You all have probably discussed this in the many messages above, but Iām new here so Iāll go ahead and say do we really need the faction auctions?
I at least havenāt the slightest idea on how to value those. This isnāt that serious of a tourney and part of the fun of this game is making best with whatever faction you get! I bid 0 on all of them. 
My 2 cents. 
I donāt know for sure, but I suspect that the auction actually is an advantage to the more experienced players and a disadvantage to the less experienced players.
I mean, it is a Trophy Challenge not just a āgames wantedā thread. 
I think itās way better to let the experienced players have a choice since they know what they are doing, and for the less experienced players itās not that much of a hassle to do the auction. (As @irishdomer08 points out, you can always bid 0 to essentially get a random faction.)
My only beef with auction is that the app doesnāt really give you enough information about the factions during the auction. You can see the faction board but itās partially hidden (at least on my albeit āolderā iPad) and you canāt get the faction description unless I missed how to do that. I had to look the factions up online to make my choice. 
I had that problem, but these guys revealed to me that you can tap on the different planets on the right to reveal the different factions descriptions during the auction. Iām not convinced that has helped me make better choices though!
That is what I do each time also, I look up the factions during the auction and try to figure out which ones are good and not for the final scoring conditions. Then I pick the worst faction I can for those two final scoring conditions, then bid on the other 3 factions 
we had a poll on āgoing with or without faction auctionā before this seasonās start.
[āall votes are in now: 2-1 for auctions, 7x no preferenceā]
we can do the poll (faction auction or faction draft by random player sequence or random factions) again after this season.
or what about cycling through all 3 options (faction auction / draft by random sequence / random factions) in 3 seasons?
random factions can be problematic, as one or two factions are considered weaker than all others.
the same for TM, and who would want to play Terra Mystica with random factions?
I am actually ok with it, as it has forced me to really do my homework at the beginning of the game, especially thinking about end of game scoring and what factions are stronger and weaker for different scoring opportunities.
Iām fine with whatever the group wants. I do prefer random factions in TM too! I like the random puzzle to solve aspect
some factions are loathed by many players, so having to play with one of those seems like a rough handicap.
not my idea of a fair competition. but each to his own.
as part of a cycle iād be ready to go this bumpy path though.
Not that this āTrophy Challengeā needs to do the same, but FWIW in the Decathlon I decided that what we really care about is the final ranking - so, as long as all players at the table are ok with the game settings, then it doesnāt matter if every game has the same settings.
yeah, good contribution.
so each divison could agree on a setting of its own.
would imply some more polls in all divisions, but why not?
Thanks - and it doesnāt have to be fixed for each division either: just a (hopefully quick) agreement before each game.
So, we have just entered round 6, and think this should be a super tight finish to the game.
The federations have spread across the galaxy, with the taklons finding the lost planet in deep space after climbing up the tech tree.
The lantids are master diggers, with deep specialisation in terraforming.
Collectively most of the anomalies have been converted to planets.
And the Ivits have something resembling a great red wall of China, carving out a quarter of the map.
Oh, and the Nevlas have broken the bank, getting gold capped into the last round.
No idea where this ends, but should be a nice and close finish!!!
Um ā¦ looks like yet another battle for second place to me! 
Unfortunately the Nevlas have no plan as to what to do with their money, so likely not ending well for themā¦
Regardless, has been a very fun game. Feel like I learn more each time I play.
Not at all :). @JammaTal has both of the end game rewards at the moment, so the scores of the left look very different when you factor all that in (didnāt want to post in case I confused peeps again ;))
no worries, i wonāt be confused again by work-in-progress screenshots.
esp not in this case because iām in the game as well 
so keep those screenshots coming. i will pay close attention.
the end game rewards are no danger for your lead, as long as you can hold on to 2nd positions.
youāre definitely on your way to win the title. very well played 
Okay, will post
I genuinely though by weird racial space stations wouldnāt count for the end of round. And that I couldnāt use the normal power satellites. Got past that around round 4 or so, but was confusing.
Ivits seem pretty solid actually, especially since I wanted Lantids lol!
Looks like I have to search for some victory points somewhereā¦ 
must say that iāve always been underwhelmed by what iāve seen from Ivits.
you are the first who really showed me how to light their fire 
