In this game:

https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=12577815


... I seemed to be doing OK up until turn 6, at which point I fell behind. Where did I go wrong - was the blockade in Greenland a bad idea?

Ahhh the joys of triple picks :)

Why'd you go into caucasus turn 5/6 and not work on your bonus is the real question

You had the win, just made a few beginner errors.

Your blockade was too big, a blockade of half its size would have worked. https://www.warlight.net/Forum/94540-blockade-pro?Offset=0 Reading this gives tips on how to make better blockades.

You also expanded into too many bonuses with wastelands, such as SA and Cau. Check the history during the game if you cant remember if there is a wasteland somewhere.

Turn 8 was your first normal gameplay error, there was no need to deploy 10 armies in Europe, you needed them in Hawaii for defence since you were at the same time expanding alot in Asia.

Edited 12/28/2016 16:10:32

It's debatable whether it's better to go for Australia first, or Antarctica + Scandinavia with your starts. Australia is safe-ish,but can technically get destroyed if someone counters with Indonesia. Antarctica is incredibly safe, Scandinavia is relatively safe as Greenland has a mediocre warlord, but someone could use Greenland as an effective counter if they knew you were in Scandinavia.

End of turn 3 is where the potential for error ramps up:

You have no intel, so it's somewhat hard to decide where the opponent is and make a game plan, but still important to do so.

You don't do so, you just expand every which way. This is going to lose most games. You attack a bunch of neutrals in a bunch of different regions. Should you meet the opponent right after doing so you've wasted a lot of armies hitting neutrals, with no advantage gained. Typically as such it is best to expand into one bonus at a time and deploy the extra armies into fighting (or preparing to fight).

Turn 4 you can potentially get away with hitting 2 bonuses at once, but definitely not three.

Even hitting all 3 turn 4 was not game-losing, but definitely an error.

Turn 5 and on however, you had flagrant errors. Hitting Caucasus turn 5 is a nono, it has a wasteland in it. Even if it didn't, you're overexpanding by hitting it, finish West Russia, make sure Central Russia isn't occupied. Then take either Central Russia or Caucasus next (if not for the wasteland anyway, with its presence Central Russia is undoubtedly the next choice). Turn 5, don't hit Arkhangelsk though, just hit Ufa, hard. That way you have a double border on Central Russia in case the opponent is there.

Turn 6, blockading is bad, you only have 3 income there, the blockade doesn't protect you, it protects them by making you waste a lot of armies. Either deploy heavily in Greenland and attack, or better yet, deploy heavily into Solomon Islands and hit Hawaii with a large number of armies. At this point you know he has Canada, and/or East US. You know he doesn't have East China, or Central Russia, and can pretty well guess that he triple picked, or at least double picked the northwest, so hitting Hawaii makes sense, also it's a great defensive move, as it protects Indonesia and Australia, if he beats you to Hawaii he can easily break 9 of your income afterwards.

The blockade was very bad, but I think if I began playing from the time of the blockade, I could still win. I would not hit South America, East China, or Europe. I would finish West Russia, and aggressively charge Hawaii and try to break West US. So long as I managed to break W US the game is won.

Good luck