Concerning the 2nd restart of the game between Joachim and myself...well, looks like the game map got created with ruins on planets. Joachim just settled one and informed me he got one that is too good for a KOTH game. I didn't even know there WERE ruins till he told me this morning.
So, that leaves us with the following choices (my preference obviously a big effect):
(1) Start a 3rd game with the same settings. I don't know about Joachim, but playing the first 10-15 turns of a single medium-homeworld KOTH game isn't much more exciting than sticking my head in our icebox and watching my breath condense. So, since I've already done 2 games of that, I'd rather not do it again.
(2) Start another game with new settings (and empire files). Something more exciting than waiting 12 turns to get mines
.
(3) Or, assuming I know the KOTH rules well enough, I'll sit off the Hill a bit till I feel like trudging through 10-15 turns of another standard KOTH start game. This, of course, assumes I will re-enter the Hill where I left off.
So, this message is mostly to Joachim, I guess.