Wanted to come back to this - you should never surrender. I've just finished a game where in round 5 I was down to 2 territories, had about 4 armies, no chance of getting a continent and it was flat rate cards so no big bonuses to come from escalating cards.
I played my cards (3xred) to give ppl less reason to take me out and sat and waited until round 18 when I took a chance to grab a continent. At that point there were only 3 players left including myself. It was a cracking battle between the 3 of us until I got a chance and went on to win in round 46.
By far one of the best games I've ever played in, against 2 brilliant CCers, and I never would have been involved if I'd pressed a surrender button back in round 5.
LINK TO THE GAME
From the game log:
2007-05-05 17:02:42 -
Guilty_Biscuit receives 3 armies for 2 territories
(Some time later...)
2007-05-22 08:08:04 -
Guilty_Biscuit won the game