Conquer Club

Mod Note:Abandoned - If resurrected, this one must be checked again.



Hello everyone,

Skillfusniper33 and I are working on a map (our first), so if you could leave some feedback and/or constructive criticism.

These graphics are only a draft, everything will change with the next update.
Current Draft:
[bigimg]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/initus/A%20Volatile%20Earth/A-Volatile-Earth-Draft-3.png[/bigimg]
[spoiler=A draft of the small version]
This draft is a little dated, but is mainly for looking for size constraints.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Setting]What you are looking at is a sectional of the Earth circa four billion years ago. Those red arrows are supposed to be magma currents. There are volcanoes, ash clouds, meteors, oceans of lava, everything a growing Earth needs.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=gameplay]Each current has one way attacks, so it will take several territories before you come around and reach the same territory, which will lead to very interesting troops placement to try to protect any region bonuses. To travel across the map, it will lead to crazy, roundabout pathways, and assassin maps will cause you to find an entirely different path around the map to prevent eliminating people who aren't your target. People will want to try to get the region bonuses that are near or under their respective meteors, as they will be less vulnerable. There will be movement along the crust when people decide to break the volcano to try to eliminate people from their meteors, or if they are pushed back to only their meteor, they can either stack or try to launch another offensive from the safety of the meteor. The layer bonus adds a different dynamic than the straight up territory count bonus and will hopefully encourage people to travel from current to current but keeping to their layer to try to add that bonus up. The red circles (better name pending) are a small auto deploy that will fuel the fight for the currents. The Core adds an interesting dynamic as it can break every single magma flow bonus if one has enough troops. We would like to imagine that fog of war games and assassin games will probably be the most interesting game modes for the map, but every mode is obviously supported and encouraged.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Map Data]117 territories (60 neutrals, 57 player start) <--- This is off count currently, will update soon.

Region Bonus Information
Legend: +5 (troop bonus): 8 (territories) [4] (player territs in region): 4 (shared borders) [1] (not shared, one way borders): Name
+4: 7[3]: 4[0]: Brennend Rotation (B)
+4: 5[1]: 4[0]: Goryashchiĭ Eddy (G) <--- Attacks Core
+5: 9[6]: 3[1]: Kafteros Progression (P) <--- Attacks Core
+4: 6[3]: 3[1]: Tűz Cycle (T)
+4: 6[3]: 3[1]: Dante Passage (D)
+4: 5[2]: 3[1]: Foc Drift (F)
+3: 6[3]: 3[0]: Yangın Stream (Y)
+3: 6[3]: 3[0]: Alov Torrent (A) <--- Attacks Core
+3: 6[3]: 3[0]: Pożar Current (P) <--- Attacks volcano
+3: 5[2]: 3[0]: Ignis Flux (I)
+2: 3[0]: 3[0]: Huǒ Ebb (H)
+3: 7[5]: 2[1]: Liekki Circuit (L) <--- Attacks volcano
+3: 5[3]: 2[1]: Oheň Flow (O) <--- Attacks volcano
+3: 5[3]: 2[1]: Jiog Vortex (J)
+2: 4[2]: 2[1]: Qalba Tide (Q)
+2: 4[2]: 2[0]: Ugnis Channel (U) <--- Attacks volcano
+2: 4[2]: 2[0]: Nāry Course (N)
+1: 4[3]: 1[2]: Spaljivanje Gyre (S) <--- Attacks volcano

Every magma flow has one +1 auto-deploy territory (red circle) not factored into the bonus amount that starts as a neutral.
Territory numbers from regions will not add up to the total number of territories in the map since all regions share at least one territory.

Layer Bonus Information
There are three layers (outer core, mantle, and crust), and holding a certain number of territories in each layer gives a bonus.
13 territories held: +1
16: +3
20: +5
24: +7 <--- 24 territories in the crust (outermost layer, not magma)
29: +10 <--- 30 territories in the outer core (inner magma layer)
34: +14
40: +19 <--- 40 territories in the mantle (outer magma layer)

Auto Deploy Bonus Information
Core: +5: The core is a high neutral starting territory that bombards one territory from each magma flow region and attacks volcanoes.
Meteor (M): +1: Meteors are "safe locations" for each player, most likely to be used for last ditch attempts.
Red Circles (better name pending): +1: Every lava flow region has exactly one of these, each is a shared border, and each is bombarded by the Core.

