Rules For Playing Mancala



OBJECT OF GAME: Collect the most stones in your mancala (mancalas are the large bowls at each end of the board).

SET UP: Place 4 stones in each small bowl. Do not place stones in the mancalas. Once you have placed 4 stones in each of the small bowls you are ready to play. Note: Your mancala game comes with 4 extra stones that you should set aside. These are for replacing lost stones. Place the board between the players, with one mancala to the right of one player and to the left of the other player (see diagram #1 above). To play, use the general rules plus one of the other sets of rules.

GENERAL RULES

Each player “owns” the mancala on their right and the 6 small bowls closet to them (see Diagram #1 above). Player 1 starts by scooping up all the stones from one of his small bowls and placing them in the bowls going counterclockwise one stone at a time until he has no more stones in his hand. NOTE: a player may never start from a mancala or from one of the opponent’s bowls. If Player 1 reaches his own mancala, they drop a stone into it and continue until they have no more stones in their hand. Players never drop stones into their opponents mancala, they skip them and continue dropping stones, one at a time, into the bowls until they run out of stones. Players take turns moving. Once a stone is dropped into a mancala it stays there until the end of the game. At the end of the game players count the stones in their mancalas and the player with the most stones wins.



EGYPTIAN RULES

Use all general rules. If a player drops a stone from their hand into their mancala they get to move again. If a player drops the last stone into one of the empty bowls on his side of the board, they take that stone plus all the stones in the opponent’s bowl directly across from their bowl and [laces them in their mancala (see Diagram #2) above. The game ends when one Player no longer has stones in his small bowls. The other player (who still has stones in their small bowls) places all remaining stones in their own mancala. Obviously it is not necessarily an advantage to being the first player to empty their 6 bowls.

ETHIOPIAN RULES

Use all General Rules and Egyptian Rules. Players may choose to move either to the right or to the left on each turn. Players may never start from a bowl with only one stone.

NIGERIAN RULES

Use all General Rules, except that players must drop a stone into opponents mancala when passing them. When a player drops the last stone from his hand into a bowl on either side of the board that is not empty and does not now (after dropping the stone) have 4 stones, that player picks up all the stones from the last bowl a stone was dropped into and continues play. A player’s turn is over when he drops the last stone from his hand into: 1) a mancala, 2) an empty bowl, 3) a bowl that now(after dropping the stone) has 4 stones. Any time during a move that a bowl has 4 stones, regardless of who dropped the fourth stone into the bowl, the player who owns that bowl puts these stones into his own mancala (in 3 above, the player puts these stones into his mancala before ending his turn). For example, while Player #1 is dropping stones into the small bowls on Player 2's side, he drops a stone into a bowl that already has 3 stones. Player 2 picks up the 4 stones and puts them into his own mancala. The game ends when one player cannot move (no stones remain in that player’s six bowls). The remaining stones on the other player’s side are not placed in a mancala, and are not counted in determining the winner.