Besides obviously getting two turns worth of men to drop at the end of your turn there is the '[i]advantage[i]' of having not spent any men trying to take a bonus that another player wants and ending up in a bloodbath. This allows you to pick a defendable area once everyone else has committed. if you pick a bonus that noone else is contesting at the time you avoided wasting troops in a conflict with another player on the first two turns. If you pick an bonus that is already claimed your opponent has already cleared it and there are only 1's opposing you with the exception of the borders. In addition the player who claimed that bonus has expended many troops taking it, so as long as you are able to crack 1 border to prevent him collecting the bonus on the next round you have all your men available to fight and are facing territories mostly defended by 1's. While your opponent has expended his troops securing the bonus and now has to content with an invader who is able to drop 2 turns worth of troops inside his border due to the missed rounds.
As I said, i just started a new game after two players missed the first 2 rounds I predicted that they would magically recover from their illness and/or fix the computer problem that had prevented them taking their turns. Sure enough, both showed up 1 dropped 12 men on my border and the other managed to place 17 on an opponents. I say if you miss your turn and delay the game by 24 hours you should lose your men for that round.
I also see this happen when a player is dominating a game and is able to secure his borders with a large number of men preventing the possible loss of his bonus during the missed turn and/or turns. When he takes his next turn and recieves double or triple men it is usually almost always the game ender, although it may take a turn or two for him to fully utilize the sudden upsurge in manpower.
However what upsets me most of all is having witnessed this dozens and dozens of time, noone ever admits to having done it intentionally. They have always been either sick away on bussiness or had a computer crash. Man up and at least say "I did it" "it was part of my stratedgy". perhaps someday you will learn to win without resorting to cheap tactics.
vic
