as most people know, I am not a big fan of the default score mode. In my view Diplomacy just requires better tactics, a more versatile strategy and challenges a number of different skill sets. That said, I couldn't let you guys try alone so I thought I'd take a shot.
Let me tell you beforehand - I didn't make it. 600 is crazy-hard, and while Africa has decisive offensive advantages, it means that in a 200 pop. game you are gonna suffer already 60 mio in losses from Cairo; not mentioning adis abeba etc.
That said, I thought I'd go for it in the last game.
Setup: 5 players, default, 200 pop, i am africa (no asia)
looking at the start I was sure I could do some damage. There was no Asian hassle, I could peacefully assemble my assets in the Indian ocean and strike at will. Having decided to locate six single-subs near Bombay, I sent 1x3 around the tip of South America and a triplet to the Caribbean. (unfortunately I forgot about them and they disapeared somewhere)
That done, I positioned the majority of my fleet facing South America, moved my silos to the very edge of kinshasa and set my airfields on the opposite site near Adis Abbeba.
Having finished my setup I felt quite confident. No enemies in sight, the South American fleet nowhere to be seen and no alliances are being formed. Then comes the expected kick in the kidney: I crash. When I manage to rejoin after two minutes, the CPU has scattered my fleet, so I am hurrying to assemble it - five minutes to defcon 1. All my well set plans seem to be going down the proverbial drain.
Defcon 1 hits and I only got 3/5 of each airfield in the air, heading East over bombay. I launch my bombers under South America and start my sub launch from the Indian ocean. Sending the 12 bombers from the airfield to target leningrad, I aim the 6 single-subs at moscow to do a beam and claim the 60 mio living there. Unfortunately, I had underestimated the skills of an (eu) player and he had a bomber that instantly intercepted my subs. Another setback....
I decide to flip my silos open (before everyone else) and take a risky approach: Fire the first five nukes at London and 1 silo in Spain and then shoot the rest of the nukes at New York and Washington. I was hoping Europe had scattered his silos and it turned out to be that way. I manage to destroy his Spanish silo, hit London, and weasle through about 10 nukes towards New York.
In the meantime I retarget my South America bombers towards Sao Paolo, when suddenly South america flips open his silos. I decide to seize the opportunity and redirect two bombers each towards Lima and Santiago. Jackpot.
I decide to take my other airfield bombers and get them to attack Moscow after my original sub-plot had been foiled. Against all odds, I hit Moscow. Luckily, expecting an aggressive Europe, Russia had pulled back his silos out of radar range and gave me a corridor right into the heart of Russki country.
So now New York, London, Sao Paolo, Lima, Santiago, Leningrad,Moscow and some change has been destroyed. Unfortunately Mexico is too far to reach and I decide to spend all my nukes hitting the little stuff (6mio+) to solidify my lead.
lots of nuking going on as victory timer hits, I destroy some fleets etc...
Unfortunately Cairo gets struck twice and I drop points like crazy, leaving me just above 501 :/
Still a fun game
See you soon!
Cara
I know I just had to restart defcon at one stage due to firewall error and then I rejoined before the shooting even started; but I certainly wasn't out of sync 
. Oh well, guess its another one for the bug books 
