from about 200 games in Kdice and probably double that in dicewars (well, me and berga_motta played 200 games...and reading most of the ideas about where the game should be improved, after playing a bit in the 16 table, here is my take on the game.
I believe the game's main problem is that it's not attack oriented. sure, to win you need to be the one who attacks all the territories but the other 6 don't have to.
there are 4 problems in the game that i would like to point out before suggesting a solution.
1. players who sit with 1 country and wait and hope they come in second.
2. turteling phase of the game, as someone called it, a.k.a "I will not attack until i have 8 in all my countries" phase.
3. aliances, even though they have a good side to them, allow the game to be less attack oriented sometimes, as one of the allies will hide behind the other one.
4. away players, who happen to get 3rd place
so, the way i see to easily solve all those problems is to give the bonus at the end of each round for connected countries only if you have conquered a land in that round.
this way, the game will become much more attack oriented and will not allow all of the above to happen.

Berga_Motta/Gasolina