this has been a thing for a while. it was put in place a while back to prevent, or lessen the blow of, oop wars on the alliance server. Well over a year ago. maybe even 2.
it goes away like a week into the set.
Swagger of a Chupacabra
[21:37:01] <&KILLERfluffY> when I was doing FA stuff for sof the person who gave me the longest angry rant was Mr Ford
For over a year now the min civs per hit has been modified early in the set.
For BR, min increases by 1 per 100 server turns to the max of 10.
For GS min increases by 1 per 200 server turns to the max of 5.
So buy turn 1000 on the server clock, everything is normal. Pretty sure admins put that in to discourage straight OOP wars. Though missile returns aren't affected., so make use of that knowledge to your best ability.