I like having the Cow Award around and I think that it requires players pursuing the Eptathlon to demonstrate a bit more balance with their overall game play.
Let's face it--winning the other Awards is mostly about dominating the game early on. The rewards of getting an early advantage are often the reason why a player can win a Fastest Finish Award.
The same method of succeeding early on is also the path that tends to lead to obtaining a Medal.
Sure, there's more to each of the Fastest Awards and the Medals than simply doing well in the ancient ages and each one of them has a different way to approach the game.
However, I appreciate how the Cow does not require a player to conform to this style of play. One can still obtain the Cow Award by not dominating in the early game. In fact, the average player can offer more competition to potential Eptathletes by winning the Cow Award and "denying" their claim to fame for yet another month.
Could it be, even to a small degree, that some players do not like the idea that a newer player could come in and beat them when competing for the same Award? Well, so be it!
Before playing XOTMs, my favoured playing style was to build as many Wonders of the World as possible. Each game was a challenge to discover which leaders I was up against and knowing which ones preferred to build which Wonders around which date, based on the difficulty level. I felt the greatest success and sense of achievement when I was able to make as many Wonders as possible. Yet, there wasn't really an Award made for me.
It wasn't overnight that I began offering competition for the Fastest Finish Awards, but I eventually got there by focusing on "improving" my early game play, which meant that I had to give up on my way of playing the game--the way which I, personally, found to be the most fun!
Since playing the XOTMs, I feel that my playing style has narrowed and I no longer feel that I have the freedom to play the game in ways other than those targeting an early success against the AI. I like the idea of being challenged to open my horizons for a game, try a different way of playing, and still be able to come out on top.
I'm not saying that one has to chase Wonders to achieve the Cow--what I am saying is that a lot more varied play styles can be used to achieve the Cow Award. There are many different ways to play the game and being able to come from behind and win a later victory is often as rewarding or even more rewarding for a lot of players than to "perfectly execute" a technological research path, a build order, a series of trades, and other factors which the players competing for Fastest Finish Awards will attempt to achieve for their games.
Winning the Cow Award isn't trivial for most players. In fact, for a lot of the player base, it's really nice to be able to survive to the Modern Age, slowly take down an AI or two at a time with advanced weaponry, claw one's way to the top of the in-game Score Board, and receive an Award that isn't an Ambulance or other Low Award.
If you're the kind of player that can win the Fastest Finish Awards, then you're also the kind of player who can probably have the AI begging for mercy early on. Winning the Cow should be a trivial matter for you, but so should winning any Fastest Finish Award. It doesn't cheapen the Cow Award that you may find yourself pressing the Enter key a lot any more, but perhaps you should step back and try and take a different perspective on the matter.
Forget trying to be the fastest, the most dominant early on in a game. Relax a little. Skip the micromanagement and appreciate playing the early game with less pressure. Know peace in your heart, throw off the yokel of stress, and you may find the way of the Cow. If you can't do so, then suck it up and press the Enter key a lot after conquesting most of the world--but please try not to ruin the fun for others by bashing a playing style that doesn't require you to play towards perfection in the early game. You might learn a thing or two about life, as well.
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