Volcano Information
There are five volcanoes (V) on the map which start with a high neutral amount, each spaced relatively equally apart, and they provide a way to attack meteors. These territories are also attacked by the core.

Territory/Region Naming Information
Each territory will be named using at least one letter and most times a number following. The letter is the first letter of the region that the territory is in, and then a number corresponding to the number of territories named in that region in this way. Shared border territories will be designated with two letters, one from each region. The names of region bonuses were various words relating to "fire" translated into 18 different languages

Attack Information
There isn't much room for text, so most of the one-way attacks will be done through arrows that have been integrated into the map graphics in a non obstructing way.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Notes]There technically wasn’t an atmosphere at this time, so the meteors shouldn’t be flaming, but it looks better with burning up meteors. Some of the currents move in contrasting directions, though setting aside the laws of physics is necessary for more interesting gameplay.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Gameplay Workshop Requirements]√ Balanced deployment (We believe we have accomplished this with the help of Evil DIMwit)
√ Reasonable bonus structure (The bonus structure looks good to us, if anything looks overpowered of out of place then please say something)
√ Game type flexibility (We don't see any problems occurring with any gametypes)
√ Player-friendliness (With the addition of how crust territories attack into the legend in the bottom left, we believe there isn't anything else that is confusing, if we are wrong about this please ask)
√ Open-play (We think that this shouldn't be a problem)
O Function trumps form x2 (Waiting for feedback on this, but as we haven't heard any negative comments about our form, hopefully this isn't a problem, this will also probably have to wait on the upgraded graphics)

If our map doesn't meet the requirements to any of these that we think we have completed, or there is any feedback you could give to further our progress towards completing the rest of these, it would be greatly appreciated.[/spoiler]

Reserved for Updates, and original posts

1st Page will be the current version, 2nd will be all the updates in order.

Thanks for the help everyone, in advance.

[spoiler=Original Post]

initus wrote:Hello everyone,

Skillfusniper33 and I are working on a map (our first) and would like some feedback and whether you think its viable or not for CC.

Current Draft:
[bigimg]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/initus/A-Volatile-Earth-The-Hadean-Eon.png[/bigimg]

Setting:
What you are looking at is a sectional of the Earth circa four billion years ago. Those red arrows are supposed to be magma currents.

Gameplay:
•Everyone starts with one meteor and a randomized assortment of territories within the magma currents.
•All of the territories that are on the crust are neutrals, including the volcanoes. The region circles that are red are also neutral (probably high neutrals), as is the core.
•Magma currents attack only in the direction of their arrows.
•Get from current to current from the territories that border two.
•The territories in the magma current that circles the core can attack the core, and the core can attack them.
•The core can one-way attack any “stagnant magma” (denoted by red region circles).
•These stagnant magma pools can attack any territories that touches the “blank space” that they occupy (except for any territories that border more than one current).
•Territories that border stagnant magma can attack them (except for any territories that border more than one current).
•The crust can be reached from the mantel through volcanoes, and the mantle can be reached from the crust through territories that border oceans of lava (shown with pale red arrows).
•Volcanoes one way attack bordering crust territories and nearby meteors.
•Crustal territories attack each other on their side of the volcano.
•Bonuses will probably be acquired by holding an entire magma current, with possible auto-deploys on meteors, stagnant magma, volcanoes, and the core.
•Meteors one way attack to nearby crust territories.
•Bonus: Holding a certain number of regions inside each set of circles is worth a bonus (excluding the stagnant magma).
•There are NO territory bonuses, so max deploy without a bonus is three.

Notes:
•The bonuses are just placeholders right now, how you acquire them and their bonus strength is subject to change.
•There technically wasn’t an atmosphere at this time, so the meteors shouldn’t be flaming, but it looks better with burning up meteors.
•Some of the currents move in contrasting directions, though setting aside the laws of physics might be necessary for more interesting gameplay.
•111 territories (35 neutrals, 76 player start).
•Thinking about naming each current after some variant of fire, lava, etc in various languages.
•Territory names on the map will most likely be designated by a letter and a number, with the bonus name and amount will be on the inside of the currents (if it ends up that holding a current gives a bonus).
•There won’t be much room for text, so a lot of the one-way attacks and other stuff will have to be done through arrows.
•Possibility: Having each transition territory (the ones that border more than one current) start neutral, would create more of a compartmental gameplay and reduce the starting player advantage.

