Board Games and Card Games

Mancala is probably the only board game in the world having more than 200 variants. Although, the basic concept of playing Mancala remains almost the same in most of these variants, yet, there are some variants which have pronounced differences in the way the game is played.

At the heart of the matter, though, Mancala is an arithmetic game and a logical approach is needed in order to play any version of the game successfully. While some are popular and traditional games, some Mancala games are not-so traditional and are played with some unusual rules at times.

Played on a 8×4 board, Bao is one of the most complex strategy games in the Mancala family.

This is a very popular game in some parts of South Africa, especially Kenya and Zanzibar.

Kalaha is probably the most popular version of Mancala games today.

The unprecedented popularity of this game is due to the fact that Kalaha is the only game whose rule sets are supplied along with the commercial versions of the game.

The game is played on a 2×6 board and is considered to be a Children game by most professional Mancala players because of the fact that the game is heavily biased towards the payer that makes the first moves.

Oware is another version of Kalaha and is played on the same 2×6 board. The game has a better strategic depth as compared to Kalaha and is also less biased towards the player making the first move.

Being the national game of Ghana, Oware enjoys considerable popularity all over the world, especially in and around Ghana.

Omweso is another popular version of the game in South Africa. The rules of this game are quite similar to that of Oware, except for the fact that it is played on a 2×8 board, providing greater depth to the strategy part of the game.

Kaashi and Bank are two varieties of a game called Pallanguzhi, which is a popular Mancala game played in South India. The game is played on a 2×7 board and the rules are quite similar to those of Kalaha.

There are certain Mancala games which have some really unusual characteristics to them. For instance, Eson Xorgol is a game which employs goat feces in place of pebbles. Played by the Kazakh minority of upper Mongolia region, Eson Xorgol is definitely one of the most unusually played versions of Mancala.

There are some other games which have evolved out of Mancala, but have a particularly different flavor to them. Oh-Wah-Ree is one such game. Although, this game is a direct descendant of the Oware game, but it has been changed a lot in order to adapt to the commercial needs of the players. Similarly, The Glass and Bead game is said to be a ‘Christian’ version of the original Kalaha game. Das Bohnenspiel is a German Mancala game and is said to be very different from other games in the Mancala family.

The evolution of Mancala games has been happening for thousands of years, and to list all the variants of the game is practically impossible. Yet, the games listed above are some of the most common and unusual versions of the game, giving you a peak into what Mancala games are all about.