The first time you play manual deployment and fog can be confusing for a new recruit. I know the first time I played those settings and went to deploy I thought something had gone wrong-all those question marks around your own territories.
I had to sit and think for a bit before I realised what was happening, not giving an advantage to the last to deploy.
I've just had a new recruit enter a manual/fog game with me(7655439), he put "wtf, whats going on" in the game chat and he hasn't been back to any of his games. There was no-one to answer his question when he asked. He may not come back ever.
I thought maybe the fog explanation in "Instuctions" could be expanded to cover initial deployment in manual/fog, or maybe some sort of pop-up message the first time someone joins on those settings.
edit sorry i should have said first game on manual setting, forget the fog bit.
