Awarchi

by Jrme Mathevet

Awarchi is an ancient African board game which, though not as sophisticated as chess, will hopefully prove fairly challenging!

The board is separated into two sides, the upper and the lower. Each side has a Home (a larger hole at either side of the board) which is used for counting points.

                                      Side for Player 2
                        ****  **  **  **  **  **  **  ****
Home for P2   ****                                      ****   Home for P1
                        ****                                      ****
                        ****  **  **  **  **  **  **  ****
                                      Side for Player 1

Playing Awarchi
Awarchi can be played with a friend or against the computer. To start playing, select a game type from Awarchi's menu, by clicking with Menu over the main window.

To play, the players take turns to make a movement from one of their holes on the board. A movement consists of taking all of the beans from one of your holes (by clicking on it) and use them to fill the adjacent holes, one bean at a time, in an anticlockwise direction. You are not allowed to pass a turn. The game ends when one of the sides empties, and the winner is the one who has the largest number of beans.

A few further rules add some extra colour to the game:

* If your last bean ends in your home, you can play once again (to a maximum of two turns)
* Capture rule: if your last bean ends in an empty hole, and the hole directly opposite it is not empty, then you get the last bean plus all the beans of the opposite hole.

Copyright  RISC User magazine 1998
