

Mancala games are played with holes or pits dug in the earth or carved in stones, as was done by our ancestors. Some of the most popular ones are ‘Bao La Kiswahili’, ‘Chisolo’, ‘Congkak’, ‘Kalah’, ‘Oware’, and ‘Toguz Korgul’. There are as many as 200 invented games of Mancala. Mancala is not one game, but a category of similar kinds of games. The name of the game originates from the Arabic word naqala, which means ‘to move’. The game’s history can be traced back to about 6th century A.D., when it was played by using pieces of pottery and by making holes in the ground. The company sold 126 million units of the phone, making Bantumi the most popular and bestselling version of the game.
#Mancala setup how to#
Learning how to play Mancala can be a great way to expand your strategic thinking and learn an ancient game.Nokia launched an electronic version of Mancala, called ‘Bantumi’, on its 3310 handsets. This makes it easier to reach your store as well as avoiding passing easy stones to your opponent. Empty the rightmost pocket as soon as possible.Setting a few stones across from an empty pocket is a good way to bait your opponent into taking them, and leaving them open for a counter attack. Blocking your opponent from taking extra turns or stopping them from swiping one of your pockets of stones can often be more valuable than scoring yourself. After this play from the right side as it will block your opponent from getting the same move on their turn. Starting with the third pocket means you get one stone in your store, as well as an extra turn to start the game.Here’s a few Mancala tips to help give you the edge over your opponent. The winner is the player who has the most stones in their own store. When all six pockets on one side of the board are emptied the game is over. If the last stone placed lands in one of the player’s own empty pockets they then get to take that stone, as well as all the stones from the other player’s pocket that’s directly across from it, and place them into their store.If the last stone a player places is into their own store, they get another turn.However they skip over the opponents store. If a stone were to land in the player’s own store, they place it there. Continue until all the stones are places. From there they place the stones one-at-a-time into the next pocket counter-clockwise. They then take all of the stones out of that pocket. On a players turn they choose one of the pockets on their own side. Mancala is a one-on-one strategy game in which players take turns picking up a pile of stones and placing them in adjacent pocket in a counter-clockwise manner, in hopes to get more stones in their store than their opponent. Each of the twelve circular pockets should contain 4 stones, totaling 48 stones.Įach player then sits on one end of the board, facing 6 of the pockets with their own store on the right.

Set Upīefore the game can begin, the stones must be divided evenly among the pockets. The game ends when all six of the pockets on one side are emptied and points are then counted. This is done by picking piles of stones up from the pockets, and placing them counter-clockwise one-by-one towards your store.

The goal of the game is to get more of the stones into your store than the opponent does.
