Mancala Rules – How To Play Mancala
Mancala is one of the games that is considered helpful in building a good relationship with family and improving thinking and strength. But most of the people don’t know how to play the game? What are the mancala rules and regulations?
Mancala originated from ancient history and the game with the variation of the latest technology is still popular globally, especially in Africa and the Mideast. This topic has the manual for the mancala games such as the rules, requirements, set up, tricks to win the game, how does a score calculate for the game.
That’s how you’ll come to know the mancala game; you must give it a read to the end so that you can be skillful enough to play the game.
How To Play Mancala
Mancala is a game in which two or more two players must be included. It is played with the stones, beans, seeds, holes, pits, rows on the earth, or any board or hard surface.
The game takes a maximum of 10 minutes to complete; many companies publish it because it is a public domain game. As we said, it is one of the ancient games whose variants are still famous globally. Some of the variants are listed below:
► Oware: It is one of the traditional mancala versions in the international competition; it is played among the two players with the board, the game is primarily famous in India, west Africa.
► Bao: The bao is famous in Kenya and took on the board of two rows and six holes in the earth. The version of bao needed two extra holes on the surface which are at the center by the end of the pair of the rows.
Mancala Requirements
There’s not a long list of items crucial for the Mancala but some are listed here. The first thing is the board, and it contains two rows with six holes or pits in it, not just a mancala board; you can use any hard surface which fulfills the requirements even if the egg cart is suitable for the game. The version of this game can be played on the earth surface with holes and rows. The holes are also called the “pits”, “depression”, etc.. The large holes on the board are known as stores for storing or holding the pieces.
The stones or pieces are either seeds, beans, stones, half-marble, etc., which are used in the game and may fit the holes in the play. The size of the board in different games varies, i.e., the game endodol is playing on the board with a size of 2×6 to 2×10. While the larger size of the game, Tchouba is 160 holes with 320 seeds.
En Gehe is also playing on the rows of 50 pits with 400 seeds. Along with the two-rank board, the player’s respective side of the board needs to be protected. The players maintain the inner and outer rows in a four-rank board until the competitors do not catch the seeds present in the closest two rows.
Objective and goals
The main goal of the Mancala is to collect most of the seeds in the store, but it is the goal of the two and three rows of the games. In the fourth-row games, catching the competitor or might be caught the counters in their row is the main objective. Those who fulfill the objects are considered the winner of the game.
Mancala Scoring Games
The game’s primary purpose is to gather the seeds and store them in the Mancala, but if someone cannot score in the game and gives his victory to his competitors, then the game is lost.
For example, the two players are playing, if player 1 can’t empty his turn, the opponent will collect the stone in his Mancala, but when the result occurs, player 1 is the winner because player 1 has 27 seeds while player 2 has 20. In this way, the score was calculated in the past and today as well.
How To Win Mancala
Wins in the game depend on how someone is playing the game with proper strategy. There are some ways to succeed in the match, but it requires some planning and tricks. The methods are given in the following section:
▶ Free turn in the game
When you are playing the game, it’s your turn to drop the seeds into the holes, and you can drop the stone into your Mancala. Luckily it is the last stone that is left then you can get another turn and it will be the reason for your winning the game.
▶ Collect more stones
The strategy for the stone collection is to drop the seeds, which are last empty on your side of the Mancala board. If somehow you did this, you can move to the opposite side of the road and take the stone of your competitor.
▶ Think with strategy
If you are playing first, then put the seeds away from the fourth hole of your mancala board because only in that can you throw the last stone in your Mancala and get another turn.
Rules of Mancala Games
There are many versions of the game which are available in today’s world and as the world evolve the changes in the rules may happen but the basic mancala rules remains same which are described below:
▸ Play in the anticlockwise side of the Mancala board.
▸ The right side of the mancala board is your store. You can put your seeds in it.
▸ The pit near your board which is a total of six in number, is yours.
▸ You can use only one hand when you throw the seeds or took them.
▸ If you touch the pits then you must move them.
▸ Put stones on your board, not on your competitor’s board.
▸ If the last stone lands in your store, then play another turn.
▸ If the last stone is in your store and is empty, keep all the stones on the opposite side of the competitor’s store.
▸ The game stops when one of the player’s pits is empty.
▸ The remaining stone is on the other player’s side in his store and then the counting begins; those with the higher pits in number are the winner of the game.
FAQs
Q: What is the setup of the mancala game?
ANS: You need to put four seeds into the six pits of the board regardless of the color it doesn’t matter. You can play with three seeds for a smaller game.
Q: What is the main point of the Mancala?
Ans: The main focus of the first two and three rows is to collect more stones than the competitor. At the same time, the fourth row is responsible for leaving the opponent with no legal move to play.
Q: Is Mancala one of the ancient games?
Ans: Mancala is one of the ancient games in the world, it has a different version with a few changes, but the game’s basic rules are the same.