[geoschmo]

True Stone Mill. By goal was that exactly. With a game like SEIV there really is no way to determine who the best player is, becasue there are so many different aspects of the game that are important, and so many different ways to play the game. I think this format would offer many different challanges, military, economic, and diplomatic.

And keep in mind that being dogpiled wouldn't neccesarily mean gauranteed death for a better player. Since alliances are such varporous things, and this game is so cuthroat. You might form an alliance to go after someone and while your ships are off attacking them one of your allies could turn on you and wipe out your empire. Choosing the easy kill and an alliance with a stronger player.

Even if that doesn't happen, the target of your alliance doesn't have to defeat all of you. Just the weakest member of your group, or someone else entirely, or simply hold on until someone gets pasted somewhere else in the galaxy. And then your card is played and they will be gunning for you in the next round.

It all sounds very interesting to me, even more so after thinking about it more.

Geoschmo