Ideas and suggestions.

- the possibility of splitting up and buying back, control, the possibility of gaining control over there in that utopia, but will the player take that utopia? How do you calculate whether the player will break through the defense or not? After all, there are enough maps and templates where the opponent is within reach from day one, but the game doesn't allow you to meet for a relatively long time.
If you don't take something into account, collisions are inevitable. If you make such an intellectual interruption too strict, the early game will end without really starting.

I agree. In the fifth game, there are two points, namely:
1) Control cannot be gained outside the city. It can only be gained with certain levels of the Guild of Mages (but you get it guaranteed when building). This makes gaining control a relatively predictable situation.
2) Control is more strictly limited. The portal to the city doesn't work for all castles, but only for the nearest one. Astral gates don't work on the entire visible area on the map, but within a certain, not so large radius. As a result, you can't always jump across the border of neighboring zones (the mountains are too thick, they don't allow it).
In the mechanics of the third game, it is quite possible that this implementation is normal, and that's fine.