A member of the worldwide mancala family, played in Indonesia on a carved wooden board with two rows of seven small pits and a large store at each end. Traditionally played with cowrie shells or tamarind seeds. Closely related games are played throughout Southeast Asia.
Variant implemented
Javanese Dakon, 2×7 pits with 7 seeds each, multi-lap sowing, capture on landing in an own empty pit.
Board and pieces
Two rows of seven pits, with a larger store ("lumbung") at each end belonging to one player. Traditionally carved from a single piece of wood and played with cowrie shells or tamarind seeds.
Setup
Seven seeds in each of the fourteen small pits — 98 seeds in total. Both stores start empty.
Turn
Take every seed from one of your own pits and sow them one at a time, anticlockwise, into each following pit including your own store but skipping your opponent's store. If the last seed lands in a pit that already contained seeds, pick up that whole pit and continue sowing. This is multi-lap sowing and a single turn can travel a long way.
Capture and scoring
If the last seed of a lap lands in an empty pit on your own side, you capture that seed together with every seed in the pit directly opposite, and all of it goes to your store. If it lands in an empty pit on the opponent's side, the turn simply ends.
Win condition
The game ends when one player has no seeds left on their side. The other player sweeps their remaining seeds into their own store. Whoever holds more seeds wins.
Draw condition
An equal number of seeds in both stores is a draw. A long stretch with no capture also ends the game and is scored where it stands.
Special rules
Landing the final seed exactly in your own store grants another turn. Skilled play is largely about chaining those extra turns.
Computer opponent
Alpha-beta search over the sowing tree. The evaluation weights the store difference heavily, adds a smaller bonus for seeds still under your control, and penalises leaving an empty pit opposite a loaded enemy pit.