Bao

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Bao is a mancala game played in some African regions, mainly in Tanzania, Kenya, northern Mozambique and the island of Zanzibar (Swahili spoken regions). To bring us to the spirit of Bao, we are going to use a little Swahili vocabulary exposed along the present rules.
A feature of this mancala is that the game begins with few seeds on the game board and which are entering, little by little, new seeds. Otherwise, the captured seeds are not removed from the board but are readmitted to it. For this reason, along the game it will be complicating the analysis of each situation: It is a strategic game, passionate and entertaining.
In the present instructions are presented the mancala physical elements, the legal movements, the initial position, the game phases, and the aim of Bao.

ARRANGEMENT OF SEEDS ON THE BOARD

Board

The board has 32 holes, arranged in four rows.

Players sit on either side of the game board; each one has half a territory of the game board, comprised of the rows that have in front of them: are shown in capital letters the two of one player and in small letters the other. The rows indicated with the letter “A” and “a” is called previous row in each territory: is the contact zone between both, and is justly, the more active zone of the game board.

Special holes:
The previous row of each player has 5 special holes:

The fifth row counted from the left has squared shape and is called Nyumba (in Swahili: home).
The holes 1st and 8th (the ends of the row) are called Kichwa
The holes 2nd and 7th are called Kimbi.

Game pieces

In mancala games is common to use stones, small seeds, conches, feces of goat,… as game pieces. Generally, these game pieces are called “seeds”.

In Bao game are needed 32 seeds for player, although the seeds of either player are not distinguished between them. In the initial layout each player has 10 seeds on the game board (as shows figure number 2) and 22 are kept in stock, available to go in.

MOVEMENTS

Seeding

The basic movements of the mancala games are called “seeding” and “harvesting”. Seeding involves placing seeds one by one on consecutive adjacent holes. Harvesting involves the capture of one or more seeds contained in one or more holes according to the rules of each game.

Seeding in Bao always is done in own field: When at seeding you reach the end of the row, if you still have seeds to plant, you will continue on the other row of your own field. This could be considered a circular movement, being possible to occur in a clockwise direction or in a counterclockwise direction. In the example of figure number 3 it is observed the result of a seeding of ten seeds, starting in the right Kichwa of the row A: the seeding is done counterclockwise.

AIM OF THE GAME

There are two ways to win the game:

a)Empty the before row of the opponent
b)Ensure that the opponent cannot make any legal movement.

Whoever first get one of this targets will be the winner.

PHASES OF THE GAME

This mancala is set out in two phases:

NAMUA: in this stage the movements (captures and seeding) are determined by the income of seed from the stock seed to the game board.

MTAJI: once all de chips are deposited from the stock, we passed to the second phase, where catches and seeding are made.

If you win the game in the first phase (namua) it is said that you has win mkononi (in the hand), because there are still seeds in stock.

First phase: NAMUA

Essential movement:
During the Namua phase, the essential movement is capture and seeding.

Capture::
To capture seeds should give the following conditions:

There should be a hole on the previous row which contains one or more seeds.
The opposite hole must contain one or more seeds.

If this conditions exists, you put an own seed from the stock itself in its proper hole and proceed to capture all the seeds of the hole of the adversary that is directly opposite.

The outline represents a game situation that can be captured:

The turn is for the player Y. The only hole that meets the conditions containing seven seeds; will be as follows:

Take a seed from the stock and placed it in the hole with seven
Capture the seed opposite the hole

Seeding
The captured seeds are reentered on your own field. This movement is done from either of the two ends of the row holes (right or left kichwa) of the own previous row; this is determined by the hole location which the capture is made.

Central holes: if the capture had been done in some of the central holes, you may opt for whichever extreme you want.

The captured seed in the previous example could be reentered at either ends. If for example it enters on the left the game board will be:

Kichwa o kimbi:
By the left: if the capture had been done at the left kichwa or kimbi, are getting into through the left kichwa and following to the right (clockwise direction).

For instance: if you place a seed from the stock in the hole with a seed (player Y)

Four seeds are captured.

This has to reenter from the left kichwa, resting:

By the right: if the capture was made at the right kichwa or kimbi, are getting into through the right kichwa and following to the left (counterclockwise direction).

End of turn: when the last seed sown ends in a seedless hole, the turn ends. An example will help its comprehension:

A seed is placed from the stock on the hole with seven seeds and 3 seeds of the opponent have been captured.

Assuming that it is entered by the right:

Or by the left

The turn ends, so in both cases the seed falls into the empty hole.

