Bao
A sowing game on four rows of eight pits. Lift a pit, drop its seeds one by one around your own sixteen, and if the last one lands on a pile you scoop that up and carry on — a single turn can run more than twice round your own board. Stop the relay in an empty pit of your inner row and you take everything sitting straight across from it.
Stop in an empty pit of your inner row to capture the pit straight across. Take all of theirs to win.
At a table
Turns alternate, a clock runs.Same start, compared
Nobody waits.Lift
Take every seed out of one of your own pits.
Sow
Drop them one per pit, in order, around your own sixteen pits.
Relay
Land on a pit that already had seeds and you lift that one too, and keep going. Land on an empty one and your turn ends — sometimes with a capture. In Bank your house is the exception: it is never lifted, so a handful that ends there ends the turn.
How do you play Bao?
Lift all the seeds from one of your own pits and drop them one per pit around your own sixteen. If the last seed lands in a pit that already had seeds, lift that pit and keep going. When a seed finally lands in a pit that was empty, your turn ends — and if that pit is in your inner row, you capture everything in the pit straight across from it.
How do you win at Bao?
In Maasai and the Long Game you win by capturing all thirty-two of your opponent’s seeds. In Bank, which has no captures, you win by gathering all thirty-two of your own into your house. If fifty turns pass with no capture and nothing banked, the game is called for whoever is ahead, and is a draw if neither is.
How long does a game of Bao take?
Fifteen to twenty-five minutes, with ninety seconds to make each move. Bao is won by clearing an entire side of the board, so a game runs for a great many turns — long in moves, quick in minutes, because most turns are obvious once you can read a relay.
Is Bao a mancala game?
Yes. Bao is one of the sowing games usually grouped together as mancala: seeds, pits, and a turn that consists of picking up a pile and distributing it one pit at a time. What sets Bao apart from the simpler members of the family is the relay — a turn does not end when your hand empties — and that captured seeds leave the board for good rather than being banked and counted at the end.
Which version of Bao is this?
Four rule sets, meant to be played in this order: Bank, then Maasai, then the Long Game, then Bao la Kiswahili. The first three are the simpler branch of the family — they share the board and the sowing and differ only in what a capture takes and how a game is won, so each one is the one before it with a rule added. Those three names are ours rather than taken from anywhere. Bao la Kiswahili is the full game of the family, with its seeds held in hand and its choice of sowing direction, and it is the game the other three exist to prepare you for. Ranked matches are played in Bao la Kiswahili; a casual match, a game with a friend and practice against the bot can be any of the four.
Why can I not capture anything in Bank?
Because Bank has no captures in it — that is the whole of what makes it Bank. The two sides never interact at all: you are each gathering your own thirty-two seeds into your own house, and whoever finishes first wins. It is the exercise you learn the relay in, which is what we built it for, and it is why it keeps no score and is not on the ladder: there is nothing in an exercise to grade. Switch to Maasai for a game in which the two of you can reach each other.
Can I play Bao against a computer opponent?
Yes, and without signing up. Practice is against Amani the elder, who subtracts what you would take back before he decides. If nobody else joins a casual match, the seat opposite you goes to a bot: Sefu the sower, who takes the biggest capture in front of him and looks no further; or Amani the elder, who subtracts what you would take back before he decides. Every one of them is beatable on purpose — an opponent that wins is not practice. There is also a five-rung ladder, climbed in this order: Maasai, Maasai, Long Game, Long Game, then Bao la Kiswahili.
Do I need an account to play Bao?
No. You can play the practice bots and work through the tutorial straight away, as a guest. Signing in keeps your rating, your ladder stars and your match history across devices.
Why did my game end while there were still seeds on the board?
Fifty turns passed with nothing captured and nothing banked. Sowing on its own is reversible — seeds go round a closed loop and come back — so a game in which nothing irreversible happens can repeat forever, and in the Long Game it demonstrably does. The game is called at that point for whoever has taken more, and is a draw if the two of you are level. A Mid-game, the daily’s rule set, also ends after ten turns each, and is decided the same way by what each of you captured.