In most games I would agree, but in the case of this type of game (1 vs 1 global domination) the plot as flimsy as it may be is as good a plot as any.

You have the classic clash of good versus evil/ right vs wrong/ my way vs your way of running things. In this game PL is the bad guy or the initial aggressor, so they should and do have the initial advantage of knowing exactly where they want to attack and be able to adequately get reserves and what not to resupply their borders.

FNU on the other hand already has the land advantage considering neutral territories never attack and make a perfect unguarded line. Hence since FNU has no idea who the enemy is initially as is the case with most treasonous acts, it makes perfect sense to me that FNU should have to either place units on all borders just in case, or take a chance and leave a few borders unguarded....

Worse case scenario, PL invades your weak side on the first turn and you get the addition of guerillas to stall the invasion while your defenses get repositioned and force the PL retreat.

Another point is to place your units on the border of the joining land that has the larger capitols. ie: your on capitol (8) and you have a capitol (8) and two capital (4) territories touching your country. Ignore the smaller capitol borders as anything coming from there will not have enough strength to matter much anyway.

Like you said before though, when playing FNU on a small map with a poor layout, you have to think things through more thoroughly.

I think the suggestion of having disclosure exposed before deployment on the first turn is great. It will still take some thought on how to place troops but will open up a lot of options. PL will still have the move first advantage, but FNU will not be stuck placing lavs everywhere on turn 1.

Why not just keep it simple....

why not just make it so no body can attack on the first 2 turns
that gives players a chance to develop as in chess.. its not possible to attack in the first 2 moves only deploy.

Because it would become a very static battle of attrition, and as I said in your Watercooler post, it is entirely possible for White to take a Black piece on their second move.

when playing fnu i rarely stick lavs everywhere, picking the right 2 countries to deploy is very important, i tend to go for the 2 that have the smallest possible hostile border. is is fine to elave 1 gap on a border where there is rough ground/trees, the chance of the enemy putting a transport on it's front line is small. So try to use as many tanks as possible.

If u are very unlucky and get countries where u can't cover all the borders on the 1st turn, leave the smaller borders open. It is easier to invade across a long border as it's harder to cover all the gaps. So most enemies won't position themselves to invade a small border on turn 1.

The preferred method these days tend to be to reveal two countries together. One of these will play defence and have LAVs covering the borders, while the second will be used to mount the attack and will probably use tanks and bots, with LAVs covering the remaing borders.

If you're on a small map and get your medium next to a low, count your lucky stars

Once you've played enough you'll find there's certain territories and certain borders that most players won't attack in the first turn, and often, at all. If you like to play a risky game, you can leave that border almost entirely open with little danger. Knowing that makes the FNU game somewhat easier.

I agree. In my mentoring games, I've learned what a boon it is to draw New Holland and Bangoria (7 total border hexes) or Derzhava and Hanza (8 total border hexes) as ally-pairs on Emerald.

What if FNU gets +1$ or +2$ to initial disclose turn? So FNU can protect border with one more LAV. Hm.... Vik?