Mancala Rules

Set Up:

Place four stones in each of the six pits on your side of the game board. Your opponent should do the same. (For a shorter game, you can play with three stones in each pit.)

Object:

To collect as many stones in your store as possible. The player with the most stones in their store at the end of the game wins.

Basic Rules:

Play always moves around the board in a counter-clockwise circle (to the right). The store on your right belongs to you. That is where you keep the stones you win. The six pits near you are your pits. Once you touch the stones in a pit, you must move those stones. Only put stones in your own store, not your opponent’s store.

Game Play:

On a turn, a player picks up all the stones in one pit and“sows” them to the right, placing one stone in each of the pits along the way. If you come to your store, then add a stone to your store and continue. You may end up putting stones in your opponent’s pits along the way. Players alternate back and forth, with opponents picking up the stones in one of their pits and distributing them one at a time into the pits on the right, beginning in the pit immediately to the right

Special Rules:

• When the last stone in your hand lands in your store, take another turn.
• When the last stone in your hand lands in one of your own pits, if that pit had been empty you get to keep all of the seeds in your opponents pit on the opposite side. Put those captured stones, as well as the last stone that you just played on your side, into the store.

Ending The Game:

The game is over when one player’s pits are completely empty. The other player

takes the stones remaining in their pits and puts those stones in their store.

Count up the stones, whoever has the most wins the game.