Episode 89 AP Table Talk: Mancala
AP Table Talk: Mancala
Episode Summary:
In this episode of AP Table Talk, Brian and Dave Eng discuss board games that utilize the Mancala mechanic, which involves moving pieces along a board with hollows or pockets. They start by reminiscing about Dave’s childhood memories of playing Mancala with his mom's old board. They then explore modern board games that have popularized this mechanic, such as Five Tribes and Trajan. They also discuss other games like Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done and Fruit Picking, which offer variations of the Mancala mechanic.
Brian Eng:
Hello, and welcome to AP Table Talk, a podcast where we explore board games and what makes them interesting to us. And by us, I mean our hosts: myself, Brian, and….
Dave Eng:
And I'm Dave.
Brian Eng:
Hey, Dave. Okay, so this is our second episode.
Dave Eng:
Mm-hmm.
Brian Eng:
What are we talking about this week?
Dave Eng:
In this episode, we are going to discuss the Mancala mechanic.
Brian Eng:
Okay, Mancala mechanic. Okay, so when I think about that mechanic, the first thing that comes to mind, when I try to define it, I think about the movement part of that mechanic, where you kind of pick up all the pieces in one space and place them one at a time, in order, around the next spaces until you run out of pieces.
Dave Eng:
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that is one of the most iconic parts of Mancala, and probably the thing that a lot of players will see most of. But according to BGG, the description on the site there is, in a typical Mancala mechanism, players pick up tokens in one space and then place them one-by-one in spaces in a specific direction, around a circle, with the last space being placed, having special significance.
So, you talked about those individual pieces, picking them up and putting them into those individual spaces. I think that's one of the aspects of this mechanic a lot of people are going to be able to identify with.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, and I think when I looked more into it, I realized, it's almost like two mechanics mixed together. There's the movement portion that I described, and then that last part where the space that you end up in has a special action.
And I almost call the first part kind of sowing. I've heard it described as the sowing action. And then yeah, you have your special action. Yeah, it is kind of a combination of two, but sowing, I noticed, is not a mechanic, at least in the BoardGameGeek list, on its own.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. I think there might be a mechanic in there where it is you're building up to something in the future, which is kind of like what you see with Mancala. I'm kind of blanking on what that is specifically, but no doubt we'll cover it in a future episode.
Brian Eng:
Right. Okay, so I guess we'll go through some examples that we have. Shall we do our roll?
Dave Eng:
All right. Should we roll for initiative?
Brian Eng:
All right.
Dave Eng:
All right. On your count.
Brian Eng:
Go ahead. I got a three.
Dave Eng:
You got 15.
Brian Eng:
All right.
Dave Eng:
Nice, so I'll lead off on this one. So, when we were discussing this before, we were talking about our top three games that have the Mancala mechanic. So, I'm going to go with my number one first, which is the earliest incarnation of it.
For me, it was actually playing the game that my mom taught me, which is Mancala, using the board that she used when she was a kid. And it was that definition, straight-up, meaning that each of the pots, which is what we call where you put the seeds in, started out with some seeds, and you'd pick all the seeds up from one pot and go all the way around the board, in order to deposit it across from a pot that had all the seeds, in an attempt to capture them.
My number two on this list here is probably the biggest game that has the Mancala mechanic, and the one that I think would be the most popular would be Five Tribes. I know that it's an older game. And Trajan also uses the Mancala mechanic, but I think Five Tribes is one of the more modern games that has popularized the mechanic. Over time, it's kind of iterated on it a little bit, compared at least to the original Mancala game.
And then my third choice, and the one that I think is interesting here, is one that actually Brian and I were playing on BGA recently, that's Board Game Arena, is Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done. Which I think is interesting, because wherever you're depositing your individual beads, on your rondel, using this Mancala mechanic, triggers something that happens on a board, or battles, or building or anything else, which I think is kind of cool and something that we're going to be talking about later.
So, how about you, bro? What are some Mancala examples for you?
