I am struggling to come up with a defense against paratroopers.  They don't die if they land on a landmine as far as I can tell.  I don't have the resources to line my coast with turrets or units.
They have a really large landing range which makes blockading an airbase difficult.
This is especially concerning when you are defending against an enemy that is 8 times larger than you physically and even larger monetarily.

Still about $10k per day above mine. That is a lot when you are up against it.
I wish that when we clicked on a capitol if gave the user name too.

It's hard to keep track of what's happening from forum posts that don't match country names

Fair enough! From what I can tell you're taking it on two fronts. 

That being said, if my income is only 10K more but if 8 times your size would say the odds are not entirely stacked against you. In fact, from my perspective, I think the only advantage I have is that I'm fighting  "way over there" and not for the survival of my capital.

Meanwhile, I'm also struggling against Joder who has less than 100 sectors and almost 40 tanks. My guess is your combined income exceeds mine quite a bit even though I'm still about 8 times the size of you both combined. 

To that end, I would say Johnny has largely solved the legacy issue of big guys steamrolling small guys due to massive income difference (perhaps diminishing returns is even more aggressive than intended?).  

Current state, I think it's going to be really difficult for any player to take over large swathes of the map and hold it from other engaged, smaller players. 

I agree that it has reduced the issue.  

What it revealed to me is that you need to be expanding on day one of the map. If you come in a couple days late your doomed.

If this map was filled with more players, I think we might see a more interesting dynamic. Which is the real hope!

From day one, my goal has been to push the envelope on expansion and see how fast I could grow with no other concerns. Guarantee most of the old game's tricks (exploits even) are no longer available as the mechanics have changed alot  and outlined in another post. 

I used helicopters very early when they were cheap (now they are prohibitively expensive) and it helped a lot. I think that gave me the biggest boon this time around. The paratroopers are also very key if you can capture empty capitals with them fast. 

and I tell ya... these rebels are a really neat mechanic.. and honestly kind of my only hope right now!

Should paratroopers be a tad stronger than regular infantry? Can't tell any difference once they land from regular infantry... getting an experienced one back to an airbase for future drops would be quite the fun challenge/feat IMO.

Nerfing the Hord!! It’s sad when your favorite exploits get removed.

I increased the paratroopers to 2K and dropped the helicopter to 15K.

The paratroopers aren’t necessarily just the infantry, but the flight cost, equipment, etc. So, the extra cost is really for the special delivery, and then they’re just an infantry unit.

Also, capturing unclaimed capitals no longer retains them as capitals. Until they’re claimed, they’re really just potential capital spots. If they’re never claimed, they’re really just ordinary sectors!

I think it would be fun to rename unclaimed capitals, but I totally agree with not being able to roll up and build a land base on an almost capital. 

These tweaks seem to be in the right direction but let's see how it plays out.