Handicapping? | DVONN | BoardGameGeek

Joe Gola

(Gola)

United States
Redding
Connecticut

Eleven.

Has anyone played around with any handicapping ideas? Having the stronger player start out with fewer rings seems like an obvious idea, but how many?

Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:32 pm
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Russ Williams

(russ)

Poland
Wrocław
Dolny Śląsk

Another obvious idea would be to give extra score points to the weaker player. Keep track of the score differences from each game and you can adjust the handicap based on the recent average score difference, so the handicap points naturally decrease as the margin of skill decreases between the players.

Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:34 pm
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Joe Gola

(Gola)

United States
Redding
Connecticut

Eleven.

Not sure about that, since it strikes me that the point spreads aren't consistent between uneven players. A good player can leave a newbie with no stacks left on the board.

Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:07 pm
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Russ Williams

(russ)

Poland
Wrocław
Dolny Śląsk

I've never seen a skill spread that big where the stronger could consistently wipe the weaker totally off the board, but if you've seen it, then I agree the point handicap probably won't be appropriate for such a case.

Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:17 pm
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(markgravitygood)

United States
Norwood
Massachusetts

Gola wrote:

Has anyone played around with any handicapping ideas? Having the stronger player start out with fewer rings seems like an obvious idea, but how many?

The clear answer there is trial and error.

First, reduce it by 1 ring. If it balances out over an extended set of games, you're done. Rinse and repeat if necessary with more rings.

Another idea might be to allow consecutive moves at the beginning of the game for the weaker player.

Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:00 pm
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Mathijs Booden

(Appeal to Reason)

Netherlands
Leiden
Unspecified

That would require a lot of games. The variance in points difference is quite high and a slightly stronger player can often win by an arbitrarily large margin.

An obvious point to start would be the LittleGolem database of ranked games. I imagine it would be possible to automate the determination of the points difference, even though that is not recorded in the regular statistics that you get after each match.

Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:58 pm
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Patrick Cherlet

(trapeze)

United Kingdom
Sevenoaks
Kent

Let the weaker player play multiple rings during the setup phase before the usual alternating setup starts. The stronger player then fills in the remaining holes at the end of the setup.

Last edited Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:39 pm (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:49 pm
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Jon

(JonPrud)

United States
Redmond
Washington

Plaatsvervangende Schaamte

A series of learning games may also be in order.

Maybe the stronger player sets up the board and gives the better position to the weeker.

Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:51 pm
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Patrick Cherlet

(trapeze)

United Kingdom
Sevenoaks
Kent

JonPrud wrote:

A series of learning games may also be in order.

Maybe the stronger player sets up the board and gives the better position to the weeker.

That's a good idea with newbies.

Posted Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:39 pm
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Subject: Handicapping?