I changed it to make the game more realistic. There wasn't really any strategy in Game 1, that's why I made the squares. But if nobody likes the rule about not being able to walk in one long road across the continent in one single turn, rather than expanding naturally, we can remove the rule.
Just consider how easy it will be to get deeply into another nation if we remove the rule. The defenses won't matter so much anymore, because anyone can always find a cheap way around them and conquer them as the last zones, rather than having a slower, more stable and natural war.
The sea zones will also lose their real difference, by making sea wars places where you can expand quickly and gain great offensive positions if you manage to get the enemy coastlines, but also easy places to protect if both sides have large amounts of ressources, that in that case could be more important on the land battlefields.
It's your choise. I think the current system is best and gives so much more strategy, but if you really don't like it, I'll remove it