i would probably go for 1 west africa, 2 indonesia, 3 australia, 4 east russia, 5 south america, 6 west russia.

curious sze's pick, and i think he's right, would catch people off guard. atleast i would have fallen for it.

@ Tigger: I use ScreenHunter 6.0, it's free and easy to use. Then upload to an image hosting site, tinypic.com in this case, but there are many.

In the game I picked W Africa first, assuming S Am would be the most obvious #1 and avoiding the first pick chances. S. Am #2 followed by E Africa. Like this I have a shot at Africa or, If I don't get E Africa, I will be in between 2 enemy bonuses. I also feel very comfortable bordering from the start so I don't mind that. If I get both Africa, I can transfer first turn and go all in on Nigeria.

Last 3 picks were: W Russia, Central Russia and finally Caucasus.

@ Zwe: I think "1/2 sa/west africa, 3/4indo/aus 5/6 russia" is a very common way of picking these days making Antarctica a risky choice, however, knowing the picking patterns of your opponents can be a huge deal here. It's definitely it easiest way to a quick win and not many players have the balls to play like this!

Chaos: what's your reasoning for totally ignoring the early +9 australia/indonesia combo? you would take very long getting there, very hard to break, while most likely your opponent would have a foot in africa or russia to stall your expansion.

that was my initial thought as well, but if not in africa, I can expand safely and have more good bonuses, and if in africa or S am, the aus/indo combo is slow and relies on heavy commitment, leaving few spare troops to fight with, a path I felt comfortable taking.
One thing I wanted to avoid, was having half of the aus/indo combo, so I opted not to pick there at all.
Try to focus your picks on positions where you feel comfortable in.

sa. w africa. c russ. w russ. j russ. indo. cauc.

or

w africa. e africa. c russ. w russ. cauc. indo.

or

c russ. w russ. w africa. sa. e africa. indo.

when I don't know what I want to pick I just go with whatever looks good at the moment.

@Timi: Would you ever make those picks? They seem odd to me, for quite a few reasons.

It looks to me like you can't decide if you want aus+indo (in which case why not make them 1,2?) or you want SA+Wafricc (in which case why not make them 1,2). Also if you get your 1,2,3 you wont know if there is someone in aus, but someone picking indo, aus, crussia, wrussia will know you are in indo for certain if you get 1st pick, and will get their favourite combo, uncountered if they get 1st pick.

Why is everyone so into the aus/indo bonus? compared with eurasia it has a slight income advantage, and safety but 0 expansion. What will you do once you complete indo/aus and your opponent has completed wrussia, crussia? Will your 1 income a turn give you enough of an edge to achieve anything?

@Piggy:
1. To prove Sze wrong :P

2. Reduced risk to get Australia withoug indo & intel (if he goes for aus/indo 1&2 i either screw him or get intel on both & SA safe)
But the picks i mentioned i'd only do against someone I expect to pick aus&indo 1&2. (Like poker: Play the player instead of the cards)

anybody has interesting board to share and discuss?

rento's map: i'd probably go for australia 1, east africa 2, east russia 3, west russia 4, india 5, central america 6. first turn deploy all in australia and get opponent wiped out from antartica. if he has also invested all his troops in antarctica, then focus on finishing another bonus area and move half the troops back to australia on last action, using blockade card on antartica.

i meant: australia 1, west africa 2, west russia 3, central russia 4, southeast asia 5, central america 6.

always get east and west mixed up :p

Your picks are completely different from what I'd pick, ps.
You get your 1, 2 and 3. What do you do? Your only 2-turn bonus is west Russia, but it's far from being safe. You don't know whether your opponent is in Antarctica or not, so you don't know if you should attack Scott first turn.

My first 5 are non-brainers for me : Australia, Antarctica, Scandinavia, Greenland, Southeast Asia. Maybe reverse the order on 3 and 4.

Australia, Antarctica, Scandinavia, Greenland, Southeast Asia, East China. That would be my final choice.

i'd go with
1 scand
2 greenland
3 ant
4 aus
5 sea
6 ec


(since ant+aus won't get much more than 13/turn and scand+greeland do the same)

it's irrelevant whether the opponent is really in antarctica or not, if he is i wipe him out by going full force before he can finish his area, or blockading him there if he has. and if he's not i just my extra bonus area before doing the others. i also take that extra time to expand slowly in africa (which i have too, couz it take 3 turns to take that bonus) and just stall in russia. if i dont get any placing in russia i know he is there so i can hurry to break russia fast out of southeast asia.

i think i would win against you if i got first pick, i would wipe you out from antartica giving me 2 safe bonuses, plus africa which would also prove to be safe. then expand my way out of russia to check where you are.

if i didnt have first pick then i would get the russian combo. i would finish that first, and expand slowly to find you in scandinavia and not in southeast asia. so i have free expansion in africa and asia while you're stuck fighting me in russia and not many expansion options. dead blow would be either sneaking up through europe or breaking heavy into antartica through south africa, or australia after finishing southeast asia. i think i would still be able to win.

So Timinator, basically you prefer the 80% chance of getting first turn bonus over the safety of Aus+Ant. I guess that's one way to play, but it isn't my style.

ps, you would not wipe me out of Antarctica. But before I tell you why, explain me what do you do your first turn if you get Australia because I don't completely understand: you attack Scott with full force or with 4, just to check?

fullforce

So I have Antarctica and Scandinavia&Greenland combo. You have Australia, West Africa, West Russia.

First turn I deploy 4 to Scandinavia, what gives me 64% chance to get first turn income advantage. The fifth guy I put to Antarctica and take South Pole, there I see you in Scott with your 6-7 armies. Even if I fail to take Scandinavia first turn, I'll take it second turn. There is no way you could wipe me out with my 8v5 income advantage.
You could block Scott, but you would never complete Antarctica. Nor West Russia if I played right.
If I got my first three picks, it would come down to predicting opponent's moves in West Russia. Note that I would have a chance of getting both Antarctica and Scandinavia on second turn, again the early income advantage.

Yes, i play a bit riskier :)