Mancala games

Mancala games are a classic family of two-player, turn-based strategy board games played using small stones, beans, or seeds distributed across rows of pits on a board or carved into the ground. The primary goal is typically to capture more of your opponent's pieces than they do yours. These games are known for their simple setup and deep strategic gameplay, making them popular across cultures and generations. (Wikipedia)

There are numerous variations within the mancala family, including well-known versions such as Oware, Bao, and Omweso. This implementation brings together several popular mancala-style games—Kalah, Oware, and Congkak—offering diverse rulesets and gameplay experiences for fans of strategic board games.

The game includes a standard board setup with six small pits, known as houses, on each side, and a larger pit at each end called a store or end zone. The objective remains consistent across versions: capture more seeds than your opponent to win the game.

Kalah Rules

1. At the start of the game, each house contains four seeds (though some variations use five or six). The two stores are left empty.
2. Each player controls the six houses on their side of the board. A player’s score is determined by the number of seeds in their store, located to their right.
3. Players take turns sowing seeds. On their turn, a player picks up all seeds from one of their houses and distributes them one by one into subsequent houses in a counter-clockwise direction. Sowing includes the player’s own store but skips the opponent’s store.
4. If the last seed sown lands in an empty house on the player’s side and the opposite house contains seeds, the player captures both the last seed and all seeds from the opponent’s opposite house. These captured seeds are placed directly into the player’s store.
If the last seed sown lands in the player’s own store, the player earns an additional move. There is no limit to how many extra moves a player can earn in a single turn, allowing for powerful turn extensions. The game ends when one player has no seeds left in any of their houses. The other player then moves all remaining seeds on their side to their store. The winner is the player with the most seeds in their store.

Oware Rules

1. The game begins with four seeds in each house (some versions use five or six). Each player controls the six houses on their side. The score is tracked by the number of seeds collected in the player’s store to the right.
2. On a turn, the player picks up all seeds from one of their houses and sows them counter-clockwise, one seed per house. Seeds are not placed into the scoring stores during sowing, and the starting house is left empty. If a house contains 12 or more seeds, it will be skipped after placing the twelfth seed in the next house.
3. Captures occur when the final seed sown brings an opponent’s house to exactly two or three seeds. In this case, those seeds are captured and placed in the player’s store. If the preceding house (in sowing order) also contains two or three seeds and belongs to the opponent, it is also captured—this chain continues backward until the sequence breaks.
If all of the opponent’s houses are empty, the current player must make a move that delivers seeds into the opponent’s side. If no such move is possible, the current player captures all remaining seeds on their own side, ending the game immediately. The game ends when a player captures more than half of the total seeds (25 or more in a 48-seed game), resulting in a win. If both players capture exactly 24 seeds, the game ends in a draw.

What's New in Version 1.4.1

Last updated on Aug 6, 2024 – Bug fixes implemented to improve stability and gameplay performance.