We found that this scenario wasn't as difficult as initially thought. First, while Middle of Nowhere is in the mix, if the party sticks together, it makes things a lot easier. Second (and actually this is #1), if you place the locations in a decent order to the left of Middle of Nowhere, you can chase the villains around the circle.
Effectively, we put the worst close check last in the circle to make sure it would be a villain there. As long as you're able to handle villains multiple times, you were okay by the end.