Brian Eng:
So, we have a bit of overlap here, but I think the first one, being the most iconic, and given its namesake, is Mancala itself. And I think the one, again, most people are familiar with is kind of the 1940s version with, I think it's 12 tall spaces plus the end pockets. And I think, at least amongst the bigger board gamers, they've played this at some point or another, whether they remember the rules and things like that. But yeah, it's hard to discuss the Mancala mechanic without Mancala itself.
I also think that Bruno Cathala's Five Tribes is a pretty obvious choice for this one. I think I would even call it his biggest game. Now, that being said, I put it on this list because it kind of comes up obvious to me, and I don't think I've actually played it yet. But I know that it uses the mechanic.
Dave Eng:
It's probably one of his biggest games, but I don't know. I mean, he has designed Takenoko. [Correction: Takenoko was designed by Antoine Bauza NOT Bruno Cathala.]
Brian Eng:
Yeah, he's got a lot out there.
Dave Eng:
Yeah.
Brian Eng:
But I think it's definitely up there for one that people would kind of label as one of his big ones.
Dave Eng:
Mm-hmm.
Brian Eng:
And then my third one was, I actually first saw this game on Kickstarter when I had just started and hadn't wasted all my money in Kickstarter. It was called Tak. It's an abstract game. It's based on a game that was actually in a fantasy novel from 2011, part of the King Killer Chronicle series. I don't know if you're familiar with that, Dave.
Dave Eng:
No, no. I didn't even know it was actually part of a novel.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, it was described in the novel. And then, I forget the designer, but they basically realized the game. I just really liked that they brought this history to the game, and the pieces were really ... It reminded you of almost the kind of grace that a really nice chess set has, with Tak.
And I want to say, it changes up the mechanic a little bit, but it has the same kind of sowing movement. And one of the differences is it has a few different pieces that, when they land on certain spaces, can do special things. But I'll be discussing it more later on in this episode.
Dave Eng:
Nice, cool. Well, that provides good, major examples of Mancala. Let's jump into our likes for the mechanic. We'll roll for initiative again?
Brian Eng:
Sure, all right.
Dave Eng:
All right.
Brian Eng:
I'm ready.
Dave Eng:
Three, two, one, roll!
Brian Eng:
I got a 14.
Dave Eng:
I got three, so you can lead.
Brian Eng:
Okay. So, my first like that I have listed here is, I like the simplicity of the mechanic. And by that, I mean it is a mechanic I find that is easy to learn, or teach, but can still provide some very strategic elements to that. What's your first like?
Dave Eng:
So mine, I think, echoes a lot of what you said. I wrote down specifically, the Mancala mechanic offers a very "short, visual puzzle to solve." My specific game that I like to reference here is Fruit Picking, which we've also played on Board Game Arena. I own a copy.
I really like that aspect, because I don't feel like I am going to be paralyzed by decision. I can look at the individual seeds that are in those individual farms in Fruit Picking, and I can kind of map out my moves, one or two turns in advance. So, I like the fact that it's still a visual puzzle, but it's not something that's overwhelming.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, I agree. Fruit Picking does give you that simple ... You can lay it out and see where that next move is going to take you.
Now, to contrast that, I will say that, when I was looking, researching this episode a little bit and watching a little bit of a play-through of Five Tribes, because of the way the mechanic is implemented in that game, I almost think that, for some people, it could be the opposite because of how much is going on in Five Tribes. You could leave yourself with a lot of AP, analysis paralysis, in your movement in trying to math it out.
But Fruit Picking is kind of the converse to that, because it is a little bit of a simpler game, which actually is also one of my second like, is that satisfaction you get when your movement works out and you're able to chain some things. Again, my example is Fruit Picking, because you get that free move when you land on the harvest house. So, being able to chain the harvest house with picking a market card and then doing the harvest house again to re-fill up your currency, yeah, I like that. That really gives me that sense of satisfaction when that works out.
Dave Eng:
And I think that that being able to chain things, I think is something we see in a lot of other games too. Just basically finding that synergy, being able to chain different things.
