Is it possible to win the Big USA map without having a presense in the West at the beginning of the game? Every time I have played that map, whoever starts in the west always wins. You can accumulate bonuses faster.

its not about bonuses, it's that you go unnoticed earlier, when you play with higher level players it seems to matter less.

everybody focuses on the south-east and other congested areas

If you're talking about team games, I think it's crucial to have a western presence.

If you're talking about free for alls, I've won a number of FFA games on Big USA by starting in Mississippi or Louisiana, because they are unusually uncontested early and provide for good bonus values and good expansion possibilities. You also have a few nearby natural buffers in Texas and Georgia, so you often will only have 1 or 2 contested fronts at any given time. FFAs are all about avoiding conflict early, though, so anywhere can be good provided you can get bonuses relatively easily from it and it is uncontested.

So this is the other Duke. Not impressed. We should play to decide who uses the name.

Oddly, every time that I have won on that map was when I did not start in the west - either team or ffa.

The west *looks* impressive, but that's because the territories are large. Ultimately, though, they just don't add up.

The best strategy I've found is to create a base and then scatter a bunch of scouts out & about. For example, this game: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1133725. I started with a base in South Carolina and scouts in Colorado, Illinois, Michigan & WV. If you look at turn 26, you'll see that Therv had the West & Northwest, while I had the center & a chunk of the Southeast. I had more than twice the armies that therv had and was able to crush most of his big bonuses while mine were protected. In fact, even if they had all ganged up on me at that point, I outnumbered them and could break them more quickly & easily than they could break me.

Here's a (currently running, but not fogged) example of the West vs the East: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1112650. It's a FFA but a strong early alliance/rivalry developed between the east & the west (and then folks got booted & surrendered... it's all rather ugly). Tonkafun has the west now and looks huge, but the reality is that he's only slightly larger DeadlyAzn (who is poised to pick up two more states in the next couple of turns which will tip that balance) and smaller than I am. Will he win? Perhaps... the diplo cards last 5 turns and if he plays them on the eastern alliance, that will force them (us) to fight and who knows what that will look like.