Streak
0
Best
—
Oware is the Ghanaian member of the mancala family, played across West Africa and the Caribbean, here with the widespread Abapa rules. Sow seeds counter-clockwise around twelve pits, capture the computer's pits when your last seed makes them two or three, and be the first to 25. Win to extend your streak; the computer reads deeper as it grows.
The board has two rows of six pits with four seeds in each, 48 seeds in all. The bottom row is yours and the top row belongs to the computer. You move first. On your turn, tap one of your pits that has seeds. All of its seeds are picked up and sown one at a time into the following pits, counter-clockwise: along your row to the right, then along the computer's row to the left, and round again. A pit with twelve or more seeds goes all the way round, and the pit you started from is skipped.
If your last seed lands in one of the computer's pits and brings it to exactly two or three seeds, you capture them. Then look at the pit just before it: if that is also on the computer's side and holds two or three, you capture it as well, and so on backwards until the chain breaks. A move that would capture every seed on the computer's side is still allowed, but it captures nothing.
If the computer's row is empty, you must make a move that gives it seeds; only those pits light up. If no move can reach its row, the game ends and you keep the seeds left on your side. The same rules apply to the computer.
The first to capture 25 seeds wins, and 24 each is a draw. If the last few seeds just circle without anyone being able to capture, the game stops and each side keeps the seeds on its own row. A win adds one to your streak, a draw keeps it and a loss resets it, and the computer looks further ahead the longer your streak gets.
Count before you tap. A pit with n seeds drops its last seed n pits further on, skipping the starting pit if it goes all the way round, so you can always work out exactly where a move ends. Do the same count for the computer's pits: any of your pits that holds one or two seeds and sits where one of its moves will end is about to be captured.
Pits with one or two seeds on your own side are the targets, so do not leave rows of them next to each other. A chain of twos and ones is exactly what lets a single move capture three or four pits at once. Where you can, sow into your own weak pits to push them past three.
The strongest idea in Oware is the big pit, often called a kroo. Leave one of your pits alone while it collects seeds, and once it holds a dozen or more a single sowing goes all the way round, dropping a seed or two into every pit on the far side. Timed so that it ends deep in the computer's row, it can turn several ones and twos into a long capture. Watch the computer's big pits for the same reason.
In the ending, seeds are precious. When the computer is short of seeds you are forced to feed it, which can hand it captures, so keep a pit that can feed it cheaply, and remember that a move taking every seed it has captures nothing.