In JavaSoccer the individual soccer players can learn different behaviors. Each piece learns independently of the other pieces. The focus of HQ is in learning effective coordinated strategies directly. Robot Warfare 1 RW1 is related to HQ in that users submit contestant programs, and contestants have incomplete information about the state of the game. RW1 programs are written in a restricted language that does not support learning.
Contestants are single pieces, limiting the range of interesting possible strategies.
The board is only a discrete 10x20 grid. The tournament rules do not favor programs that learn. However, contestants are still single pieces, limiting the complexity of possible strategies. The tournament rules do not favor programs that learn. Contestants have access to two history arrays for a match that record the history of their choices and the history of the other contestant choices.