My second like is the building up of future actions by dropping tokens on them. And that's something that we've experienced when we've been playing Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done, in that the dropping of the beads around the rondel, that mechanic allows you to really set up a big, big future action. But the actions leading up to it, at least on the rondel, also benefit from that action.
Now, there's a lot of play in how those individual beads on the rondel build up. But I like that, in Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done, you can have a really, really big action if you do enough prior actions leading up to it.
Brian Eng:
Right, yeah, building up that space with a lot of pieces. And they even managed to mitigate that, because I know that, at one point in our last game, I had a ton of pieces and I didn't really want to use that action. And what I realized is, if you do the upgrade where you get to flip a space to have two different actions, you get to dish out pieces from any of these spaces. Which, I did not read that rule ahead of time, so that was a good surprise for me.
Dave Eng:
Well, you were the only one, I think, to upgrade in that game. I just stayed with the vanilla starting pie slices for this rondel, and just went from there.
Brian Eng:
I was tempted to not upgrade, but I felt, maybe the same reason you did, I felt it was less efficient, because I wasn't getting an action done. But the fact that I could dish ... That I could spread the pieces out on, I think it was on a travel space and I didn't need to move very much at that point. So, I had a bunch of pieces on travel, and it let me kind of distribute them again and not fully waste the turn. But yeah, it was interesting.
Dave Eng:
I also think, there is that opportunity cost, right? In that, when you do that action, it's kind of null, right, because you get to upgrade. But you do get to distribute your beads around the rondel. But, in the future, since that slice of your pie has been upgraded, you now have two actions you can take, and then divide those beads as you like, based on those actions.
Brian Eng:
Right, and you could either take that as an opportunity to distribute those beads, but also, if you're more concerned about having that double action, you definitely want to get those upgrades maybe earlier, but not too early. It's a good trade-off kind of gamble.
Dave Eng:
Yep, exactly.
Brian Eng:
So, my third like that I have there, which I do ... Maybe it's not specific to the mechanic, but specific to some of the abstracts that use the Mancala mechanic, is that, in my experience, they tend to have a really nice component feel, because a lot of your time is spent holding those pieces. So, the Mancala sets that I've played will have either nice glass beads or whatever, which are nice to scoop out of those rounded slots and move them around. There's always something to be said about nice components. I've always liked the Hive bakelite pieces, just nice to hang onto and touch...
Dave Eng:
The same thing with Azul, the first Azul too.
Brian Eng:
Yes, the original Azul pieces.
Dave Eng:
They're very nice, tactile pieces.
Brian Eng:
I've heard that the newer print pieces are not as nice, and Tak, again, another one that has some nice components.
Dave Eng:
Right. It's funny you said that, because that's actually my third one as well. I said that the beads and tokens can be used to serve up a very tactile, sensory experience. I say this as someone that attempts to play Go but is not very good at playing Go. But just holding the stones in your hand as you think about your move is a very calming experience. And I think that, for a game like Mancala that has very limited components, being able to have that tactile, sensory experience is really a positive aspect for this game, and I think for any type of game that uses the Mancala mechanic, in general.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, I agree, definitely. I like to have those nice pieces in any game, but because you're handling the pieces so much in a Mancala mechanic, it's extra nice to have those pieces.
Dave Eng:
Mm-hmm.
Brian Eng:
That kind of wraps up my likes. Do you have any additional ones you wanted to add?
Dave Eng:
No, that's it. Should we roll for initiative, for dislikes?
Brian Eng:
Sure.
Dave Eng:
All right, so ready when you are.
Brian Eng:
Yep.
Dave Eng:
And go.
Brian Eng:
17.
Dave Eng:
Five, so you get the lead.
Brian Eng:
Okay. Dislikes, okay. I've only got a couple here. Depending on the game, or depending on the player type I guess, for some people, this Mancala mechanic could slow the game down, again, with that ability to count out your spaces and kind of math everything out. I could see some people that don't like to estimate, taking really long turns, being able to count everything out. That's always something that kind of bothers me, as I sit and watch people count out every possibility of their turn.
