Mancala

How to play

This is the popular six-pit version of mancala. Each side has a row of 6 pits holding 4 seeds apiece, plus a store at one end. Your row is the bottom one and your store sits to your right. Mancala itself is a whole family of seed-sowing games played around the world, and this is one of the best known.

1. Under Play, pick Vs computer or 2 players, and a Level for the computer: Easy, Medium or Hard.
2. On your turn, tap one of your pits. You pick up all its seeds and drop one in each pit that follows, moving counterclockwise: first the rest of your row, then your store, then your opponent's pits. Their store is skipped.
3. If the final seed drops into your own store, you go again.
4. Finish in one of your own empty pits while the pit opposite holds seeds, and that seed plus everything opposite goes to your store.
5. Once either row is completely empty, the game stops, each player banks the seeds still on their own side, and the bigger store wins.

Controls

• Touch or mouse: tap or click one of your pits.
• Keyboard: number keys 1 to 6 choose a pit, counting from your left, or select one with the arrows and press Enter.
• With two people, one takes the near (bottom) row and the other the far (top) row. The opening move alternates between games.

Tips

• Count the steps to your store. A pit whose seed count equals its distance from the store earns you another turn.
• If two pits both give an extra turn, play the one closer to your store first. The other still lands right afterward.
• Empty pits are where captures happen. One on your side is an opportunity; one on their side puts the pit facing it at risk.
• A pit holding 13 seeds travels all the way around and lands back in its own, now empty, pit, which triggers a capture.
• As the game winds down, tally the seeds on both sides. Whatever stays in a row goes to that row's owner.

FAQ