About Mancala
Mancala as most of the world plays it on a board of pits: Kalah, six pits a side and four seeds in each. You sow from your row, counter-clockwise, into your own granary and past your opponent's; a last seed in your granary sows again, a last seed in an empty pit of yours captures the seeds facing it, and when a row runs dry the game ends and the fuller granary wins.
Every rule is shown before you need it. Tap a pit and every pit its seeds will reach is numbered, with what the last seed will do — sow again, capture, or end the game — before you commit. Five short lessons teach each rule on the real board, and How to play draws each one as a real position, before and after.
Six tithe-factors of the House, from Pell the gleaner-boy to the Tithe-Master, each measured stronger than the one before over three hundred games from shared openings. After any of their sowings, Why? shows how they scored every pit. The 120 Trials are endgames where you are to sow and exactly one sowing wins; the defender plays perfectly, and if a sowing lets the win slip you are told at once.
How to play
- Goal
- Have more seeds in your granary than your opponent when the board is cleared.
- How it ends
- The game ends when either row of pits is empty; every seed still in a pit goes to that pit's owner, and the fuller granary wins (equal granaries draw). A Trial is won by finishing ahead; a Trial that slips away can be tried again.
- Record
- Each Trial keeps the fastest first win and the fewest sowings; each factor keeps your fastest win, your fewest sowings to a win and your widest winning margin.
- Tap one of your pits (the bottom row) to see where its seeds will go; tap it again, or press Sow, to sow.
- Seeds go one per pit, counter-clockwise, into your granary on the right and never into your opponent's on the left.
- Last seed in your granary: sow again. Last seed in an empty pit on your side, facing seeds: capture them all.
- When either row is empty the game ends; seeds left in a row go to its owner, and the fuller granary wins.
Controls
| Click · Tap | Show a pit's sowing; tap it again to sow |
|---|---|
| ← → | Move over your pits |
| Enter · Space | Show, then sow |
| Escape | Cancel a shown sowing, or leave the board |
Every Trial is re-proved by the release build: exactly one winning first sowing under exact search, and under a plain minimax for the smaller ones. The factor ladder is measured and committed. Duels in hand, your records, Trial times and lessons stay in this browser under morass.mancala.v1; the fastest time and fewest sowings on each Trial are public. No ads or analytics run inside the game.