These graphics are obviously just for comprehension and a draft, something that actually looks like magma and many other graphical improvements would be forthcoming if this moves on.

Thanks!

[/spoiler]
[spoiler=15-7-10][bigimg]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/initus/A-Volatile-Earth.png[/bigimg]

Some of the text reads a little differently and played around with bonus amounts. Five more territories were added so that the number of player start territories is divisible by 8. Bonuses for the currents were also added, with a rough amount for their bonus. The transitional territories were made to start a low neutral. Every territory was was color coded (gray and red for neutral, orange for player). Some graphical changes, like the big mass of the core was removed, mostly because I was looking at some real Earth sectionals and it is usually split up into the core, outer core, and mantel. The subtitle of the map was also removed to streamline the name and a rough estimate of the time frame was added instead so that people could more easily understand where this was taking place.

Under Consideration:
1) The transitional territories being neutral. We put them like that because it would reduce the first player start advantage and possibly increase game play options in a fog of war setting.
2) Territory names on the map will most likely be designated by a letter and a number.
3) Strength of every bonus.
4) Size of neutral troops.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=27-7-2010]Current Draft:
[bigimg]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/initus/A%20Volatile%20Earth/A-Volatile-Earth-Draft.png[/bigimg]

• The gray and red territories start as neutral, while the orange territories start as a player.
• Everyone starts with one meteor and a randomized assortment of territories within the magma currents.
•The neutral territories that are in the currents and on the crust are going to be low, probably a 1 or 2, while the volcanoes, core, and stagnant magma are probably going to be higher.
• Get from magma current to current by using the "transitional territories" (territories that border two currents).
• The territories in the Core Tide (magma current that circles the core) can attack the core, and the core can attack them.
• The core can one-way attack any “stagnant magma” (denoted by red region circles).
• These stagnant magma pools border any territories that touches the magma space that they occupy (except for transitional territories).
• Crustal territories border each other on their side of the volcano.
• Bonus: Holding a certain number of regions inside each set of circles is worth a bonus (excluding the stagnant magma).
• There are NO territory bonuses, so max deploy without a bonus is three.
• Arrows on the map show that: Magma currents attack only in the direction of their arrows. Meteors one way attack to nearby crust territories. The crust can be reached from the mantel through volcanoes, and the mantle can be reached from the crust through territories that border oceans of lava (shown with pale red arrows). Volcanoes one way attack bordering crust territories and nearby meteors.

Notes:
• There technically wasn’t an atmosphere at this time, so the meteors shouldn’t be flaming, but it looks better with burning up meteors.
• Some of the currents move in contrasting directions, though setting aside the laws of physics might be necessary for more interesting gameplay.
• 116 territories (60 neutrals, 56 player start).
• There won’t be much room for text, so a lot of the one-way attacks and other stuff will have to be done through arrows.
• The names of bonuses were various words relating to "fire" translated into 17 different languages, we can post these if requested.
• Nothing graphical is final.

Under Consideration:
1) The transitional territories being neutral. We put them like that because it would reduce the first player start advantage and possibly increase game play options in a fog of war setting.
2) Territory names on the map will most likely be designated by a letter and a number.
3) Strength of every bonus.
4) Size of neutral troops.
5) Keep stagnant magma? They do provide an interesting aspect with the gameplay, but do they make the map seem a little too cluttered.
6) The locations and attacks for the meteors
7) The layered bonuses, should this be restructured/reworked?
8) The Goryashchii Eddy bonus starts completely neutral, should there be a rearrangement so that there are player start locations in that bonus?

These graphics are obviously just for comprehension and a draft, something that actually looks like magma and many other graphical improvements would be forthcoming if this moves on.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=6-8-10]Map Updated 6/8/10
[bigimg]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/initus/A%20Volatile%20Earth/A-Volatile-Earth-Draft-1.png[/bigimg]
Several changes this time around.

