MancalaGame

The mancala games are a family of two-player turn-based strategy board games played with small stones, beans, or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board or other playing surface. The objective is usually to capture all or some set of the opponent's pieces.

Board Setup

Each of the two players has his six pits in front of him. To the right of the six pits, each player has a larger pit. At the start of the game, there are six stones in each of the six round pits .

MancalaGame Rules

Game Play

The player who begins with the first move picks up all the stones in any of his own six pits, and sows the stones on to the right, one in each of the following pits, including his own big pit. No stones are put in the opponents' big pit. If the player's last stone lands in his own big pit, he gets another turn. This can be repeated several times before it's the other player's turn.

Capturing Stones

During the game the pits are emptied on both sides. Always when the last stone lands in an own empty pit, the player captures his own stone and all stones in the opposite pit (the other player’s pit) and puts them in his own (big or little?) pit.

The Game Ends

The game is over as soon as one of the sides runs out of stones. The player who still has stones in his pits keeps them and puts them in his big pit. The winner of the game is the player who has the most stones in his big pit.

You can also find some visual explanations of the game rules by running a Google Search for Mancala game.