Second player advantage

[Superstigs]

This game seems to have a heavy second player advantage. Unless I'm missing something they can performance easy follows or mirrors to ensure they get the four in a row. Am I missing something deeper here?

[Cosmoludo]

Hi superstigs, thank you for your question. As you can play both totems on your turn there is no scenario of mirror play. You can always break your opponent's next move and even take avantage of their strategy. Plus, there is 2 winning conditions. Either you manage to align 4 pawns of the same color, no matter the symbols, or 4 pawns of the same symbols no matter the color. It means you can use your opponent color to align the symbols. If you align the 4th symbol of a serie with 3 other pawns of your opponent color, you still win. So no, there is no heavy advantage for the 2nd player. Maybe you should give it another try.

[militarygradepotato]

you probably just lost to a better player who was 2nd, in all these types of games the first player usually has an advantage but oxono is balanced pretty well between 1st and 2nd player

[Superstigs]

you probably just lost to a better player who was 2nd, in all these types of games the first player usually has an advantage but oxono is balanced pretty well between 1st and 2nd player

Thanks for the assumption, but that's irrelevant to the question. In first 10 plays, regardless of if I won or lost, what I noticed was second player won 60% of the time. But after 14 plays it was showing 50/50 between first or second player winning. So I needed a larger sample size to see the balance, since some of those I won from second player as well.

[militarygradepotato]

you probably just lost to a better player who was 2nd, in all these types of games the first player usually has an advantage but oxono is balanced pretty well between 1st and 2nd player

Thanks for the assumption, but that's irrelevant to the question. In first 10 plays, regardless of if I won or lost, what I noticed was second player won 60% of the time. But after 14 plays it was showing 50/50 between first or second player winning. So I needed a larger sample size to see the balance, since some of those I won from second player as well.

ah so in other words you realized you were wrong but didn't change your post? nice.
Also skill of players should always factor into balance a chess grandmaster could beat me every time with 5 less pieces & playing black. so does that mean playing black with 5 less peices is better? obviously not.

I've won many games as both 1st and 2nd player and 1st is definetly better. dont be hating on a game after so little plays of it.

[Cosmoludo]

Thank you militarygradepotato for your precisions on which I totally agree. As the question seems to be solved, is it still relevant to keep this post visible? I believe there is no real debate on the 2nd player advantage. So maybe it can just give a wrong opinion to people having just an overview on the game page. It would be better if the post doesn't show up on the page. Thank you for understanding.