The first player on frog finder has a massive disadvantage if he hits a frog, there is a 10 points difference in the score which is impossible to make up... maybe the first person to go should have a free shot, if he hits a frog the board is reset ........ just a thought
WellyWales: I have thought about that also. But also on the flip side, the first player has the advantage of the first turn - that is player 1 could win the game in 5 turns (with 5 perfect guesses), and the 2nd player would not get a last "equal" amount of turns to tie.
So to give player 1 a "free shot" - and even a chance to find an opponents frog for free would give player 1 a VERY BIG advantage.
Looking at the game stats, the game seems VERY even right now.
red 2626 (49.82 %) blue 2633 (49.96 %) Draws 11 (0.20 %)
I did not go through all the games, but after 5,000+ games - that is as close as even that almost any game could get!
WellyWales: As said, that might give the player going first a bit of an advantage.
Perhaps it's better to have a rule that the second player cannot play his first move adjacent to the first move of the first player.
However, I don't think the second player has that much of a disadvantage - certainly less than white has in chess. Yes, the first player has the disadvantage of having to make a blind shot - but there are only five enemy frogs. He's more likely to make a shot right next to an enemy frog, revealing a non-zero number, leaving the second player to make a blind shot.