Awale is a game for 2 players with easy rules but many strategies. It is one of the oldest board games in the world, and is known under many different names, one of them being Kalaha.
Goal
The player with the most stones wins.
Game Board
The game board consists of 2 halves, with 6 holes in each half. At the beginning of the game each hole contains 4 stones.
Course of Play
The player on turn takes all the stones from one of their holes and distributes them counterclockwise, one in each hole, no matter who owns the hole. If more than 11 stones are to be distributed, more than one loop around the board is required, but the hole from which the stones were taken, remains empty.
When moving the mouse over one of the owned holes (without clicking), the player will see a preview of the potential distribution.
If the last stone distributed falls into an opponent’s hole, which then contains 2 or 3 stones, the player on turn claims those stones. When this happens, the preceding hole is also examined in the same manner. This procedure is repeated until a player’s own hole is to be examined or until an opponent’s hole contains less than 2 or more than 3 stones, whichever comes first. In either case, the stones remain in that hole.
The winner is the player with the most stones.
Game End
There are 2 possible game ending scenarios:
- A player has claimed 25 stones.
- The player on turn cannot play. In this case, the players claim the stones in their own holes
and add them to the stones they have already captured.
Invalid Moves
- If all the opponent’s holes are empty, the player on turn must choose a move that leaves at
least 1 stone in at least 1 of the opponent’s holes.
- A move that would claim all the opponent’s stones cannot be made.