Re: How big is too big?
 

Am I the only one who barely resisted the urge to reply to this thread with a "That's what she said" joke? Just asking.

Re: How big is too big?
 

If you can get 30 provinces in year 1 without declaring war on someone, the map is too big or your neighbors suck or both.

Bigger is always better. Be proactive with your diplomacy to avoid getting ganked early.

Re: How big is too big?
 

I agree with Meglobob - if graphs are on and its an open diplomacy game with some skilled players then try to be #2 in provinces, or a close #3. If you are #1 out of the gates, you will almost always be the first one targeted if there are active diplomatic players. Everyone loves to see the mighty fall....

Re: How big is too big?
 

On a related note: is worth it to attack indy provinces on the 1st turn? Or is it better wait for the 2nd turn when you have info on what type of indies you will face? Assume that you initial expansion party can handle 70% of the type of indies typically found (i.e. you cannot handle knights and some special indies like amazons)

Re: How big is too big?
 

70% is too low. If you can handle 95+% blind, its may be worth it. It worth noting that some types of indies cannot occur on some types of terrain, so if you can't take elephants, for example, its possible to choose appropriate terrain that you won't run into them.

(For example, a Dom 9+ Wyrm with at least A1 (air shield) can handle just about any indie (i've only lost to large groups of jade amazon sacreds) with proper scripting. I'd expand turn 1 with that. As a general rule of thumb, I'd only expand blind with something you can specifically enumerate the list of things it loses to, and that list only contains 1-2 rare indie population types)