Yorkton Boardgamers Guild - Oware a great way to try out mancala

Continuing with games in the mancala family it is the week for Oware.

It is played in the Ashanti Region, Ghana and throughout the Caribbean.

Like many of the games within the mancala family Oware and its variants have many names - Ayò, Ayoayo (Yoruba), Awalé (Ivory Coast), Wari (Mali), Ouri, Ouril or Uril (Cape Verde), etc according to Wikipedia.

“A common name in English is Awari but one of the earliest Western scholars to study the game, Robert Sutherland Rattray, used the name Wari.”

To compile a complete listing of mancala games would be a scholarly exercise, as even Google searches offer conflicting spellings and points of origins for particular games.

And it is not made easier because what is a base game and simply a regional variant is not always clear either.

But Oware is one worth a longer look.

Oware is played on a board of two rows and six holes, which you may have already realized is a fairly standard board among mancala game.

The player’s row is in front of the person, (your side). The game starts with four seeds in each hole.

“To sow you must take all the seeds of any of the holes on your and lay them out one at a time along the holes anticlockwise – again you will recognize the sowing technique as fairly standard in almost all mancala games.

You lay seeds into your own pits, and then if reaching the end of your pits you continue onto the opponent’s side.

If the last hole where you sow is in the land of the other player and there are two or three seeds in the last hole remove from the board and keep them by placing them into the storage pit you control.

If the previous holes also contain two or three seeds also remove them.

There are some special rules associated with Oware, starting with the Kroo. As the game progresses, it is possible that one hole contains more than 12 seeds. This hole is called Kroo and makes it possible complete one entire round of the board. When the harvest starts at the Kroo, this hole must finish.

Also, to play a run and leave the other player with no seeds to continue playing is not allowed. If you do it you will lose the game.

“Remember: “Whoever destroys the land may not reap anymore,” according to www.awale.info

Another peculiarity of Oware is “you can’t permit other players feel hungry.”

“If the other player has only one seed in his field you will have to remove it in order to harvest and continue playing. This situation means that the other player will not be able keep playing.

“Players must provide in advance to avoid this situation. For example, having at least one seed in the last hole to harvest immediately to our opponent side and allow him to keep playing,” explains the website.

The goal is simple enough, capture more than half of the seeds in play.

Again the rules are simple enough but it is a challenging exercise made accessible by its simplicity.