I never ever get handed a territory yet every single game someone gets Australia or South America in the first turn or two. I also kept a record of how often I'm able to trade in at three cards and it comes in at 7% of the time.
I maintain an expert rating but I have to fight for it tooth and nail. I'm just one of those cursed types in life I think.
I feel your pain. I have, on a few occasions, made it all the way up to the Master level (WITHOUT CHEATING) and generally fluctuated between intermediate and expert...but currently find myself back down to beginner (even hit novice briefly).
All of this since the June update. I don't know what has massively changed to cause this. My strategy seems fine.
I had the same problem and actually stopped playing for about a month because of it. I was a master and all of a sudden I just couldn't do anything. There were multiple games where I could not take over a territory on the first move of the game literally losing all my starting troops immediately leaving me defenseless and easily engulfed by the other players. I would lose 20 troops while trying to kill 2 enemies and so forth. I don't know if it was just a mathematical cold streak or the software but it sucks when you've basically lost the game on your first move!
I rarely use the blitz mode anymore...ESPECIALLY early on.
My dice strategy is to roll all 5 (my 3 vs their 2) and regardless of if it is a win, lose, or draw, I immediately stop my attack of the territory and then immediately relaunch the attack. It seems the dice keeps track of how many armies it destroys from each side, so it seems to default to try to keep it fairly even , at least as best as they can. But withdrawing and then restarting the fight seems to "reset" that dice clock back to a normal setting for the next roll. It has been a lifesaver!
For the record...as far as hot and cold streaks go, my longest winning streak has been 10 games. My longest losing streak was 13. lol
Jeff Bittner