Dave Eng:
Right. Mine, and you actually brought this up actually in likes, is depending on the game, Mancala can actually be very analysis paralysis prone. And the game I bring up as an example is Five Tribes. And I've kind of been a victim of this myself, because when you have different components, and these are the meeples in Five Tribes, and you have many different directions in which you can drop them in, that creates many more different permutations for how you could distribute these beads, or tokens, or workers, or what have you.
I think, again, now comparing Five Tribes to Fruit Picking, Fruit Picking is a lot more simple because all of the components are the same, and you can really only go in one direction, which is clockwise. Five Tribes kind of flies in the face of that. And with those many new options, it is yes, very easy to fall into analysis paralysis.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. Yeah, I definitely see that. I also saw that sentiment given in the Shut Up & Sit Down review of Five Tribes. They talked about that. And, I think Quinn's response to that is that, instead of trying to play the best move, you should just be trying to play a good move. Because the game state changes so much from turn to turn that you can't really ... That mathing it out, yeah, it takes you a long time, but it doesn't actually benefit you that much in that game. Again, I can only kind of quote what they said, because I haven't played that game myself.
Dave Eng:
All right.
Brian Eng:
That's all I have for ... Oh, sorry, I do have another one.
Dave Eng:
Okay.
Brian Eng:
This I've heard specifically in Mancala, where the game is a little simpler. Some people can find that mechanic repetitive. I mean, in Mancala, that's kind of what you're doing the entire game. So, I could see, if you're just playing game after game, it might be too simple for people, a little bit repetitive to do that over and over again. It's a minor one of mine, but.
Dave Eng:
Right. Yeah, I think it's all right because, if you consider Mancala more in the vein of the abstract games, you're basically doing the same thing every core loop. You just will look at the board state or the game state and try to make the best decision you can.
Mine, and you brought this up actually in likes as well, and this brings me back to my memories of playing Mancala with my mom, is the beads. And you specifically talked about glass beads for that tactile, sensory experience. For me, it was always like, can you count or can you not count? The way the glass beads play into this is, when you have a pile of them, like in a pot on the Mancala board, it's very difficult to count them there.
Brian Eng:
Right, so you kind of have to just ... Unless you're allowed to stick your finger in there and kind of move them around and actually count it out once the pile is big.
Dave Eng:
Right. But I mean, I've heard some stories where you can't ... Even if you do track it mentally, how many seeds are in each individual pot, you're not supposed to. So, I think it's an interesting part of the magic circle and what the individual rules are for the game. Is it explicit, can you count, can you not count? What is the method of counting, et cetera. So, I think that's one of the aspects of the game that I think is ... It's not necessarily bad or good, but it's up for debate, depending on a lot of things.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. I think that applies to a lot of games. My general philosophy, personally, is that I don't ever really like that fully mathing out your turns. I like to just go with that gut feeling.
And I mean, it's situational, obviously, if sometimes there's that one last really big move that you kind of have to be, "Well, this could make or break the thing, so I'm going to math out my two choices and figure it out." But generally, I find that to be a little annoying to play against, so I avoid doing it. But I know that everyone kind of has their nitpicks on how they like to play that out.
Dave Eng:
Right, yeah. I've got one more dislike.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, go ahead.
Dave Eng:
And this has especially hindered me several games now with Fruit Picking, is that it can take one too many turns to charge up to take the action that you want to take. And I think that's kind of the trade-off with Fruit Picking. There's only one direction you can go in, all of the beads are homogenous so that they're the same.
But, when you look at Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done, you can take that upgrade action and kind of distribute your beads in the best way possible. But in Fruit Picking, I find myself being one move away from being able to trigger the end of the game, and not being able to do it because I don't have the beads in the right position. So, that's really my dislike, but I guess it really depends on the application of this mechanic.
Brian Eng:
Right. And I do even see, also in Crusaders, they kind of mix that up a little bit with the variable player powers. Because I noticed that one of the player powers is that you can choose to go around the rondel in either direction, which was interesting as well.
