Mancala Game
Sow the seeds, win extra turns, make captures and fill your store.
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Game information
- Price
- Free
- Skills
- CountingStrategyPlanning Ahead
- Players
- 1 or 2 players
- Platforms
- Phone / Tablet / Computer
How to play Mancala
Your six pits are the purple row nearest you, and your store is the big pit on your right (at the bottom on a phone). Every pit starts with four seeds. Press Start, then tap one of your pits: all its seeds are picked up and dropped one at a time into the following pits, going counterclockwise, and a voice counts each seed as it lands. Seeds go into your own store as they pass it, but never into the other player's.
Three rules make the game. If your last seed lands in your own store, you take another turn. If your last seed lands in an empty pit on your side and the pit across from it has seeds, you capture them all, along with your last seed, and they go into your store. When all six pits on either side are empty, the game ends, the other player keeps whatever is left on their side, and the bigger store wins.
How to set up a mancala board
Put four seeds, stones or beads in each of the twelve small pits and leave the two stores at the ends empty. Sit so that one row of six pits is in front of you: those are yours, and your store is the one on your right. That is 48 seeds in all, which is why a store of 25 or more always wins. Our board starts set up exactly this way, so a child can copy it onto a real board or an egg carton with two cups at the ends.
Tips for winning at Mancala
Count before you tap. A pit whose seeds reach your store exactly earns an extra turn, so look for those first, starting with the pit nearest your store, because playing it does not spoil the others. Watch for captures: an empty pit on your side, with a full pit opposite, is a target you can reach with the right count. And keep an eye on the other side too, because a pit of yours with lots of seeds opposite an empty pit of theirs is exactly what the computer is looking for.
Counting practice that feels like a game
Every move in mancala is counting: how many seeds are in this pit, how many pits until my store, how many will I capture. Younger players can simply count along with the voice as the seeds drop, and the number on every pit means they can check. Older players start to count ahead before they move, which is the same skill as counting on in addition. If your child enjoys games where the math is hidden in the play, try backgammon next, where counting your pips tells you who is ahead.
Playing the computer or a friend
Every game starts against the Easy computer, which picks about half its pits at random, so a beginner can win. Medium looks a few moves ahead and Hard looks eight moves ahead, which makes it a real test even for adults. You always see what the computer does: it rings the pit it picks, then its seeds travel and are counted just like yours. Choose 2 Players to play purple against red on one screen. Whoever went second starts the next game, so first move is shared.
Questions parents and teachers ask
How do you play mancala?
The board has six small pits on each side and a big store at each end. Every pit starts with four seeds. On your turn, pick up all the seeds from one pit on your side and drop them one at a time into the next pits, going counterclockwise, including your own store but skipping the other player's. The player with the most seeds in their store at the end wins.
How do you get another turn in mancala?
Drop your last seed into your own store and you go again, as many times as you can manage. Counting the seeds in a pit to see whether it reaches your store exactly is the first trick every mancala player learns, and the pit closest to your store with one seed in it is a free extra turn.
How do captures work?
If your last seed lands in an empty pit on your own side, and the pit straight across from it has seeds, you capture them: your last seed and everything opposite go into your store. In our game a capture needs seeds in the opposite pit. Rules vary from set to set, and some printed instructions let you keep the single seed even when the opposite pit is empty, so agree on that before playing on a real board.
How does a game of mancala end?
The game ends as soon as all six pits on one side are empty. The other player then puts every seed still on their side into their own store, and the stores are counted. With 48 seeds in all, a store of 25 or more always wins, and 24 each is a tie.
What does mancala teach?
Counting first: to plan a move you count the seeds in a pit and count the pits ahead, which is why our voice counts every seed as it drops. Then planning: older children start to look for extra turns and captures, and to keep seeds out of the other player's reach. It is a strategy game where the arithmetic is right there on the board.