How to play Awale
Awale is played by two players on a board of 12 pits: each player owns the 6 pits on their side. Each pit starts with 4 seeds, 48 in total.
Goal
Capture more seeds than your opponent. The first to gather more than 24 — half of them — wins.
Sowing
On your turn, take all the seeds from one of your pits and drop them one by one into the following pits, counter-clockwise. With 12 seeds or more you go all the way round, skipping the starting pit.
Capturing
If your last seed lands on the opponent's side and brings that pit to 2 or 3 seeds, you capture them. You also capture the preceding pits, as long as they are on the opponent's side and hold 2 or 3 seeds.
Feeding your opponent
If your opponent has no seeds left, you must play a move that gives them some. And a move that would capture all their seeds is played without capturing: you may not starve your opponent.
End of the game
The game ends when a player has more than 24 seeds, when the player to move cannot play, or when the same position repeats. In the last two cases each player collects the seeds on their side. At 24 each, it's a draw.
Interactive tutorial
Five short exercises: play the requested move on the board.
Step 1 of 5
Sowing
Play your 1st pit (bottom left).