Mangala

How to Play

1. Each player controls six pits and one scoring store.
2. Choose one of your non-empty pits. All stones from that pit are picked up and distributed one by one around the board according to the game direction.
3. If your final stone lands in your own store, you earn an extra turn.
4. Depending on the landing position, the final stone may trigger a capture according to the implemented Mangala rules.
5. The game ends when one side can no longer make a move; remaining stones are collected and the higher store total wins.

Planning a Move

Before selecting a pit, count where the final stone will land. The last stone is often more important than the earlier stones because it may produce an extra turn, create a capture or expose stones to the opponent. Good play therefore combines arithmetic counting with multi-turn planning.

Strategy Tips

• Extra turns can be more valuable than a small immediate capture because they preserve initiative.
• Watch the opponent's pits for positions that can create large captures.
• Do not empty your side too quickly unless doing so produces a favorable endgame.
• Compare several candidate pits by their final landing position and resulting board state.

Game-Theory Connection

Mangala is a sequential, deterministic, perfect-information game. It highlights backward planning, tempo, state evaluation and the difference between immediate payoff and long-horizon strategic value. It is also a natural setting for Minimax and Alpha-Beta style search.