[Gandalf Parker]

In solo games I dont try "too hard" to take every province. Especially in early game.

I try hard to take every province that connects directly to my home province since my castle will draw resources from them increasing what I can recruit each turn.

Then I get picky. The farmland (aks if you dont know how to tell) usually give the most gold. The mountains tend to give resources but thats only useful for that one province in the early game if its not directly next to a castle.

I tend to zig-zag my way toward the enemy going around provinces with lots of knights and elephants. I let the AI run into those then I jump him when he is weakened. Later in the game I will go back and clean up the other provinces.

I try to avoid taking the last province between me and them. I sit and buildup in a province one-away and hit him after he has just attacked the indepts. Hopefully a hard one.

Of course my favorite tactic is to leave no direct path back to me by jumping completely over indept provinces instead of zig-zagging thru weak provinces. But thats a tactic that only works for nations such as Caelum (flyers) or Pangaea (stealth) which doesnt seem to match your playing style. And Dominions is definetly a game where matching a nation to your style is your best bet. Also I do tend to play larger maps than many other people because I really like the "search and discover" part of the game.