I'm a little concerned that my group is exploring the map too quickly in proportion to kingdom building, and that they'll end up with a too-small kingdom by the end of Rivers Run Red.
Is there a total kingdom size that I should be aiming for by the end? I do see a thread about the number of cities, which would also be a nice benchmark to have... In fact, since a lot of groups have finished the whole Adventure Path by now, what kind of progression of size has been seen after each module, and how big did things get by the end?
thanks!
Give them some time to build up their kingdom before introducing the next stage of exploring. They might want some downtime to build stuff up and craft things, for instance.
The only point at which the kingdom needs to be a particular size is that somewhere in book 5 it should be big enough to support an army big enough to take on the armies invading it. Mine is up to about 110 hexes and looks poised to crush them into the dust (though the enemies have some surprises waiting for it...)