I'm behind on the episodes as I haven't watched them yet, but it would depend on who has the cards to be cashed in at this point. Without knowing who has however many cards in hand, I'd say that Cochran is in a pretty good position along with Stephen - if he can cash in his cards pretty soon, he can reinforce his African borders and also take on Matt in the hopes of ending his run (and taking any cards he might have) - this could give Cochran two continents and a solid base from which to make attacks into three continents.

The key for Stephen is to secure Middle East while building up reinforcements in Afghanistan and Ural before Cochran has a chance to cash in cards and put reinforcements into Middle East and South Europe.

I've never liked the strategy of trying to hold onto Asia - there's just so many directions opponents can attack from. My usual strategy is to grab Africa first and then expand into South America. From Egypt, I can attack both Europe and Asia to bust up an opponent.