I'm curious what everyone's thoughts were on last month's combination minors and major? Did you like playing a map that could be used for either competition? Did you like playing the same map the whole month? Did anyone change victory conditions during the game for whatever reason? It would be nice to know if you all enjoyed this little scenario or not, so that we know whether to include it again later, or not do it again.

Thanks!

I did not change victory conditions. It was hard enough getting one condition, let alone having the option of two.

I liked the combo maps, especially because it was terra, a map I had never used prior to this gauntlet. (For a long time, I actually thought terra was an actual earth map, not a random map.)

I didn't change victory conditions in any of my games; I tend to get quite single minded in my approach to my victory condition, and am far more likely to abandon a game not going well than to try to salvage it.

[I was a little disappointed this update not to get any vanilla playable gauntlet, although I'm planning to get BTS when it comes out, so it's only a minor bump in the road, so to speak.]

I had a whole lot of maps generated for Incas on Terra to use on either the last major or minor but never had the time to play any of them. I'd never really played a "proper" game on the Terra map before and it is an unusual map with the old/new world.

For last month's combo map, I actually could go either way. However, it is easier to go from spaceship to domination, because all you need is some extra land. However domination to spaceship is harder because you need to focus your economy and get almost all the tech.

In normal HOF play one can choose any victory condition or delay that choice until a victory condition is actually achieved by either AI or Human.

In the HOF Gauntlet both most settings and the victory condition are dictated.

Thus, I'd say that having a G-Major and G-minor with the same settings and differing only in victory condition is a great idea!

When starting a HOF game, its nice to explore a bit and then decide which victory condition is most compatible with the revealed territory around your first city or first few cities.

It is especially nice when the settings for G-Major and G-minor are the same and the victory conditions seem similar such as Conquest and Domination, but extremely different when the topology of the map is considered.

For example, G-minor-19 was Conquest on a Terra map and G-minor-20 was Domination on a Terra map. On a Terra map, Conquest is much easier/faster than Domination. I don't think the Old World ever has enough territory to gain a Domination win, thus the New World must be found, Astronomy needs to be researched, and the New World needs to be partly settled to get the Domination win.

I also like the recent (slight) variations in victory condition and the difficulty level present in the current Gauntlets, specifically G-Major-13, G-minor-21/G-minor-22. Although, obviously the difference in difficulty level precludes changing the victory condition for the Gauntlet (i.e. its impossible to start a map pursuing G-minor-21 and switching the victory condition to that of G-Major-13 and still compete in the Gauntlet). May I suggest cycling the difficulty level from being the same (i.e. G-Major-12, G-minor-19, G-minor-20) and being different (i.e. G-Major-13, G-major-21/G-minor-22). This way, sometimes we have the choice of victory condition and sometimes we have the choice of difficulty level (some of us need a lower level of difficulty to learn without becoming frustrated and while others need a higher difficulty level that challenges them to become even better).

Off topic: I liked the requirement that current Gauntlet use either the Korean Civ (Warlords) or Chinese civ (Vanilla Civ4). Otherwise, I may not have tried using the Korean Empire in a HOF (or any Civ4) game. Perhaps this Civ requirement could cycle between a new specific Civ (Korean/Chinese) and a wide open Civ choice (G-Major-12, G-minor-19, and G-minor-20 for example).

Thanks to the Gauntlets, I'm learning how to achieve a faster and more enjoyable win. Thank you very much Gauntlet organizers! And please keep thinking up new challenges (different maps, civs. levels, unique problems, and combinations thereof) for future Gauntlets.

Sun Tsu Wu

Welcome to CFC and more importantly, to the HOF! :band: