How to play
Mangala is the version of mancala played in Turkey, from village tea gardens to school tournaments. The board has two rows of six small pits with a long store at each end. Forty-eight stones start four to a pit. Your row is the bottom one and your store is the one on your right; on a phone held upright the board turns, and your store sits at the top. You make the first move.
Sowing. Tap one of your pits that has stones. All of them are lifted and dropped one at a time counterclockwise around the board:
- The first stone goes back into the pit you emptied, and the rest continue into the following pits.
- Your own store gets a stone when you pass it. The opponent’s store is skipped.
- A pit holding a single stone is the exception: that stone simply moves one pit along.
The pits light up one after another as the stones fall, so you can follow where a move went.
Where the last stone lands decides what happens next:
- Your store → you move again straight away.
- An opponent’s pit, leaving an even number there (2, 4, 6…) → you take every stone in that pit into your store.
- An empty pit on your side, while the opposite pit has stones → that last stone and everything across from it go to your store.
- Anywhere else → the turn passes.
Ending. The game stops as soon as one player’s six pits are all empty. The player who emptied their side first also collects every stone still sitting on the other side. Most stones in the store wins; 24 each is a draw.
Controls and modes
Choose Computer or Friend at the top. Against the computer, pick Easy, Medium or Hard: the easy player barely looks ahead and makes loose moves, while the hard one searches several moves deep and plays the best line it finds. With Friend, two people share one device and take turns on the same board.
Hint marks a strong pit for you to sow. Undo takes your last move back, together with the computer’s reply. Your game is saved as you go, difficulty included.
The first move
The “first stone back in its own pit” rule changes the arithmetic you may know from other mancala games. A pit with n stones reaches n − 1 pits ahead, not n.
At the start every pit holds 4, so a pit’s last stone lands three pits further on. Counting from your store, the third pit (the fourth from the left) ends exactly in the store: a free extra turn. That pit then holds one stone, and the next two pits hold 5 each. Look again before your second move; one of the new counts may give you another chain.
Strategy
Store moves first, nearest first. When two pits can both end in your store, play the one closer to the store. Sowing it doesn’t change the count of the pit farther away, so the second extra turn is still there.
Hunt odd pits. Every odd pile on the computer’s side is a target: drop your last stone there and it turns even, and it’s yours. A pile of 5 or 7 is worth planning two moves ahead for.
Defend your own odd pits. The computer looks for the same thing. Before you move, check which of your pits it could make even, and consider sowing a big odd pile away before it’s taken.
Watch your empty pits. An empty pit on your side opposite a full one is a capture waiting to happen for you, but the same pattern on the computer’s side works against you. Don’t leave a heavy pit facing an empty one across the board.
Single stones are precise tools. A lone stone moves just one pit, which makes it handy for landing in your store or dropping into a neighbouring empty pit to capture.
Plan the finish. Whoever runs out first takes everything left on the other side. When your side is thin and the computer’s is full, emptying your pits quickly can win the game outright; when the reverse is true, keep stones spread so you don’t hand it over.
For a bigger mancala with a different capture rule, try Toguz Korgool.
If you enjoy Mangala, try Marble Push or Mini Shogi next.
