Buggy and frustrating Shaper /Elder influence system

I mean, before I died yesterday I managed to spread Elder in white maps.
When I did a Shaper influenced map next to an elder influenced map, instead of taking over
he just retreated all the way back, because the elder influence was only connected through 1 map
like a single branch downwards. So the entire arm I spread down dissappeared lol.

I had the situation of running shaper maps and them not being taken over. Noticed after the first few times there is in-game feedback, the shaper appears and says something like 'go no further villain'. That's when I realised it was linked to the number of elder influenced maps.

up