RULES of WARI THE GAME CALLED WARI is a member of the large family of African games called MANCALA games. They have in common that they are played by redistributing pieces (beans) in cavities (cups). The games differ in the lay-out of the cups, and in the way in which pieces are redistributed and captured. THIS WARI VARIATION is played on a board that has 12 cavities called *cups*, using 48 *beans*, stones, or whatever pieces you have. All pieces are considered equal, and will henceforth be called beans. Boards that can be bought in shops usually have two additional cups in which captured beans are stored. One does not need a board to play; it is sufficient to have 48 beans (or pieces of another type), a stable surface, and 12 marks on the surface representing the cups. I played it many times in bars together with Joost van Baal, using just a handful of coffee beans collected from the bar tender. THERE ARE TWO ROWS in the board, each six cups long. They will be called North and South henceforth, and North and South will also be used as names for the players. The South cups are numbered 1-6, / 12 11 10 9 8 7 \ the North cups are numbered 7-12, like this: \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 / THE TWO ROWS form a circle, by letting 7 follow upon 6, and 1 follow upon 12. The direction of play is counter-clockwise. In the beginning of the game, each cup contains 4 beans. Either North or South starts by making a move. From then on, both players take alternate turns in making a move. THE FIRST PART OF A MOVE consists of grabbing all the beans in ONE cup, which must be on the side of the player whose turn it is. So, North always plays with the 7-12 cups, and South always plays with the 1-6 cups. THE SECOND PART OF A MOVE consists of subsequently dropping the collected beans one-by-one, counter-clockwise, in the subsequently adjacent cups. Suppose cup 5 contains four beans, and South plays cup 5. After this move, the content of cups 6 7 8 and 9 is incremented by one bean (unless the event of capture occurred, see below), and cup 5 is empty. If the cup being played contains *more than eleven* beans, the cup itself is excluded from the sequence of adjacent cups into which the beans are spread. So, if cup 5 contains fourteen beans, the last bean ends up in cup number 8, cup 5 stays empty, and the content of cups 6 7 and 8 is incremented by two. THE THIRD PART OF A MOVE consists of the procedure for capturing (see below). The captured stones are removed from the board, and come into possession of the player who captured them. If a player cannot move, all remaining beans are given to the opponent, and the game is finished, but SEE the condition on leaving your opponent with no moves left to play (this is forbidden unless there is no other option). THE PROCEDURE FOR CAPTURING. INSPECT the last cup in which you dropped a bean. If * the last cup belongs to yourself or * it belongs to the opponent and contains one, four or more beans -> then you have not made a capture and your turn is over. Else, if * the last cup belongs to the opponent. * this cup NOW contains two or three beans. -> then you have made a capture. Capturing means that you must empty one or more cups of the opponent. Succesively going back from the last cup in which you dropped a bean, you must take all beans from each cup of your opponent that contains two or three beans. If, while going back, a cup contains one, four, or more beans, this *blocks* your capture and your turn is over. This implies that a capture always pertains to a consecutive range of cups of the opponent, each containing two or three beans. IF YOU HAVE SO MANY STONES that you can go round one time, this might cause your last bean to increment the content of its cup to two or three, if there were zero or one beans in this cup before your move. This is a way to collect large profits .. _<\`@ :::::::: IT IS NOT ALLOWED to play with a cup that contains no beans. It is also not allowed to play a move which leaves the opponent with no beans left to play, UNLESS THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE, in which case the game ends (see below). If the opponent has no beans when it is your turn, you must fill at least one of his cups if you can. If your opponent has beans and you can capture all of them, this is forbidden unless you have no other option. It is allowed to strive for a position where the opponents cups are empty and you are unable to fill them - so that the game ends and all remaining beans become yours. This is only possible towards the end of the game, when only a few beans are left. THE GAME ENDS I) if it's A's turn, B's cups are empty, and A cannot fill any of B's cups: All remaining beans become A's. II) by resignation. III) upon mutual agreement. In case the game ends with infinite repetition (this is possible if only few stones remain), and the division of the remaining stones affects the outcome of the game, there is no rule for that. THIS SET OF RULES was taken from a book. There are other rule sets.