Awele game belongs to the family of calculation games, usually named as Mankala games. These games are known in Africa, in the Caribbean Islands and in a significant part of Asia.
Awele is played by the Baules, a people from Ivory coast.
Equipment
The game requires an awele board and 48 seeds. The board is usually made of wood and has two straight rows of six pits, called houses,
There may be two additional pits called the score houses.
Object
Two players sit in front of each other and each player controls the six houses on their side of the board.
The game begins with four seeds in each of the twelve houses.
The object is to capture more seeds than one's opponent. Since the game has 48 seeds, capturing 25 seeds is enough to win.
If each player captures 24 seeds, the game ends in a draw.
Playing
On his turn, a player chooses one of his non-empty houses, removes the seeds out of this house and distributes them dropping one in each house in a counter-clockwise direction.
If the last seed placed into an opponent's house brought the house's total to exactly two or three, all the seeds in that house are captured.
If the previous-to-last seed also brought an opponent's house to two or three, these are captured as well, and so on.
However, if a move would capture all an opponent's seeds, the capture is forfeited, and the seeds are instead left on the board
If the player chooses a house with 12 or more seeds, he will have to jump over the starting house, leaving it empty.
The player may not "starve" his opponent. This means that he may not let his opponent without seeds, according to the following rules :
If the houses of the opponent are empty before the player's turn, then he must feed his opponent. If it is not possible, by any move, to feed the opponent, then the current player captures all remaining seeds and the game is over.
If the houses of the opponent are not empty but the considered move would capture all the seeds on the opponent's side, then the move is legal but no capture is done.
End of the game
Game stops :
When one player has captured 25 or more seeds.
When one player has no move to avoid the opponent to starve
When a given position occurs for the second time with the same player's turn.
When both players agree to stop.
After the game stops, each player captures all the seeds (if any) on his side.