Dave Eng:
Mm-hmm. And there's another faction that I played with actually during our first game, where you can choose where to begin laying out the beads, either in the next space or in the space that you just resolved.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, so it gives you a little bit of agency there to kind of get out of certain situations. But also, they twist up that mechanic a little bit. Well, actually, this brings us into our next section, the twists and variations. Because they kind of twist it up because you ... Yeah, I'm jumping ahead of our roll for initiative here. I'll finish my point here and then we'll do that.
They change up that mechanic, because your special action is taken first, instead of where your beads land. You choose your action space first. But yeah, let's go ahead and do our roll here, and then we can do our other variations.
Dave Eng:
All right. I'm rolling. I got a seven.
Brian Eng:
I got an ... Oh, a six. All right, you just beat me.
Dave Eng:
All right. So, me, and I talked a little bit about this before, which is the use of the beads in the game, I think, offer up a lot of opportunities for iterating on this. So, like I said, with Fruit Picking, and also with Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done, all of the beads are homogenous, they're all the same thing. Whereas, with Five Tribes, the color of those different meeples and those different workers allow you to do different things based on where they land.
So, I think having different-colored beads, different-colored components, maybe even having different-colored pots where you deposit them, and you kind of see that in Five Tribes as well, offers up a lot of ability to change up how you can use this mechanic. However, I think you also have to be careful about engaging in some analysis paralysis that some players may have with those additional options. How about you, Brian?
Brian Eng:
Right. Yeah, that's a little bit related to my first variation here, which is, in the game Tak, you actually have ... So, you're building a road. Their pieces are stones that create a road from one side of the board to the other. It's a two-player game. Each player has their, let's just say white pieces or black pieces. And you can place them where you want, and you move them in that sowing method where you pick up a stack and then you place them, as many as you want down at a time, in one direction.
And they vary the mechanic in a number of ways. One, in that you can pick up as much of the stack as you want, you don't have to take the whole thing. And you can put down as many pieces as you want as you go along as well. One of the twists there is you can only pick up stacks where your colored piece is at the top, where they say you control the stack. So, again, they're using the different colors to kind of change the action that you can do on the space.
Dave Eng:
Hmm, interesting. I haven't played it before, but now I kind of want to.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, we should try that one out, for sure. I like that one. It's up there for me. Again, I wanted to own it basically because it looked really good, and then the game itself interested me after that.
Dave Eng:
Right. I think my next twist and variation that I could see on this mechanic is that, kind of like you said before, action selection depending on where you land. I think you brought up a good point about Crusaders, in that you resolve the action first of that spot and then you distribute the beads around.
So, I think if you use the Mancala mechanic as sort of a framework for doing something else, I think I could see some iteration here. We haven't recorded the episode yet, but one of the recent mechanics that I like and I got really into is trick-taking, and I seeing different iterations and how they can be used. I think one of my favorite new iterations of that is the game Brian Boru, with trick-taking.
Likewise, I think the Mancala mechanic doesn't get as much love as it could get, because it is ... Yes, I would say "a simple mechanic", but it doesn't mean that it's not something that has a solid framework that you can build off of. So, I'd like to see greater variety in how actions are resolved on the Mancala; basically, when you pick up the beads or when you drop the beads, or wherever the beads land at the very end.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. And my next one, actually, is also going back to Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done again. One thing that they also did, in addition to doing the action from the starting space, the power of the action being related to the number of pieces on the space was also another interesting, and I guess that's sort of related to Fruit Picking as well, where the number of pieces you had at the harvest house was your currency essentially. So, you're trying to make sure you have pieces there before you land on the space that you want, essentially using the number of pieces on a space as another piece of the puzzle.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. And I think that determining ... And you brought this up, too, with Tak, which now I want to play and sink my teeth into because you made it sound really interesting, is that action selection.
I could see right now, I'm thinking about marrying something like the Mancala mechanic with area control, where you do have different-colored beads in those individual pots, but you can control a pot based on which was the last bead placed, or whoever has the majority of beads in there. So, I think looking at, maybe you do design a game that has the Mancala mechanic but you marry it with some other mechanics and make it part of the skeleton, part of the structure, or a complementary mechanic.
