I would just like to take a moment to share an idea which came to me some time ago.
One of the things I found from playing against the same group over and over is that, it isn't long before one player finds themselves consistently winning, and games become rather predictable. One solution I have found to this problem is to establish a handicap for each player, where a player's handicap score modifies the number of points you can field. As they win or lose battles, their handicap can be adjusted up or down. Once a player has their ideal handicap, they should win precisely 50% of the time.
This is a great way to keep the better players challenged, and weaker players interested.
There are a few challenges in setting up this sort of thing. First of all, you want the handicap to change as the player's skill develops. However, you don't want it to move too quickly, or the wild fluctuations of the handicap may in fact be a dominant influence on the outcome of the battle.
I will try and describe the system I have developed briefly.
Each player starts with a handicap score of 1000. For every battle you win, you gain 2 points. For every battle you lose, you lose 2 points. If you win or lose by a large margin, the adjustment can be changed to 3 points.
When calculating how many points each player should take into the battle, each player should multiply the battle's points limit by 1000, then divide by their handicap.
So, for a 500 point battle, and a freakishly talented player with a handicap of 2000, you would field:
500 x 1000 / 2000 = 250 points.
If you feel that handicaps move too slowly, a simply workaround is to make the first 5 battles of each year count for 5x the normal number of handicap points. This way, if you have new players entering the group, or a player has been away for a while and only recently returned and it is likely that there is a large error in their handicap, it will help shift the score quickly to roughly where it needs to be.
The ultimate aim of the game would then be to be the member of the group with the largest handicap.
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