Just to clarify, this is the single person challenge where the AI are split into 2 teams of 3, leaving you alone to conquer the world. I've been having trouble with this and I'm curious as to what strategies everyone used to beat this. Where did you start, what direction did you start moving in. Any suggestions at all would be greatly appreciated.

http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID=827

i can't find any of the old threads that aren't insane and crazy intermixed.. pretty much restart til you get one of the better bonuses on the Earth map territ/bonus wise, learn how the ai acts and reacts, don't feel bad for restarting if your doing poorly early on, esp if you see an enemy in the first couple of turns that isn't moving away from you.

Most successful spots imho; CA, West/East Africa, East China. Scandinavia can be done but is hard to expand from there often times.

If you start in one of the fail locations don't even bother. E.Russia, Antartica, Canada, Australia, South America.

course i don't spend much time on the Earth map, and others have prolly pioneered them better to give more detailed analysis'.. i think my best is like 36 on crazy

well i did this a while ago the only way i won was by starting in west africa and getting all of africa before i bumped in to someone

oh and perrin i have 31 on crazy lol

I did pretty well once starting in antartica a long time ago
lol

Started in Ufa (West Russia), but conquered Caucasus first (because it was worth more, for the same number of provinces to conquer). Met my first enemy in China and India and sent all my forces to conquer them. Then took North Russia, meeting my second enemy in Siberia, which I slowly pushed back, meanwhile finally taking West Russia. Then Middle East and Europe. (Had a frightening moment around turn 13, when a new AI introduced itself by dropping 25 armies in Svalbard: I thought I was done for, but it couldn't keep up that rate, fortunately, and I wore down the 25 in a few turns.) After I held Eurasia I was pretty sure I'd win. 23 turns total. You can see it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhyzg5_1zyw

My first crazy challenge finish was at 47 turns, but today I managed to do it in 25 turns and now I can sleep better :) I think three things are crucial:

* Starting in Africa and holding all of it "fast"
* Watching out for the power balance between the two teams and always trying to balance them
* When you don't have the power to grab a bonus from an AI, just try to break bonuses by constantly playing mind games with it (attack where they least suspect and then rapidly move inside, don't try to keep the captured territories, the goal is to break bonuses only)

With these strategies, I was comfortable enough by the turn 15, and the rest was just routine...

My best is 31 turns. I think I could have done it more quickly, but haven't -Ialways taken the quickest route to eliminating the AI after it was clear I was going to win. Here's my strategy:

-restart until you get a good starting spot. Africa is the best IMO because it has only 4 borders once you have all of it.

-Plan your early moves in advance so you get bonuses as quickly as possible.

-don't expand in every direction at once. I generally keep adding armies to Egypt every turn to hold the border, but expand elsewhere. Taking on all of the AI's at once doesn't work.

cardsfan -- I have to disagree with you on that strategy. Don't get me wrong, your strategy is a great way for beginning players to tackle this challenge (I too thought that africa was the place to start). I prefer taking Asia first with either india or w china. If you get w china, move down into india right away and take it. Starting with W china really opens up asia because there is no starting AI there. And if you get lucky, there won't be one in E china. Another thing is, it makes the AI fight each other sooner so you get more balanced teams. From there, you just out play the AI and get your bonuses quick. More than likely, an AI will NOT have a bonus because he team mate or enemy will occupy the bonus and be stripping him from it as well.

These are just some of the things that helped me beat it in a quicker turn count. It's very well beatable from an Africa start and even a North America start.