Mancala

A free game from Ancient.Games · no wagering, no account

Mancala

Forty-eight seeds and twelve pits. Sow them round, and count better than she does.

Amina, who has played this since she could count

Four seeds in every pit. You sow first — pick one and let them fall.

Your store 0Seeds in play 48Her store 0

Tap one of your pits along the bottom.

Ours is cut from bamboo.

About eighteen and a half inches long, made to order, and hard as anything — bamboo outlasts most hardwoods. We'll engrave the back with your name for nothing, which is what makes it yours.

See the board
How it works

Your six pits are the bottom row; your store is the big one on the right. Amina owns the top row and the store on the left.

Pick up everything in one of your pits and drop the seeds one at a time into each pit going anticlockwise, dropping one in your own store as you pass it. You never sow into hers.

If your last seed lands in your own store, you go again. Chaining those is how a good player runs away with it.

If your last seed lands in an empty pit on your own side, and the pit facing it has seeds in it, you take that pit and yours together into your store.

When one side runs out of seeds the other player sweeps up whatever is left on their own row. Most seeds wins.

Ancient Games · handmade historical boards · ancient.games