Capture with seeds harvested:
If the last seed of the sown falls into a hole that contains seeds and the opposite hole too, the opponent seeds are captured. In the following example place a seed from the stock in the hole with two seeds and capture three from de opponent:

As being a left kimbi hole, must start seeding by the left kichwa. The last of the three seeds ends on the third hole. This hole already contains a seed, so it must be captured the four seeds of the opponent. It is necessary to catch them and sown by the left (see note below). The last of these seeds falls in the fourth hole: as it is empty the play ends.

NOTE: to make successive planting as in the previous example, the seeding direction that carried in the preceding seeding must be maintained. If the following capture is produced in kichwa or kimbi which involves change of direction this rule must be respected.
Coming back to the situation of figure number 13: making a capture of the right kichwa, generates a range of consecutive captures ending with the following provision:

NOTE: The third movement of this example is started in its nyumba, taking all the seeds and continuing the sown from the next hole. The following point clarifies this movement.

Keeping the sown without capture
In some situations the last seed falls in a hole which contains some seeds, but the opposite hole is empty. In this case all the seeds from the own hole are caught and the sown continues from the next hole, in the same direction. See an example:

If the seven seeds are captured and the seeding is started by the left, it finishes with the last seed in the 7th hole. As it is not empty, your turn do not ends, but there is not anything to capture; in that case takes all the seeds from that hole (there are six now) and starts to sown again, without changing the direction and beginning in the next hole. In that case you will end in the row behind, on the fourth hole of the left. You can see the result on the figure 16.

NOTE: in this kind of sown, it is possible to complete the row behind and also came back to the previous row. In that case it is possible to make a new capture.

Movements without capture: TAKASA
It is possible that all your previous holes which contain seeds are in front of empty holes of the opponent, it is not possible to start a movement making a capture (this situation is done, for example, in the starting position of the game). In this case a seed from the stock is placed in an own hole which contains one or more seeds, the seeds are taken and seeded. It continues with successive plantings until the last seed comes to an empty hole. But we must bear in mind that no capture should be made because the movement started without any capture.

Rules of the house: NYUMBA
The squared hole of the game board has special considerations in some conditions: these rules suit if it contains 6 or more seeds.

To stop the sowing: if the last seed of the sowing falls in the nyumba with more than six seeds, and the hole of the opponent is empty, the rule says that there would be necessary to gather and continue sowing. So in that case, for being nyumba, it is possible to choose to stop there the movement and to pass the shift to the adversary.

In the example of the figure 17, place the seed in your nyumba and capture 4 opposite seeds. Start sowing from the right: your last seed falls in the nyumba. According to the rules, you can either start sowing or stop. If you continue sowing, you will not be able to capture other seeds. So, in this case, it is better to stop and wait for better opportunities in later shifts.
NOTE: observe that in the raised situation, if nyumba doesn’t run risk of being emptied for your adversary.
Another special rule of nyumba is presented in case that you have seeds only in the nyumba, without seeds in the opposite hole (takasa situation). In that case is it possible to place a seed in the nyumba and take only two seeds, proceeding to sow them either on the right or the left.

Second phase: MTAJI

The phase mtaji begins in the moment in which all the seeds are in game, that is to say, the seeds in the stock become exhausted. The movements are not so different from the first phase. In this phase it is compulsory capture.
As there are no seeds to enter to the game board, you must take all the seeds of an own hole (from whichever of the rows) which contains the amount of seeds that allows to reach with the last seed to a hole of the previous row that is in capture situation: this is, that has to contain seeds and the opposite also (the opposite hole is called MTAJI). These are captured and reentered in the proper field with the same rules as in the first phase. In the following figure there are two possible movements:

To take the three seeds and sown to the right, so that it has been captured the six. Or the nine seeds on the second row also to the right, rotating in counterclockwise sense, and capturing the six seeds of the opponent.

Takasa movement in the second phase
It is usual to find in this phase situations which there is no possible capture. This can be because there aren’t proper holes with seeds and whose opposite also has them, or because there are no holes with seeds which allow movements without capturing and that ends in holes with the opposite (mtaji) occupied.
These first situations are called takasa. In that case the seeds from a first row hole are caught and it is sowed without the chance of capture, as in the first phase. If there are no occupied holes in the first row, it is possible to start from the second one.

NOTE: It is never possible to initiate a sown in a hole with an only seed.

Summary of the more frequent rules:

It is obligatory to capture providing that it is possible.
The captured seeds are reentered in the own field, from some of the ends of the first row.
It is not possible to choose the sown direction when:

a. the capture is in kichwa or kimbi
b. One comes sowing in a direction and it is necessary to continue with a new sowing.

If the last seed is sown in an occupied cabin, the seeds on the opposite hole are captured.

The turn ends when the last seed of the sown falls in an empty hole.

Particularly for the second phase:

It is sowed from a hole of whichever of the two rows, the last seed has to fall in a hole which contains one or more seeds, moreover, in the opposite hole has to have seeds.

These are captured.