But an additional one that I had was using the action selection to determine what happens with that pot. In most Mancala games, whenever you resolve an action, you're going to have to move those beads around, but perhaps, you don't. Perhaps you offer up a different option for players: perhaps you move it counterclockwise, or clockwise; perhaps you remove it from the game, maybe use it as part of scoring, or something else. And I think there's a lot of opportunity to iterate on that.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, actually, speaking of that, again when we discussed the definition itself, I tend to associate the sowing mechanic part of the Mancala mechanic as the mechanic itself.
Dave Eng:
Mm-hmm.
Brian Eng:
But if I look at it the other way, actually one of my favorite games, Istanbul, where you move your two spaces and you ... Well, they change it a little bit, in that you are either picking up your assistant or dropping off your assistant, and then doing that action in that space.
But the ability to, you're not necessarily doing the sowing part, but you're getting to that space to do your action, and also either picking up a piece or dropping off a piece to allow you to continue to chain your engine that you're building in that game. Which, I really remember finding that very unique when I was introduced to that game.
Dave Eng:
Yeah, and we played it too. I think it has its staying power.
Brian Eng:
Yeah, I think I was introduced to that with your PAX friends that became my PAX friends.
Dave Eng:
Oh, in the first year we went to PAX.
Brian Eng:
Yeah.
Dave Eng:
I just wanted to bring up this one last quotation. So, a lot of the influence for these episodes are the book on board game mechanics by Geoff Engelstein and Isaac Shalev. And I wanted to read a quotation from the book that I think is really apropos for our discussion and what we discussed so far.
So, both Geoff and Isaac said, about Mancala specifically, "These systems have a lot of opportunity for clever play and are highly interactive as pieces from all players are commingled and directly impact the options available to each."
One thing that I don't think either of us addressed in the episode so far is the fact that the Mancala does not necessarily need to be a game state mechanic. You can have individuals have their own individual rondel, and that is the basis for Crusaders, but we didn't really identify it as that. That is your rondel, that is you moving things on your Mancala.
Whereas, many of the other games we talked about before, they include a Mancala that is part of the global game state. So, everyone looks at that one board and they make decisions based on how it's set up there.
Brian Eng:
Yeah. Actually, we kept going through the examples and that didn't even occur to me, because Fruit Picking, again, you have your own board, which is even not necessarily set up the same as the other player's board. And I think that's a variant, that you can either have symmetrical boards or different boards.
Whereas, a lot of the times, yeah, you're playing on a global board. Yeah, I guess that's an interesting variation we didn't have on our list there as well.
Dave Eng:
Yeah.
Brian Eng:
Well, that's all I have for twists and variations. Did you have any more that you wanted to add?
Dave Eng:
Nope, that's all for me.
Brian Eng:
Okay. Now, in our last episode, we got into talking about some of the history of the mechanic. Now, this one was a little more on the nose, because the mechanic itself is kind of named after the game that followed.
And I did look into it a little bit. So, the Mancala that I think most people are familiar with is actually not as old as it seems. It's based on a series of games in the Kalah collection from around the 1940s. But that type of mechanic, I think has been traced back to Ancient Egypt, so 3,000 BC or something like that. And they've seen versions of it popping up throughout history, through the third century and things like that.
But yeah, I think most people are ... What they're familiar with, with the game Mancala is kind of a modern version, which is really just from the 1940s, which, when we talk about old board games, is not that old. Definitely older than the modern games we're used to covering and exploring now.
Dave Eng:
Yeah. I think when I was also doing some research, I discovered the same things. So, those different aspects about the history of the game.
One thing I thought was interesting was that it really doesn't require a whole lot of components, to the point where some versions of the game can be played by just digging into the earth and making those individual pots there, and using stones or seeds for the actual components of the game. So, it doesn't require a lot. Kind of similar to checkers, it just requires a gridded surface and those individual components.
