I consider Galactic Challenges one of the best new features in GC IV. It has the potential to really solve some of the end game issues that often plague 4x games. However....its not there yet, and I want to dig in one which ones I think are working, and which ones are not. Not, I am only going to cover some of the challenges, because frankly I find that by turn ~200ish (when I'm starting to get bored and want to end the game), I pretty much always have access to these same challenges, and have never gotten access to any of the others.

The Gimme (Penultipox)

So far this one has always been easy to me. I get the tech, find the cure, get some points. It simply put....too easy.

Defense Wars (The Everwar, Against the Tide)

I don't know if its intentional, but so far I find "Against the Tide" and "The Everwar" to work pretty much exactly the same. The entire galaxy turns against me, and I need to hold out for X turns.

This concept is solid. Traditional GC basically forces you to conquer the galaxy to truly "win". This challenge provides a way to flex military might in a different way...defensively, which is a fun take. For example, I am not a big warmonger, and I don't generally enjoy a full scale conquest. However, I like the challenge of defending my borders, actually using military starbases to augment my defenses, etc.

So these two are working well to me...though I normally do them both at the same becaust its basically the same condition, which doesn't seem intentional.

Wondermaking (Hall of Unity, Astrolab of the Arnor, Grand Menagerie)

These 3 also work fundamentally the same. Build a big building that requires lots of special resources. So my issue with these is two fold:

• Arbitrariness of Resources: On a given map, the resources you have ready access to are often pretty random. One game I have more snuggler colonies than I can shake a stick at, and the next I have none. There are some games where I literally just grab a challenge, build the super building in like 8 turns and call it a day. In other games, I am shaking the trade tree of every civ there is, checking the bazzaar every turn like a madman, etc. 

I find that the wonders don't highlight good play as much as luck. Sure I can look at every planet and try to find the one that has the resource I need, and then go conquer it, but these objectives to me are more for the "peacenik" players that want to build their super planets and then show them off. Which brings me to my next point.

• Wonders don't highlight really strong planet building. The amount of manu it takes to build a wonder is pretty trivial at this point in the game, even my decent secondary core worlds have plenty of gas in the tank for the challenge, and I will often build 2 or 3 wonders at once (assuming I can get the strategic resources, which is the "real" aspect of the wonder).

Personally I would rather see less strategic resource requirements (or none frankly), and require other things that require players to show off their super planets. Require a population of 15, a planet with 4000+ influence, a planet with X+ usable tiles (aka requiring most if not all of the terraforming techs), require that I have access to the max level of a specific ideology (or maybe any ideology), etc etc. I want wonders to push me into making my planets the coolest they can be.... because that's where the peacenik's get their fun.

You must be this tall to Enter (Dread Fleet)

The issue with this one to me.... it can either destroy you or be completely trivial. The first time you take this challenge, you might be unprepared, and suddenly your dead. On the flip side, once you understand the challenge, its pretty trivial. Just wait until you have a nice big complement of fleets, pull in the lords, and smash them.

There is no real challenge here, all it takes is a little preparation and you bag a bunch of prestige for no real effort.

The Bit of Everything (Orb of Draginol)

This one is a nice little story bit and its fun the first time you do it, but later it tends to lose its luster. Getting the orb is just a random wait on your surveyors....no challenge there. Then you activate teh artifact which is just a weaker Dread Fleet challenge....as long as you know the bar and prepare even a little bit you will smash this with 0 issue. Lastly finding the orb requires more scouting (yawn), and then a quick war on a single planet.

I think you can remove the minor dread lords here, I feel like that's not the true part of this challenge. Instead, it would be great if the Orb's effect was ramped up like 1000%. I want to see those borders expand like crazy, planets start culture flipping like crazy (or maybe there's a timer where the enemy gets that ideology that insta flips all planets in their territory), maybe even ships start turning (and you have to use ships with a special module to prevent them from just joining the enemy or something).

I respect the one planet invasion challenge, I think its a fine concept, but I want the invasion to have some gusto. Make me really work for it, instead of just slinking in on the planet and taking it down after 5 turns of invasion.

Awakened Urges might be bugged

Just noting that I have never gotten this challenge, even though I just had a game where I was in total peace for 200+ turns.