This a a map of the city connectivity. A few of the links go nowhere, indicating they go to one of the four city expanded areas (Lutetia, Carthago, Byzantium, Rome). The cities are worth 1 point each and this seems the best way to grow quickly at first. This game has altered settings - init 4 men in each region, luck and attack probs 57%, defend 76%, and multiattack. I've studied the extremes of moving only one step and accumulating men until a critical mass, and then going all out versus going all out each turn (until you drop below 8 men). The latter is far better. There are two picks. I also studied the difference between developing one pick only versus both simultaneously, and the latter works as well as the former. The presence of a 42-man wasteland will interrupt the traversing of the connected cities, which is a big deal. Personally I prefer to turn this off. So then with a team of two people, one approach that seems good to me is one to pick two spots for the east and the other two picks in the west. For example, west - 1) Deva (Liverpool), and 2) Leptis Magna (central north Africa), and east 1) Tanais (northeast-most city at upper right Black Sea) and 2) Arae Philaenorum (just east of Leptis Magna). Since the initial distribution excludes the cities, the actual picks would have to be a territory adjacent to the desired spot. Then once we have advanced sufficiently taking the harbor cities, we start fleshing out the countryside. Any opponent that tries to take a bonus in another way will fail miserably to grow because of the initial 4's. I'm not sure of the merits of the 4 expanded cities. I doubt starting in them is desirable, but growing into them might be worthwhile. The total bonuses for them are 7, 7, 7, 25, respectively. Also, the funny yellow shield bonuses shown on the left seem to have little value - all but the first 3 are a bonus of 1 for a huge area.
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