I think that's what the egg timer is for -- if people are having big problems connecting, it's better to set the timer to force things to keep moving (and, yeah, maybe you'll hit the assassin, but it's not the end of the world) rather than stall. After all, fast failure is an extremely important concept for any kind of development--including developing connection.

CW isn't really my kind of game; I prefer strategy games a lot of the time. But it's quite fun, and hits multiple cross-sections of game-space--people who like social games, thinky games, etc.