Mancala / Awalé

01Game presentation

A handful of seeds is enough to create big projects! At Awalé, seeds are moved around the board and tried to capture them. All the seeds are similar: they are not owned by anyone until they are captured.

"Mancala" refers to a family of sowing games. This chapter presents only the Awale Abapa. It does not describe the Kalah, with its great reserves where one sows, or all other variants of mancala.

02Equipment requirements

• 1 tray with 12 small boxes: 2 rows of 6.
• 48 identical seeds, beads or small stones.
• 2 bowls to keep the catch, if the tray has no reserves.

A 12-cell egg box can be used as a tray. The two large reserves of some trays are used only to store the catch: you never sow in it.

03The purpose of the game

Get more seeds than your opponent. With 25 seeds captured out of 48, you already own the majority and you won. Be careful: taking lots of seeds does not allow the other player to deprive of all his possibilities to play.

04Preparing the game

1. Sit face to face. Each controls the row of 6 boxes that is in front of him.
2. Place exactly 4 seeds in each of the 12 cells.
3. Place the capture bowls next to the tray. They're empty at the start.
4. Shoot the first player by lot. Then each play your turn, without any extra turn after a catch.

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05How to play?

Sowing: distributing seeds one by one

Choose an empty box from your camp. Take all its seeds in your hand. Place the first in the next box, then one in each box, in the opposite direction of the clockwise.

Seen from the player sitting at the bottom of the drawing, you move to the right on his row, then you go up to the right and you go back to the left in the opposing camp. You continue as much as necessary. It is forbidden to choose an opposing box to start.

If you take a full tour, always skip the starting box: it must remain empty during all this planting. Do not choose the number of seeds to distribute and do not stop until you have emptied your hand.

Capture: Watch the last seed

After sowing, look only at the box where your last seed fell. If it is in the opponent's house and now contains exactly 2 or 3 seeds, you remove them all and put them in your bowl.

Then look at the previous box, going up backwards of the sowing. If it is still in the opponent's house and contains 2 or 3 seeds, take them too. Continue until you encounter an empty box, a box with 1 seed or at least 4 seeds, or the limit of your own camp. You don't skip a box to take the catch further.

If the last seed falls to your home, or leaves another number in the opposite box, you don't catch anything. A box passed to 2 or 3 during the journey is not enough: it is the last seed that triggers the capture.

Let the other play

If the planned catch would clear the entire opposing camp, cancel the entire catch. Sowing remains in place, but all the seeds you would have taken remain on the set. You don't keep a part of it.

If the opposing camp is already empty at the beginning of your turn, you have to choose a seedling that brings at least one seed, if such a blow exists. It's "feed" the opponent. You can't choose another shot just to stop him from playing.

If it is impossible to feed it, the game ends: you add to your catch all the seeds still in your camp. Do not confuse this end with the cancellation of a total catch, which allows the party to continue.

06An example of a game

Alice sits at the bottom of the board. In the first round, she takes the 4 seeds from her most right-hand box. She puts one in each of the first four boxes she met at Bob. These boxes increase from 4 to 5 seeds. The last one contains 5: no capture. Bob then plays from his own camp.

Alice later had 2 seeds in her right box. The first two boxes of Bob encountered in the direction of seeding each contained 1 seed. Another box of Bob contained 4 seeds.

Alice emptys her box and distributes her 2 seeds: the two opposing cells each go from 1 to 2. The last one allows a capture of 2 seeds. The previous one also contains 2 seeds: Alice also takes them. She captures 4 seeds in total. The 4 seeds located further away remain at Bob's: it is not a total capture.

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On the contrary, suppose the two 1-seed cells were Bob's only non-empty cells. The same seed would give two 2-seed cells and the capture would empty his camp. Alice would then not take any seed. Bob could play one of these two cells.

07How can I win?

The game stops as soon as a player has captured at least 25 seeds. Needless to continue to know who owns the majority.

It also stops when an empty camp can no longer be fed: the player whose camp still contains seeds recovers them. If you see together that a position runs in loop without possible capture, agree to stop; each one then adds to his bowl the seeds of his own row.

Compare the totals. The highest wins. If each has 24 seeds, the game is zero. Catches and seeds of the board must always form a total of 48.

08Errors to avoid

• Sowing on reserves: only the 12 small boxes are part of the trip.
• Capture in one's own camp: a catch always starts at the opponent.
• Take all the opposing seeds: cancel the entire catch, without canceling the seedling.
• Restarting a turn after a catch: At the Abapa, it is always the other to play.
• Apply another mancala rule: check the variant before starting.

09Tips for starting

Before you touch the seeds, count in your head where the last one will fall. Then see if your shot will give an easy capture to your opponent. To learn, announce your reasoning aloud: "I finish here; there will be three."

Don't just look at the boxes that can report right away. A large reserve can later be used to reach the opposing camp and feed it.