Ensign Gauntlet

[Program Fatebringer]

Have you beaten it yet? How many times did you have to restart?

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

won with 245 money left

[Tapsa]

Completed with 100$ left. Almost lost the last map due an appaling start (lost 60$ worth of ships due to stupidity in the first minute...) But managed to pull through with 10 armor left as the last enemy base fell.

I think I restarted the gauntlet twice. I lost the second level when I had three enemy bases all with 1-2 sectors distance to my base. Never had ships from four different factions in my base before... On another run, I lost the third level because both a Oracle cruiser and an Redog assassin managed cross paths with three pirate destroyers and bring them along to my base And this happened quite early and I only had two assasins and a scavenger for defense. The pirates won that one...

I think I'll take a break from the gauntlets and play some of the conquest galaxies again for a better score. These gauntlets are damn hard...

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

They are very hard, a different animal so to speak. Wait till the 10 rounders hard to win let alone save any money.

[StratFanatic]

won with 245 money left

Since yez, have like $250 left after 4 rounds (and barely won round IV with 1 armor left!). Hope to at least come in second.

OU, I still think rounds get progressively harder. FateBringer, any confirmation on the software programming?

- StratFanatic.

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

I could be wrong

OU, I still think rounds get progressively harder

but the reason I don't think they get progressively harder is... If you are like me you start the guantlet out on a favorable map, correct? But everytime I start a guantlet it starts with like the hardest map I have ever seen. with like 5 opponents sometimes real close. So if it was progressively harder it would not start out that tough right? Does this happen to you, I mean the tough start maps? But we don't play that one right, we start with a good map. But I do believe what you say is somewhat true. I think (could be wrong) that if you kick the computers butt for a couple rounds 2, 3 rounds the AI adjusts somewhat (because it thinks you are a wiz) and tries to make it more challanging for you. I would not even be surprised if the AI adjusts as to how much money you had left at the end of that particular round, perhaps how strong of a fleet you had left and maybe how much armor you have left. (pure speculation on my part). But perhaps (and I will try this) if you start with a very tough map and have to spend lots of your money in the 1st round, the next round might be easier (AI thinks you suc). But have you not had a tougher 3 rather 4 or 2 rather 3 round ever? That would somewhat limit the "progressively harder" wouldn't it? But your right only the boss could tell us for certain.

[StratFanatic]

Round 1: 45
Round 2: 75
Round 3: 75
Round 4: 70
Round 5: 75

Bank left: $215
Replayed this like 7-10 times (only to get higher final score).

Had pretty tough final 3 rounds that made wanna restart - i.e. Keepers were all near me with no 'freebie' planets by me. I've gotta admit that competition made me learn some new tricks to the game that would definitely save me some armor.

Got pretty luck in one gauntlet where I spent like $25, $30, $45 but got creamed in round 5 when I just didn't spend enough ($75 wasn't enough to win).

[OUFOOTBALLROCKS]

I still love the way you break it down round by round (sometimes I forget)

I've gotta admit that competition made me learn some new tricks

Not to be too political but if we could get USA to remember this we might not be in a mess.

[Program Fatebringer]

I am glad the gauntlets are giving you all a real challenge. Each map is randomly generated and is entirely independent from the one you played earlier. Sometimes round 1 is the hardest and sometimes it's the last round. You just never know. The AI doesn't adjust or do anything different, so it's all the luck of the draw. And in the long run, things tend to even out. Like the conquest galaxies, a Gauntlet can be beaten handily if you discover the right strategy. Of course, finding a metagame strategy is a lot harder than just figuring out what to do for a single map.