Game #1 Part 2: The Lay of the Land

Welcome back everyone.  I'm glad to let you know that the game has in fact started and the opening positions are depicted below:

I am the green player and my opponents are the purple, black, and blue players.  There are neutral armies in Western Australia and Northern Europe.

The first thing that I notice when I look at this map are where each player's center of power is.  The easiest is blue as it was his turn first and he reenforced the Middle East with his 3 troops as well as moved an additional two in from Kazakhstan.  From the Middle East, blue could go into Africa, Europe, or even Australia.  It is for this reason that the Middle East is one of the most important territories in the game, especially as it progresses.

My center of power appears to be in North America as most of my armies are there or on bordering territories with only a few scattered elsewhere.

Black appears concentrated in Asia but with the troops in Siam could potentially make a move for Australia.

Purple seems concentrated in Europe which is a rather poor position as it is difficult to hold once conquered.  The benefit of his positioning is that there are only three territories left for him to conquer, one of which is neutral.

Looking at the map and getting a sense of each player's area of strength is very important when deciding how to begin the game.  By doing this you can get an idea of what the other players may do and how this might do as well as where you should focus your energies.  Here are my predictions:

Green (me):  I will attempt to expand further in North America.  Although NA is one of the larger continents and gives a relatively large bonus of 5, it only has three bordering territories, which makes it somewhat easy to hold if you can conquer it all.

Blue: I believe blue will not do much next turn, but may attack into Africa to gain a card.  He seems to be sitting back from a strategic location and letting the game unfold, which is a strategy I will discuss eventually.

Purple:  I predict that purple will begin attacking territories in Europe.

Black: I predict that black will make a move in Australia.

That's all for today, but check in tomorrow (depending on how quickly people move) to see my move and the rationale for it as well as if my predictions come true.  At this early stage in the game things are tough to predict so who knows what the board may look like next time. 

Also, feel free to share your insights and predictions in the comments!