Arguable the most ancient family of board games, Mancala has become an online fixture. Read on to learn about two common variants and how they've adapted to online play.
"Mancala" refers to a family of games that are thought to have originated as early as 3000 years ago in Africa or the Middle East. These mathematical "count and capture" games have a complexity on par with chess, and like chess are often the subject of professional competition. Yet their physical simplicity and agricultural symbolism suggest a connection with the very beginnings of civilization. To play, you need only a handful of pebbles and a flat patch of ground. You can also purchase a game set comprising a carved wooden board and a collection of polished stones. And, as with most other board games, you can find Mancala variants on the World Wide Web.
Kalah is the most common online variant. Just as the name "solitaire," properly referring to a family of one-player card games, is often used to refer to the game of Klondike, the word "Mancala" has become a synonym for Kalah. Kalah is played over two rows of six shallow "pits" with a larger "store" area at each end of the board. Each player owns the store on his right and the row of six pits closest to him.
The game begins with three seeds in each pit and none in the stores. A player takes the seeds from one of his pits and "sows" them, one by one, beginning with the next pit to the right and continuing around in a counter-clockwise path which includes his own store but excludes his opponent's. If the last seed sown lands in his store, the player takes another turn. If it lands in one of his own empty pits opposite a non-empty pit, that last seed and all the seeds opposite are "scored"--that is, removed from play and placed in the capturing player's store. The game ends when a turn leaves one or the other player's row entirely empty; the seeds remaining on the other row are scored by that row's owner.
Another variant found online is Bao. In its simplest version, Bao resembles Kalah with a few key differences. Pits are arranged in four rows of eight, and the game begins with two seeds in each. A player's turn must start with a pit containing at least two seeds which are then sowed in either direction around the two near rows. If the last seed ends in a pit that is not empty, all seeds in that pit, including the one just sown, are sown as before, continuing the turn in the same direction. If the last seed falls in a non-empty pit of a player's front row, and the pit opposing it isn't empty, the seeds in the opposing pit are "eaten," removed from the opponent's side and added to the seeds the capturing player is about to sow. The game ends when one player has no legal moves (no pits containing two or more seeds) or when one player's front row is empty. That player loses.
There is a much more complex version of Bao, sometimes called Bao Zanzibar after its place of origin, whose rules could easily take up an entire separate article. You can find its rules described at several easy-to-find web pages, including BaoGame.com, which hosts an excellent Flash tutorial.
Both Kalah and Bao exist online most commonly in human-versus-computer mode. Of the two, Kalah is easier to find (just search for "Mancala"). Board design can be as simple as several dot-studded-circles and as complex as a realistic wooden board that "clatters" as stones are distributed. The variants developed by RocketSnail Games feature animated snails and bugs moving around a picnic table and jumping into glass jars. Some sites let you specify variations, such as how many seeds start in each pit, whether you sow in your opponent's store, whether a capturing seed is scored along with the seeds it captures, and which player scores the last seeds in play.
Most of these sites include a two-player option in which you and a friend can take turns at the same computer. Some also include a "Play By Email" option--for example, RocketSnail's "Mancala Bugs" at Miniclip.com. That version prompts you for your name and email address, the name and address of the friend you're inviting to play, and your first turn. Your friend clicks on the emailed link to see a replay of your turn and to make a move of his own.
A handful of web sites, BaoGame.com among them, allow you to challenge remote players to an online game of Bao or Kalah. Generally you use your web browser to log into a Flash or Java interface. You can also download Myriad Software's shareware program "Awale" and use its "Internet" menu to seek online opponents. (Awale is a Mancala variant similar to Kalah but with different capture rules.) In either case, logging in puts you in a "chat lobby" where you can invite another player to sit down at a virtual game board with you.
The "netiquette" here is the same as for that of most other real-time multiplayer games. Players exchange wishes of "gl" ("good luck") at the beginning of the game, and congratulations of "gg" ("good game") afterwards. When taking an excessive amount of time with your turn, a brief "still thinking" is considered polite--your opponent can't see you drumming your fingers and chewing your nails, after all. And before leaving the virtual table, it's good manners to thank each other ("tx") for the game. Beyond that, chat styles differ from player to player. You and your opponent might converse during the game, or you may prefer to let your moves speak for themselves.
Since these games aren't nearly as popular online as, say, Hearts, you'll often find the "lobby" area of a Mancala-only site empty. You stand a better chance finding an opponent if you go to a site that hosts many other board, card, and arcade games. For example, LetsPlay.com/iWin.com, being part of the Flipside network, enjoys a large enough user base that you can usually expect to see at least four or five other players in its Mancala lobby.
Sadly, at the time of this writing, neither Yahoo! Games nor Hoyle Games at Sierra host any Mancala variations. With enough user feedback, that may change, allowing the oldest known board game to find a new home online.