What I thought was interesting, though, was that there are some instances of the Mancala game that we know today, that it's actually carved into stone. So, it's not necessarily a portable gaming board, but rather, it's something that's built into a space, similar to how you would see chess and checkers boards built into park tables.
Brian Eng:
Right, yeah. And I think you find that a lot with the older games. Again, similar to Go, where it's like, "Well, you can just use any slightly off-colored set of stones, and a grid that you can scrape into a rock or whatever, and you can play that game."
I remember watching people doing their desert island top five games, or whatever the number was, and the arguments were always, "Well, I'm not going to bring Go because I can just find rocks and I can do Go." Whether that was against the spirit of the list or not.
Dave Eng:
Yeah.
Brian Eng:
That's pretty much all I had on kind of any other facts about that. I don't know if you looked up anything else related to Mancala.
Dave Eng:
Nope. Just that, in preparation for this episode, I tried to marry, again, two mechanics together. Like I said earlier, on trick-taking, it's one of those mechanics that has become sort of new renaissance for me. So, I embarked on a journey of trying to combine the Mancala mechanic with trick-taking, and I'm using the individual beads as a scoring mechanic.
So, you actually will play a trick, whoever wins the trick can score beads based on wherever they land. And other people can follow the trick or not follow the trick, et cetera. So, still working on it right now, but I'm hoping it'll lead to something new, again, building on Mancala and trick-taking.
Brian Eng:
All right, well, I'll look forward to play-testing that with you.
Dave Eng:
All right.
Brian Eng:
So, I guess that wraps up our Mancala episode of AP Table Talk. If you'd like to hear more content like this, please be sure to subscribe. You can also check out more of our content, projects and other information about us on www.universityxp.com.
Dave Eng:
Thanks for joining us. We'd also love it if you took some time to rate this show. We live to lift others with learning. So, if you found this episode useful, consider sharing it with someone who can also benefit. Until next time, Game On!
References:
Antoine Bauza | Board Game Designer. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/9714/antoine-bauza
Brian Boru: High King of Ireland | Board Game. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/337765/brian-boru-high-king-ireland
Bruno Cathala | Board Game Designer. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/1727/bruno-cathala
Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done | Board Game. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/170624/crusaders-thy-will-be-done
Eng, D. (2020, February 06). Game Mechanics. University XP. Retrieved from https://www.universityxp.com/blog/2020/2/6/game-mechanics
Eng, D. (2020, February 20). Game Components. University XP. Retrieved from https://www.universityxp.com/blog/2020/2/20/game-components
Eng, D. (2020, July 9). What is the Magic Circle? University XP. Retrieved from http://www.universityxp.com/blog/2020/7/9/what-is-the-magic-circle
Eng, D. (2022, October 25). What is Analysis Paralysis? University XP. Retrieved from https://www.universityxp.com/blog/2022/10/25/what-is-analysis-paralysis
Five Tribes | Board Game. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/157354/five-tribes
Fruit Picking | Board Game. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296044/fruit-picking
Kelley, P. (n.d.). Representing Board Game State — The Board. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@yellekau/representing-board-game-state-the-board-a26787011b9f
Mancala | Board Game Mechanic. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2955/mancala
My Kind of Meeple. (n.d.). What is a Meeple? (Definition + Examples + Pictures). Retrieved from https://mykindofmeeple.com/what-is-a-meeple/
Shut Up & Sit Down. (n.d.). Review: Five Tribes. Retrieved from https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-five-tribes/
Tak | Board Game. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/197405/tak
Traditional Games: Mancala | Family. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/9/traditional-games-mancala
Trick-taking | Board Game Mechanic. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2009/trick-taking
Variable Player Powers | Board Game Mechanic. Retrieved from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2015/variable-player-powers
Cite this Episode:
Eng, D. & Eng, B. (Hosts). (2023, July 2). AP Table Talk Mancala. (No. 89) [Audio podcast episode]. Experience Points. University XP. https://www.universityxp.com/podcast/89
Internal Ref: UXPR7UY9JWOS