I remember in the old game, getting 9 cards and 5 colours was a challenge and people usually stopped there for a round or two, now 4 cities and 3 cards > 100 seems a wee bit too easy to me.

Actualy, most people still stop (if mostly only one round). That "> 100" is quite a stopper in my experiense.

Yeah, about half the players have been stopped in both Apollo 18 and A Dos Metros