these criteria South America is a horrible starting country as is next to Mexico which gets taken early and thus unable to be defended. Given this inital predicament I believe SAm should be worth more than the 4 bonus armies it offers. In my opinion it should be worth 6 or 7 for it to be a viable expansion bonus similar to west china although I think this would be too much as it is easy to defend if the player control North America, and thus the 4 bonus it gives is also justifiable. So in other words I most likely would never take SAm unless I really need that 4 bonus.