1) Stagnant Magma was removed, but the functionality remains in the game. Instead of the Core attacking stagnant magma, it instead bombards exactly one transition territory from each current. These territories are shown at the moment by a dark red circle, and have an auto deploy. The reasoning behind this is that it cuts down the number of borders for each current while still keeping the Core gameplay. We also increased the starting neutral amounts on these territories to make them slightly harder to go for, as people will most likely try to get them first and then move onto the current region bonuses.

2) The way the Core fits into the game is also a little different, as only half of the Qalba Tide territories now one way attack the core, so the number of troops advanced into the Core must be strategic as they can't get back out.

3) Volcano starting neutrals were slightly increased.

4) Since the stagnant magma was removed from play, bonus amounts needed to be played around with and changed.

5) The layer bonus has also been changed. The territory bonus is back in the game (people gain +1 troops for every 3 territories held over 9) and the layer bonus is now a supplemental. This should reduce unfair drops and make the layer bonus less important. Note: The number of territories held and the bonus for that number in each layer has not been thought out, and only placeholders are there for the moment.

Things still under consideration:
1) Volcanoes auto-deploying
2) Layer bonuses (will still need extensive work)
3) The numbers for the bonuses for holding a current.
4) Neutral troop sizes.
5) Increased neutral sizes for crust territories attacked by meteors and/or lava ocean bordering territories on the crust?

If people could comment on these subjects and any of the changes that they disagree with and/or don't understand.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=8-17-10]Updated 8/17/10
[bigimg]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/initus/A%20Volatile%20Earth/A-Volatile-Earth-Draft-2.png[/bigimg]

Changes:
1) The bonus structure for the layers has been restructured to reduce the chance of dropping it.
2) One more territory was added to the player drop territories (57) to reduce the advantage of the player who starts first.
3) Text was added to the bottom left to explain how crust territories attack.
4) Some territory names were added so people could see how we plan to name the territories.
5) The magma current "Vuur" had to be removed because it collided with "volcano" for territory names, was replaced with "Ugnis" (Lithuanian).
6) The starting amount of neutrals on red circle territories was increased from 3 to 4.

Notes:
1) There is a 1.89% chance that in a three player game that someone will drop the mantle layer bonus of +1, does this seem like a low enough percentage?
2) How do the bonus amounts look for the layer bonuses?[/spoiler]
[spoiler=9-12-10]

initus wrote:9/12/10 Update
[bigimg]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/initus/A%20Volatile%20Earth/Version6.png[/bigimg]

Quite a few things changed this version, though still yet to start the graphics revamp.

First off, the core. It's mechanic has been changed a little, it is harder to get to the core (through a few more neutrals and one resetting neutral), but the core auto deploy has been increased to 5. The core can also attack volcanoes, allowing the core to have a very large reach across the map and is more of a counter against meteor troop stacking. The core retains the functionality to bombard and break every single magma current bonus (bombards red circle territories).

The removal of the magma current around the core required another magma current to added, so some magma currents were moved around for this to happen. A few more neutrals were added for transition territories that border more than one bonus so the number of territories per layer has been increased by 1 for both of the magma layers. Also fixed the crust count.

The bonus structure has been completely revisited, as I used Windowmaker's bonus calculator to see how much each region should give, but then decreased each number by (usually) one to compensate for the autodeploy that is found in each bonus. Volcanoes and the territories that directly attack the core are now a resetting neutral of 10, to make the meteors a little more safe and the core a little harder to reach.

Questions:
Do people think that the core is worth going for if it only bombards one territory out of every bonus and can attack volcanoes? If it isn't, is the bombardment of all of the magma territories too powerful?
Also, does the resetting of the volcanoes and Z2, Z4, and Z6 sound like it fits into the overall map gameplay and design?
Lastly, how do the bonuses for the magma currents look, are there any that should be increased/decreased?

[/spoiler]
[spoiler=9-25-2010]

initus wrote:New Update: Version 8, 9/25/10

[bigimg]http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/initus/A%20Volatile%20Earth/A-Volatile-Earth-Draft-3.png[/bigimg]

Two things happened in this draft, the core neutral troop counts have been significantly reduced from 5, 10, 25 to 4, 4, 10. This change was to encourage people a little more to go through the neutrals to take the core. Also, I put in the rest of the territory names. Haven't started redoing the graphics yet but I'll get to that eventually ;). A thing to note about the territory names, they will most likely be on the currents themselves in the graphics revamp, as that will declutter the map a little more but still keep territory names directly next to the territory.

