to be honest I'm playing today like I played elite 8 years ago, when WWP was still alive
back then I already realized that if you want to be the best, you should tread the game like sport, and it means two things:
1) Take the luck out of the game.. what's more annoying that being better than someone but lose because of luck? Or what's the point being better but winning with help of luck?
2) That's kinda my own rule - let your opponent do the mistakes
about that 2nd rule, it's related to your risk taking discussions. as I found out most of the risks don't pay out at the end. so I let my opponent take them. I even tempt my opponents to take risks. it doesn't mean I never take risk, but it really got to have major impact if I decide to take it, like maths. Risk = ChanceOfSuccess*BenefitItGivesYou
so I'll try to rope like franz from one side of the map to the other if I can skunk 3 worms. but other than that, I don't really need to risk.
what happens in games which non of the sides take stupid risks? most of these games usually happen to me against Random. then we meet in SD and get a dramatic end
Last thing left to say - I liked the cavern maps, I'd like to bring them back, as much as I'd like to play T17 on another types of caves or even open maps. But until that happens - I almost never allowing an elite to be played on saved/downloaded map.