If you happen to get most of a big continent, taking it in the first turn means they will be preoccupied with knocking you out of your continent instead of gathering their own. As they have to keep getting in the same place every turn, they usually end up failing eventually and then you get bonuses ...

One advantage to stretching yourself over getting a second continent is that your opponent must choose between where to put their armies- as in which continent to attack. If they're far away and you use a card bonus to get both at once, you put your opponent in a precarious position in which you get ...