The Mancala game is a 2-player strategy board game that is played with small stones & pits and rows of pits. Versions of the game date back to the 7th century and it is one of the oldest games that is still played today. Here, I'll recreate the game using Java and also include a 1-player mode that features a moderate-difficulty CPU.
- 2 players would sit on opposite sides with a bin to the right designated to be the player's home bin. In addition to the home bin, each player would have 6 pits that are initially filled with 2/3/4/5/6 stones.
- For each turn, the player can choose one of the pits and remove all stones in that pit by placing a stone counterclockwise around the board in each pit including the player's home bin but not the opponent's home bin.
- When a player cannot play because there are no stones in any of the player's pits, the game is over. All stones in the opponent's pit goes to the player's homebin. The winner is the player with the most stones in their homebin by the end of the game.
Special Rules when distributing the stones:
- If the last stone lands in the player's home bin, the player gets another turn.
- If the last stone lands in an empty pit on the player's side of the board, the player takes all stones in the corresponding pit on the opponent's side and places them in the player's home bin.