Mancala, of African origin and also known as Bantumi, is an ancient game for two lusores.* To play, you will need a special board with a particular pattern of depressions, and either thirty-six or forty-eight pieces, depending on the rules you're using. The colour of the pieces does not matter; players do not own pieces, they own a side of the board.
A mancala board consists of twelve depressions (the "cups") in two rows of six cups each, with an additional two larger depressions (the "stores") at either end. Each row and bowl is associated with one of the players, and for ease of reference they can be painted. Each player owns the bowl to his right, so that, when you go to play, the board should look like this:
Black
oooooo/
O O
/oooooo
White
At the beginning of the game, all of the cups start with an equal number of counters in them (three or four, depending on how many you're using for the game); the stores begin empty.
The players take turns. On his turn, a player must scoop all the pieces out of any one cup under his control (but not the store, from which pieces are not removed). He then must deposit a single piece in each of the subsequent cups, going counter-clockwise around the board, until he runs out of pieces. Pieces are deposited into his cups, his store, and his opponent's cups, but not his opponent's store, which he skips.
Mancala is awesome because, owing to its ancient existence and intercontinental sphere of popularity, there are a number of different rules variants. One I already mentioned is the number of pieces. Some people play with forty-eight pieces, and some play with thirty-six. I learned with thirty-six. The advantage of playing with forty-eight pieces is that games tend to be a little longer, and opening moves are a little more conservative. The advantage of thirty-six pieces is that you can pull off some killer opening moves.
Here are some other rule variants. The basic traditional African game consists of thirty-six pieces, with rules for free turns and capturing (#1 and #2, below).
Traditional Rules Variant #1: When the last piece in your hand on your move lands in your store, you get to take another turn right away.
Traditional Rules Variant #2: When the last piece in your hand on your move lands in an empty cup under your control, then you automatically move that piece, as well as all pieces in the cup opposite to it on your opponent's side, and place them in your store. This is called (by me, at least) "capturing."
Traditional Rules Variant #3: If the last piece in your hand on your move lands in a cup that still has pieces in it, you may continue your turn by picking up all of those pieces and moving them as if your turn started with that cup – even if it was your opponent's cup. This, for kids in the nuclear age, is the "chain reaction."
Play ends when one player has no pieces in any of his cups which he may move. At that point, the other player may move all of the pieces in all of the cups under her control, and put them in her store. At the end of the game, add up the number of pieces in your store; that is your score. The player with the highest score wins. Therefore, you want to keep the game going as long as you can, maintaining as many pieces on your own side of the board while forcing the other player to empty her own side.
* Hah hah, I bet you thought I mean "losers." Lusor is Latin for "player." Mancala is a game for two players. Funny joke, eh? Can't tell I wrote this when I was reading The Glass Bead Game, now can you? Can't tell at all.
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