Mancala is a family of board games played worldwide, with hundreds of variants. Below is a concise rundown of its mechanics:
- Objective: The goal is typically to capture more pieces than the opponent.
- Setup: A Mancala board consists of two rows of pits or holes, with larger 'store' pits at either end. Each player controls one row of pits and a store.
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Game Play:
- Sowing: Players pick up all stones from one of their pits and drop them one by one into subsequent pits going clockwise.
- Capturing: If the last stone lands in an empty pit on the player's side, they capture all stones in the opposite pit.
- Store Pits: If the last stone lands in the player's store, they get another turn.
- Winning the Game: The game ends when one player's side of the board is empty. The remaining stones on the board are captured by their respective players. The player who collects the most stones in their store wins.
These are the core mechanics, but variations may introduce different rules for capturing or sowing.
