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| Fair and Balanced - some observations https://wargame.ch/board/cc/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5221 |
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| Author: | bobbreen [ Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:32 am ] |
| Post subject: | Fair and Balanced - some observations |
I would have put this as a response to another post on the topic but none seemed to fit, hence another one. I've run a few tourneys and have seen the results from a total of over 200 games using about 12 different blind scenarios. In all cases the designer thought the scenarios were "balanced". (I've used designs by 3 different designers). In 2 of the 12 scenarios one side ended up with the majority of the wins. In the other 10, the most common result was that 30-40% of the games ended up as a major victory for side A and 30-40% were major victories for side B. The net result is that in most of the games, I doubt if the loser would say they thought the game was "fair or balanced". Yet the statistics would suggest otherwise -- if by "fair and balanced" you mean either side has a similar chance of winning. I've also ran a number of tourney's using a "mirror match" format-- secifically the ACW Ryder Cup Tourney. "Mirror Match" is where two opponents play the same scenario against each other twice, playing a different side in each game. In the early rounds of such a tourney the "winners" tend to achieve a major victory in both matches, when you get down to around 8-16 players the matches tend to have virtually identical results. Which suggests to me that "mirror matches" are a pretty good way to determine, when two commanders skills are roughly balanced. As a member of the Indian Alliance I have played the same scenario simultanelously against two different opponents taking a different side in both. However, the IA definition of fair and balance is that we win both [:)] Now I think Commander Brooks does have a point about the scenarios in these games, in that one side can have an advantage (and not just because the troops are not of equal strength), and that the additon of some random scenario generator along the lines of what SSI had in its Steel Panthers Games would be a valuable for some. I also think that a search for a perfectly balanced game can be difficult. Has it ever been proven that the white pieces in chess do not have the advantage because they move first - that was an extra credit question in one of my computer science classes, years ago? I know they've proved that tic-tac-toe and Global Thermal Nuclear War are not fair and balanced! |
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