Oware

Scatter your seeds counter-clockwise and time your captures to claim the lion's share of the board.

How to play

Pick one of your houses and sow its seeds one by one into the following pits. If your last seed lands in an opponent's house bringing it to two or three, you capture it, then sweep backward grabbing any consecutive twos and threes.

• Sow seeds counter-clockwise from any of your non-empty houses
• Capture when your final seed makes an enemy house total two or three
• A move that would starve your opponent entirely earns no capture
• First to capture more than half of the 48 seeds wins

Controls

• Desktop: click one of your houses to sow
• Phone & tablet: tap a house

Game modes

• Versus CPU on Easy, Normal or Hard
• Two-player hotseat on one device, plus Online play
• Choose which side you play in CPU games

Tips & strategy

• Build up a loaded house to wrap the board and reach deep captures
• Keep your opponent's pits empty to deny them sowing options
• You are obliged to feed a starving opponent, so plan around that rule

About Oware

Oware is an original free browser version of the ancient West African sowing game from the mancala family, a deep abstract strategy classic of counting and timing. No download required.

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