How to Play... MANCALA!!!

The first in a series of Instructables (well, I might not make the others... I'll try to remember) known as "How to play...". In this series, I will teach you how to play some popular and fun board games, as well as give you some strategy, which makes it different from the poorly worded, unillustrated sheet of paper that comes in the box. _{Don't forget to vote!}

In this first Instructable (in the series, anyways), I will teach you how to play an age-old game called... MANCALA!!!

Step 1: Vocabulary and Set Up

Before the game begins, place the board between you and your opponent, long side facing you. You will see two rows of six "holes", with a long "mancala" on each end. The board is divided into two parts: Your side and mancala, and your opponent's side and mancala. Your side is the six holes closest to you, and your mancala is to your right. The same is for your opponent; their side is the six holes closest to them and their mancala is to their right.

To set up, place four "stones" in each hole, excluding the mancalas. This should total 48 stones. (A stone can be anything small; pennies, marbles, in my case some glass counters that came with the set).

Step 2: Basic Gameplay

Mancala is really an easy game to play.

Players decide who goes first using whatever method they want; Rock-Paper-Scissors, coin flip, loser-of-last-game-goes-first, whatever.

During a turn, a player grabs all of the stones in a hole on their side and drops them, one by one, in succeeding holes in a counter-clockwise direction. Players MAY place stones in their own mancala (it counts as a hole), but they MUST skip over their opponent's mancala. Players MAY place stones in holes on their opponent's side. This continues until the player has no more stones in his hand. It is then their opponents turn.*

*See exceptions in step 4.

Really sorry guys, the image notes aren't working on my computer right now, so sorry if the pictures are a little hard to understand.

Step 3: Scoring and Winning

The game is over when a player (not both) has no more stones on his side. His opponent then takes all of the stones on his side and places them in his mancala. The winner is the person with the most stones in his mancala after counting.

In this sample game, Player 2 is the first to empty his side, so his opponent puts all the remaining stones on his side in his mancala. After counting, we find out that player 2 wins because he has 27 stones in his mancala, and player 2 has 21.

Step 4: *Exceptions, Tricks and Strategy

Now here's the twist.

If, when dropping stones in holes, you drop a stone into your own mancala, and that is the last stone in your hand, then you get to go again.

If, when dropping stones into holes, you drop a stone into a hole that was previously empty, AND the hole is on your side, AND that was the last stone in your hand, you take all of the stones in the hole directly above, and place them into your mancala.

Good strategy is to, on your first turn (and if you're going first), play the hole that is five holes away from your mancala. That way, the last stone you place will land in your mancala, and you get a free turn. After using your second turn, if your opponent plays a hole that is two or one hole(s) away from their mancala, play the hole that is six holes away from your mancala. You get another free turn!
It's basically luck and thinking ahead from there. Post any ideas you have in the comments!

Step 5: Have Fun

I hope you found my second Instructable useful. Expect more to come!

Now go out there and steal someone's money, wife and car! Oh, and then beat them at Mancala :)
(Thanks to ducklemon for the joke!)

Comments

[bgaskinbgaskin]

Sorry, I know this whole instruction is a few years old by now, but...

I wonder if that paragraph starting with "Good strategy" about the first turn should say "play the hole that is four holes away from your mancala". Rather than five. Since you have four stones per hole at the start. If you started from five away, surely you'd end before the mancala rather than in it.

I can't comment on the second turn, because I can't picture well exactly how many stones are in each hole.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm new to this.

[justin.webster.92]

Here are the instructions.

[debepley57]

This says you place the stones clockwise. Instructables say counter- clockwise. Which is correct? Thank you

[NeonLime]

Thank you VERY much. I love Mancala and forgot how to play it. Great instructable.

[lefevrel]

ur amazing, (^o^)(^o^)(^o^)(^o^)(^o^)👍👍👍👍👍👍ty so much

[BilenZ]

this game is a turkish game and it is played with a couple of different rules. this is because i confused. i will try it too.

[lefevrel]

Just try agian, you rule

[MargaretM121]

A question! Say I have landed with my last stone in an empty pit on my side. I understand I get to take all the stones of my opposition directly across. I get to put those stones in my mancala. Now do I also place my stone into my mancala at this point or does it stay where it was placed? And second question. Is my play over or do I get to go again?

[lefevrel]

all your qestions were are yes !

[WayneP69]

If my opponent takes my last stone then who get my opponents remaining stones?

[MancalaGames]

These instructions are for the popular North American version called Kalah. Mancala is really a family of games which includes Kalah along with many other variations.

[diyusername]

hello,I have a mandala board that has 2 rows of 8 holes but no elongated mancalas,should I just use the last couple of holes on either side as mancals?Also there are 4 stones for each hole(including the end ones)plus two more,are they spares?I am not sure if its a different version,I think it was bought in Africa as a souvenir. Hope I am not too confusing.P.S your instructable was very good

[Deltapeng]

I've heard there are a lot of variations to playing mancala. If you want to play it the way mentioned above, you'll need to set it up as if you had the same board with the same layout, that is, you'll just need to remove the extra stones, play as if there are only 6 holes in the center, and make the end holes are connected (play as if column 1 holes 'connected' as one mancala, and as if column 8 holes are connected as the other mancala)

[quaernab19]

Say i have like 15 stones in one hole. When I make the full rotation back to the hole that originally had the 15 stones, do I skip that hole or place one in there?

[Deltapeng]

Normally, and the way I've always played, is that you don't have to skip the original hole that you played stones from. I prefer this method as it makes things less confusing, and I don't see any good reason to skip the original hole other than it slightly changes the strategy.

But I've heard there is a variation where that is an official rule. So, it's up to you if you want to include that rule or not.

[Deltapeng]

In Step 2 of basic gameplay, I'd say the wording that a player 'may' put the stones in opponent's side's holes and in your own mancala is misleading. If you have enough stones to make it to your mancala (or more), you are REQUIRED to place them in your mancala and in your opponent's holes. Once you pick a hole on your side to play from, you must take all those stones into hand, then place each stone in each subsequent hole until you run out (but the only exception is your opponent's mancala). Then, your turn is over unless (as mentioned in the extras) your last stone ended in your mancala, in which case you get to take an extra turn.

I know there are variations which exist, but even if this is an official variation, I say from a strategy standpoint that this should be required, else it'd be way too easy to loop around back to your side and capture stones from your opponent (by landing on an empty hole with your last stone)

[justin.webster.92]

The one we play came with these instructions, basically play clockwise, everything else the same as you mentioned. Makes for a much different game play and strategy.

[mark-n55]

FYI, the 'mancalas' are also called stores in other rule sets

[SofiaN11]

when you say ''you take all of the stones in the hole directly above'' this is your opponent's side hole, right?

[patricia.grindberg]

yes