[douglas]

The whole point of strategy games is to have fun testing your skill against opponents. It's much more fun when your opponents put up a good fight. The right way to balance a match between players of greatly differing skill is not to have the better player play poorly - that's no fun for him - but to give him a handicap. The ideal situation is where every player is handicapped exactly enough that the game's outcome is completely unpredictable until the later stages, even with every player doing his or her best.