I looked it up on eestats. Exactly one country in NBK finished with over 35k acres: http://www.eestats.com/ffa/oldcountry/159/385

Last set ended on Jan 25th. Looking at his history, he was 20k acres on Jan 15th. He then gained a lot of acres hitting TKO countries. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but those acres were gained so late in the set that they were barely any use. He only finished with $33 M NW.

Making big grabs at the end of the set and keeping most of the acres has nothing to do with "defending your land" and is certainly not a good netgaining strategy.

By the way, can you stop with the ad hominem attacks? If you honestly think that I don't know how to "defend my land" I suggest looking at my game profile. I really hate to draw attention like that, but I'm honestly tired of reading it.