Board Game Arena

If we were to introduce a handicapping method for Blooms, which would you prefer and why:

1. The weaker player is assigned points at the beginning of the game, so he doesn't have to score as many to win.
2. The weaker player is allowed to place extra stones on his first turn.
3. Other?

2 because it's more concrete than bare points and, most of all, because it is so in Blooms' grand-brother, Go.

Placing extra stones seems more elegant. On the other hand, 2 has the downside of requiring specifications regarding which color(s) are permitted – would you force alternate placement? This is not an issue with Go of course but makes me slightly prefer option 1. I would, however, consider prolonging the game instead of shortening it (so the stronger player must capture X+H stones while the weaker player must capture X stones). Not saying it's inherently better just yet, but I think it'll work better than the other way around – particularly on smaller boards.

Very late response to this post.

Option 2 is fine but the advantage could quickly be really big on smaller boards.
Option 1 has my vote with the a slight modification. The stronger player needs to win more points than the weaker.
But is that the same thing ? Yes and no. I mean that the bar to win should be set at a normal level for the weaker player. This insures that most usual sacrifice strategies are still available for the stronger player.

Example : 20 points game with handicap of 10 points
Option 1a : Weaker starts at 10. Too difficult.
Option 1b : Everyone starts at 0 but stronger has to reach 20+10. Better !

Best

Edit : I just realised this comment is similar to eoc's. So,+1