Mancala
Sow seeds around the board. Fill your store to win.
How to play Mancala
Mancala is a family of very old "sowing" games played with seeds or stones in small pits. This page uses the popular Kalah rules. The board has two rows of six pits and one big store at each end. Your pits are the bottom row, and your store is the big pit on your right. Each pit starts with four seeds (you can choose three or five).
Goal
Finish the game with more seeds in your store than your opponent has in theirs.
Turn by turn
- Pick one of your own pits that has seeds in it. Tap or click it, or press the keys 1 to 6.
- All the seeds in that pit are picked up and sown one by one into the next pits, moving counter-clockwise (to the right along your row, then up and back along the top row).
- You drop seeds into your own store as you pass it, but you skip your opponent's store.
- Extra turn: if your last seed lands in your own store, you move again.
- Capture: if your last seed lands in an empty pit on your side, and the pit right across from it has seeds, you take that seed and all the seeds across and put them in your store.
- Otherwise, play passes to the other player.
The sowing is shown seed by seed. Tap the board or press Space to skip the animation.
End of the game
The game ends as soon as all six pits on one side are empty. Each player then adds the seeds still left on their own side to their own store. The player with the most seeds in their store wins. With four seeds per pit there are 48 seeds in total, so 25 seeds is always enough to win. If both stores hold the same number, the game is a draw.
Like a quick game of skill with lines and traps? Try Nine Men's Morris next.
Strategy tips
- Look for extra turns first. A pit whose seed count matches its distance to your store gives you a free move. Play the one closest to your store first, so the others still line up.
- Chain your moves. One extra turn can set up the next. Before you move, count which pits will land exactly in your store after this sowing.
- Watch your empty pits. An empty pit on your side, facing a full pit, is a capture waiting to happen. Try to land your last seed there.
- Guard against captures. If your opponent has an empty pit across from a big pile of yours, move that pile or fill their empty pit before they can strike.
- Hoard near the end. Seeds kept in your rightmost pits are hard for your opponent to reach. When the game nears its end, keeping seeds on your side can win you the final count.
Mancala FAQ
Is this Mancala the same as Kalah?
Mancala is the name of a whole family of seed games. This page uses the Kalah rules with six pits per side, which is the version most people in the US and Europe know as Mancala.
Do I put seeds in my opponent's store?
No. When you sow, you drop a seed in your own store but always skip your opponent's store.
What happens when one side runs out of seeds?
The game ends right away. Each player moves the seeds left on their own side into their own store, and the bigger store wins.
How strong is the computer?
Easy often plays at random. Medium looks a few moves ahead. Hard searches deep, chains extra turns and rarely leaves a capture open.
