...now I see the challenge and raise it.

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1592636

39 armies after turn 10.
Anyone else has similar returns on auto?
I am by far not the best on here so I'd be interested to see some other figures.

even with 4 armies you can still get a bonus on the first turn if you have 3 pick near each other

If you play with someone good, you'll never have similar returns, since they won't take such horrible picks;)

I looked through a couple of my recent games, and I've hit mid 30s a fair amount. I didn't have any opponents who picked so poorly and expanded so slowly as Fonsi did here, though. I noticed that I almost always ran into my opponents earlier than round 10, and therefore stopped expanding.

I guess we could have a competition to see who can expand the fastest on an empty board, but otherwise it's a matter of finding the worst opponent (who doesn't start in Asia) and expanding instead of attacking your opponent.

Your post doesn't make sense...
Are you saying you now like the new settings, or you dislike them even more?

the problem bonch, is you made an obvious choice.. if he had chosen a decent counter-pick or two over there he could of smashed your entire growth without stalling himself much..

the 4 instead of 5 makes it harder to secure a first turn bonus *with a single territory* by bunching up your picks you make yourself more susceptible to counter-picks.. and in this game your opponent, didn't.

As others have noted, this kind of game requires a poor opponent. A good map helps, too, so this is all fairly meaningless. But just after reading this, I had this game:

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1622535

At the end of 10 turns, I had conquered all of Eurasia plus Indonesia, for an income of 52 armies.

So there you go. At the least, low 50s is possible.