Using Markov decision theory to provide a fair challenge in a roll-and-move board game

Board games are often taken as examples to teach decision-making algorithms in artificial intelligence (AI). These algorithms are generally presented with a strong focus on winning the game. Unfortunately, a few important aspects, such as the gaming experience of human players, are often missing from the equation. This paper presents a simple board game we use in an introductory course in AI to initiate students to the gaming experience issue. The Snakes and Ladders game has been modified to provide different levels of challenges for students. The game with such modifications offers theoretical, algorithmic and programming challenges. One of the most complex is the generation of an optimal policy to provide a fair challenge to an opponent. A solution based on Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) is presented. This approach relies on a simple model of the opponent's playing behaviour.