Omweso: Uganda Mancala Game

Uganda's national board game: relay sowing that can chain your whole turn across the board. Real AI or local pass-and-play — no ads, no subscriptions.

Omweso is Uganda's national board game — part of the same wider Bao family of count-and-capture games played across the African Great Lakes region, and the first dedicated Omweso app on the App Store.

THE RELAY The board is 4 rows of 8 pits — 32 in all, 16 per side. Pick up any of your own pits holding two or more seeds and sow them one by one around your own two rows. If your last seed lands in a pit that already had seeds in it, the lap isn't over — you pick up everything now sitting there, including the seed you just dropped, and keep sowing from there. A single turn can relay through dozens of pits before it's done.

THE CAPTURE Land your very last seed in a pit that was empty before the drop, on your inner row, with both of your opponent's pits in that same column holding seeds — and you capture both of them. They join the seed you just landed, and sowing relays onward from there, chaining into further captures in the same turn. Capture at both far corners of the board in one turn and it's an instant win.

PLAY YOUR WAY

• Three AI difficulty levels, from a casual opponent to a real challenge
• Local two-player pass-and-play on the same device
• A full walkthrough built in, with an animated demo of the relay mechanic, plus a How to Play button whenever you need a refresher
• True bilingual interface — English and Luganda, switch anytime from Home
• No ads, no gambling, no chip economy

Simple to learn, deep enough that it's still played and studied across Uganda today. From the makers of Fanorona and Surakarta — real African and Southeast Asian board games, real rules, real AI, no gimmicks.