How to Play Oware and Wari: Official Rules

Hey there! Let me give you the lowdown on how to play Oware and Wari. It’s a game that’s been around for centuries and is played all over the world. So, let’s dive in and learn the official rules!

Objective:

The goal of Oware and Wari is to collect more seeds than your opponent. Simple, right? Well, the actual gameplay might surprise you. Don’t worry; I’ll explain all the ins and outs in a jiffy!

Setup:

Here’s what you need: a game board with two rows of six holes or pits, as well as 48 seeds (or stones) divided equally between the players. Got it? Great! You’re almost ready to start playing.

Gameplay:

First things first, you and your opponent sit across from each other, facing the game board. The six holes in front of you are called your “side.” Each hole contains four seeds to begin with. Now, here’s where things get interesting!

On your turn, you pick up all the seeds from one of your holes and drop them one by one into the following holes in an anti-clockwise direction – starting from the next hole. This is called “sowing.”

But wait, there’s more! If the last seed you drop falls into an empty hole on your side, and the hole opposite to it on your opponent’s side has seeds, you can capture them! Those seeds become yours, and you place them in your “scored” hole.

Keep on sowing and capturing until you run out of seeds in your hand. Then, it’s your opponent’s turn to do the same. The game continues like this until one player has no seeds left on their side.

Winning:

Alright, so how do you determine the winner? It’s pretty straightforward: the player with more seeds in their scored hole wins! If there’s a tie, well, that’s where things can get a bit tricky. But don’t fret – I’ll fill you in on the details.

Oware and Wari Strategies:

Can I let you in on a little secret? There’s more to Oware and Wari than meets the eye. It takes some serious strategizing to come out on top. So, here are a few tips to get you started:

• Focus on capturing seeds whenever you can. It gives you an edge.
• Think a few steps ahead. Try to anticipate your opponent’s moves to stay in control.
• Remember, the game isn’t over until it’s over. So, don’t lose hope if things don’t go your way at first.

See? With these tips up your sleeve, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an Oware and Wari champion! Now, are you ready to dive into this ancient and thrilling game? Let’s get started!

I distribute the 48 seeds evenly among the 12 houses, so each player starts with 24 seeds. The game begins with 4 stones in each house. We take turns playing and must make a move on each turn.

To play, you can pick up the stones from any hole on your side of the board and seed them counterclockwise. However, you can only seed one hole per turn. If you sow 12 or more seeds on a turn, you skip the original house and continue to the next one.

Remember, you’re not allowed to touch or point at the stones to count them. You can only count by looking at them. If you have no stones on your opponent’s side, you must try to put stones there. If that’s not possible, all the remaining stones belong to the player whose side they’re on.

Let’s talk about capturing stones.

If I land on the opponent’s side of the board and the final hole has 2 or 3 stones, I can capture those stones. It’s a great way to gain an advantage!

But it gets even better. If the hole before the final one also has 2 or 3 stones, I capture those too! And the capturing continues back to the last hole that had 2 or 3 stones or to the last hole on the opponent’s side.

Of course, I don’t want to carry captured stones around with me forever. That would be a burden. So, captured stones are promptly removed from the game.

Now, here’s an interesting twist. If I make a move that would leave my opponent without any stones, I don’t get to capture anything. Oh well, can’t have it all!

Here Comes the End

I’m striving to be the first player to capture 25 stones. That’s when I can claim victory and hold my head up high!

But there’s another possibility. If both players capture 24 seeds each, it’s a draw. Fair enough! Or, if a player can’t make any more moves and their opponent can’t provide them with more seeds, the game ends. And hey, sometimes an impasse is reached where neither player can capture any more stones. It’s like a never-ending chase!

If you and I are playing a game of Wari, we both have to agree to stop playing. Once we do, we’ll share the remaining seeds equally. The player who has more seeds on their side gets to keep the extra one.

A Different Way to Play Wari

In this variant, we follow the same rules as the Oware or Trysse variant, with a few adjustments:

Now, instead of needing to capture “2 or 3 stones,” you only need to capture “1 or 2 stones.”

The goal is to be the first player to capture 21 stones.

If you leave your opponent’s side without any stones to move with, there’s a penalty. You’ll have to give up all the remaining stones you have on the board to your opponent.

This means it’s crucial to always have at least one stone on your opponent’s side. Otherwise, you need to make sure that your move captures more stones than you lose with this penalty.

If both players reach a stalemate in the endgame, where neither can avoid further losses, they can agree to stop the game.

In this case, only the captured stones are counted, while the stones remaining on the board are not counted by either player.