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How this Mancala game works

This version uses Kalah rules: six pits on each side, four stones in each, and a store at each end. On your turn you pick up all the stones from one of your pits and sow them one at a time, counter-clockwise, into the next pits and your own store (never the opponent's). Two rules decide the game:

• Extra turn: if your last stone lands in your store, you move again.
• Capture: if your last stone lands in an empty pit on your side and the pit opposite has stones, you take them all, plus your own last stone, into your store.

The game ends when one side is empty, and the other player keeps whatever remains on their side. Whoever has more stones in their store wins. Stones move one at a time, so you can follow every sow. Easy and Hard settings are included.

A family of games

Mancala is a family of sowing games, played in many forms across Africa and Asia, and some of the oldest still played anywhere. Kalah is a version created in the United States in 1940 by William Champion, and it's the one most Western boxed sets use.

Strategy in one paragraph

Count before you sow. A pit with exactly the right number of stones to reach your store is an extra turn waiting to happen: the pit next to your store needs one stone, the next needs two, and so on. Chain these and you can take several turns in a row. Keep an eye on your empty pits too, since they're capture squares, and on the stones piling up in your opponent's pits opposite them.

Your first move

Every pit starts with four stones, so the pit exactly four places from your store drops its last stone in the store and gives you an extra turn. That's the standard opening move. After that, look at each pit and count: does the number of stones match the distance to your store? If it does, that pit is a free turn.

Defence and tempo

• Empty pits on your side are capture squares. Try to end a sow in one when the pit opposite is full.
• Watch your opponent's empty pits too: a heap on your side can be captured.
• Late in the game, keeping stones in your far pits can run the clock down in your favour.

Built from a prompt

The game began as a short brief to an AI coding assistant. The prompt is public on the game page.