Mancala Kalah - Board Game

Mancala is a family of very old board games, thought to have begun in Africa and the Middle East. People dug holes in the ground and sowed beans or small stones, and over many centuries the game spread around the world. The one you play here, Kalah, has some of the clearest rules, and is widely played in schools and at home.

SIMPLE RULES, REAL DEPTH Pick one of the pockets on your side and sow its stones one at a time, counter-clockwise. Gather more stones than your opponent in the large hollow at the end of the board — your store — and you win. That is all there is to it, and yet there is no luck at all. Everything is visible on the board, so the further ahead you look, the stronger you become.

THE TWO RULES THAT MATTER

• If your last stone lands exactly in your own store, you take another turn.
• If your last stone lands in an empty pocket on your own side, and the pocket across from it holds your opponent's stones, you take them all into your store. Learning to combine these two is where Mancala really begins.

PLAY AGAINST THE AI Three levels: Easy, Normal and Hard. Easy is tuned so that beginners and younger players can win. Hard looks several moves ahead and makes a patient sparring partner. In games against the AI you can undo a move, so you can think things through while you learn.

PLAY WITH SOMEONE ELSE Put the device between you and play face to face. The score is shown on both sides of the board, the right way up for each player, so it reads correctly from either seat. You can also set a time limit per move (10, 20 or 30 seconds). A turn that runs out of time is simply passed.

CHOOSE HOW A GAME ENDS

• Classic (default): stones left on the board go to the store of whoever owns that side.
• Popular: stones left on the opponent's side go to whoever emptied their own side first. Pick whichever version you grew up with.

A BOARD YOU WANT TO TOUCH Every stone is drawn as a glass bead in one of six colours. Stones are never flung across the board — they are sown one at a time into the next pocket, exactly as you would with your hand. The board has the warmth of wood, and the screen is kept quiet so you can concentrate.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING

• iPhone and iPad, in landscape
• Plays offline. The only thing that needs a connection is the ads
• No account, no sign-in. Games stay on your device
• Free, with ads. There are no in-app purchases
• The How to Play section explains everything with diagrams