Is the auto deploy looking too big now that the neutrals have been reduced, or is it looking good?

[/spoiler]

Interesting. This has potential.

I know nothing about mapmaking, but I would totally play this. Good luck!

Draft was updated, changed a few things.

Some of the text reads a little differently and played around with bonus amounts. Five more territories were added so that the number of player start territories is divisible by 8. Bonuses for the currents were also added, with a rough amount for their bonus. The transitional territories were made to start a low neutral. Every territory was was color coded (gray and red for neutral, orange for player). Some graphical changes, like the big mass of the core was removed, mostly because I was looking at some real Earth sectionals and it is usually split up into the core, outer core, and mantel. The subtitle of the map was also removed to streamline the name and a rough estimate of the time frame was added instead so that people could more easily understand where this was taking place.

This has potential. I like the idea of traveling along the streams of magma.

Thanks, we wanted to go for something different, and I believe the interconnecting currents of one-way attacks does just that. Anyone have any suggestions on the game play, something that we could implement, or a certain aspect that you are unsure of?

It's a pretty interesting take on the earth when it was little more than a huge ball of flaming rock that kept on getting pummeled by more flaming rock. That and it could work as a primer in geology. So good on you for a solid (and unique) theme. Graphics...we both know they'll need a lot of work, but this is obvious draft work to get a feel for the gameplay, so no true complaint. Gameplay is original, with a mix between Draknor's total one-way, standard attack mechanics, and some conquer-theme to it. Other than the core/stagnant magma gameplay role, I didn't have to search for anything to understand what goes where. Definite good start, get a brief on this one ASAP.

Alright, thanks, we will definitely do that.

I think it's a pretty fun idea with the various one-ways. It has a bit going on, but it has a straight forward layout. Will watch and see how it develops visually. Can't wait to try it out!

Looks good so far.

-Not sure what the colored circles are for on the top right.
-I like the stagnant lava. Interesting attack paths from there
- I like the bonus values. Think they are all pretty good minus the core. By holding only 6 territories, only 3 of which can be attacked you get a pretty good bonus.
- Like that you have a neutral in all bonuses so no lucky starts. Also like that you made it evenly divisible by 8.

Nice start!!!

I really like the idea. Should make for some interesting gameplay.

i'd play this map for sure! : )

Kilazul wrote:Looks good so far.

-Not sure what the colored circles are for on the top right.
-I like the stagnant lava. Interesting attack paths from there
- I like the bonus values. Think they are all pretty good minus the core. By holding only 6 territories, only 3 of which can be attacked you get a pretty good bonus.
- Like that you have a neutral in all bonuses so no lucky starts. Also like that you made it evenly divisible by 8.

Nice start!!!

The colored circles are the areas for the territory bonuses. They are working themselves from the outside in.

So if you owned 3 areas on the Crust you would get a bonus of +1.

Thanks everyone else for the liking. Hopefully we will be moving onto gameplay shortly, and can figure out how to make this works best.

Hey guys good start and love the concept.

How long are you expecting an average game to go for? Will it be a relatively quickish average or will it beastly to play like The Hive (obviously not that bad)?

I did not do well in my science classes so this map tends to make my head hurt a tad. But I think I get the basic gameplay.

My advice when doing these preliminary maps is to work in the small version first.

Thanks Industrial, But why the small version first? For spacing of regions and to make sure it's not to clustered?

Main post updated with a draft of the small version of the map:
[spoiler=small draft][/spoiler]
The small draft shows that a few tweaking to the placement of the territories will be necessary, as long as some text will have to be increased in font size, though the blurriness could be attributed to me scaling down the map, I will probably need to talk to someone who has scaled this stuff down before to see if they just did a straight scale down (with the text) or redid the text for the smaller version.

Kal, on the time that this map will take. Well, we don't really know . We did put in a "failsafe" territory for each player (the meteor) so that even if you are eliminated in the middle, you can still make your way back into the game, and it also adds some more strategy of where you will secure your own bonuses, but other than that, . It shouldn't be as bad as the Hive, stacking wise, I believe that the current system in place will encourage aggressiveness.

