You have probably already figured this out by now, but I figured I'd shed some light on the situation for any other gamers who may stumble upon this topic. The man who mentions the donations at Fort Condor is not exactly getting his message across correctly. Many gamers believe that you MUST donate 4000 gil, but this is not true. The only reward for donating gil is that the chances of the army fending off the Shinra while you are away are increased by the amount of funds you've donated, which is really irrelevant considering you can participate in all but maybe 5 of the optional battles. What the man is actually saying is that YOU need at least 4000 gil to fight the battle yourself. This is because of the cost of units and managing your army. The manner in which he expresses this makes is seem that you must donate to win, which is counterproductive if you do so, especially if you have very little gil in the first place. Say you saved up 4000 gil for the "mandatory" donation and then realize that what the man actually meant. You're then stuck grinding for another 4000 gil so you can even participate in the battle. Honestly, none of the battles are hard in the slightest, but the more gil you already have going into battle, the more troops you can deploy. Then, sit back and watch the Shinra get decimated by an inordinate amount of troops/fire catapults/every other unnecessary addition to your team the game offers. Sorry for the long winded speech. This is just a very common problem gamers have when it comes to understanding the mechanics of this particular sidequest. Happy Gaming!!