Another thing to mention for all is that this isn't meant to be a representation of the time period, as it isn't going to be completely accurate (well, we really don't know exactly what the earth looked liked, some things are probably going to be out of proportion, and the currents the way they are are a bunch of made up crap) so will probably be more of an interpretation than anything. But it will roughly represent the Earth at that time period and the composition of the Earth at least.

The colored circles in the top right represent the color of each layer, there are currently four layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core, all in various shades of brown and orange at the moment.

Kila: The thought for the core being a bonus of 5 is that it will be sought after, and, including the stagnant magma, actually has 6 territories that can be attacked, as you can jump from current to current using the stagnant magma as well.

Thanks for your input and questions, everyone.

nice idea. just for interest, from what you made names of territories? because some of them sounds as Hungarian, some as Slovak and some as Czech.

Thanks! We decided given the time frame of the map was what is was, that words relating to fire and translated into a relatively random assortment of languages was the best thing to do. We wanted a different letter to start each word for the region because it would make it easier to name each individual territory (letter followed by number) so we tried different languages and words until we got some that fit. Though now that I look at it, it looks like Hungarian was used twice, so one of those words will be changed into a different language.

Here is the list we used with the key: word translated - language - translation
Fire-Polish-Pożar
Fire-Czech-oheň
Fire-Hungarian-Tűz
Fire-Romanian- foc
fire - latin - ignis
fire - Pinyin - huǒ
fire - german - Brennend
Inferno--Welsh-Dante
Burning - Greek - kafteros
Fire - Afrikaan - vuur
Flame - Galacian - Chama
Flame - Finnish - liekki
Fiery - Arabic - Nāry
Flame - Azerbaijani - Alov
Inferno - Korean - jiog
Burning - Russian - goryashchiĭ
Fire - Turkish - yangın
Burning - Hungarian - égő

How do the surface territories attack? The map doesn't say, unless I missed something.

Hmm, yes, perhaps it isn't immediately apparent. The surface territories border and attack each other adjacently, but can't attack to or past a volcano. They also can't attack over the lakes of lava, they just follow the arrows from the edge of those.

initus wrote:Hmm, yes, perhaps it isn't immediately apparent. The surface territories border and attack each other adjacently, but can't attack to or past a volcano. They also can't attack over the lakes of lava, they just follow the arrows from the edge of those.

Ok, thats what I thought. In that case, there are some fair-play issues that will need to be worked out. For example, the player starting at the 4:00 meteor needs to take 3 surface territs before they can get inside the earth, while the one above it only has to take one. Also, the one at 8:00 has to go through a territ that the one at 7:00 can attack on its first turn. I don't think you can simply put higher neutral counts for some because that will make it harder to get first turn cards. Easiest will probably be to move the entrances...

Thanks, though I had known about those issues. I never said nor meant to put in higher neutral counts as some kind of compensation for a shorter path to the mantle, it is just a draft after all, and I was waiting until the gameplay department before dealing with them. Another thing to consider is that the crust is also a "layer" and factors into the tiered layer bonus, so the people (at the moment) that have a longer way to travel, will end up with a slightly higher territory count on the layer, and theoretically a slightly higher bonus to compensate for the lost troops. Also, people don't just start in the meteors, they start with one meteor each, and then a random assortment of the "orange circle" territories, so this possible fair-play issue would only come into effect if people want to break away from the safety of their meteor. Though this isn't an excuse for not dealing with it, it just sounded like you thought that people only started in the meteors, I could be wrong though. But yeah, that issue will need to be addressed/talked about.

carlpgoodrich wrote:How do the surface territories attack? The map doesn't say, unless I missed something.

We will probably be also adding faint arrows between the regions on the surface, to make it perfectly clear. We must have just forgot about them when we had the first update. Thanks for pointing this out.

And to say something on your second post, We didn't want this to be perfectly symmetrical either. More regions also means a larger bonus, which in my opinion completely coincides with having to travel farther to reach the middle, loose a few troops early, and gain a bunch back over time. It will also allow you to reach your 12 territory bonus, or even more.