Wali (0)

This is a traditional 2-player game from West Africa, played on a 5x6 rectangular board. Each player has 12 game pieces in her own color, which start off the board; traditionally one player uses small sticks, the other uses pebbles. Players initially take turns to place ('drop') one of their pieces on the board. Each must be dropped on an empty space on the board. One source states that this must not be adjacent (orthogonally) to a friendly piece, but the original descriptions by Monot [1950], translated by Murray [1951] only state that - during this stage - no player may form a row of three of her own pieces. If a player cannot make a legal drop, she must pass. This continues until all pieces are placed on the board, or until no more pieces can be placed. After that, in each turn and starting with the player who began the game, each player moves one of their own pieces to an empty adjacent (orthogonal) space on the board. If, by so doing, she is able to make an orthogonal row of exactly three of her own pieces, she may capture one enemy piece (of her choice, presumably). The player who captures all of her opponent's pieces wins the game, and scores two points if this is achieved without any of her own being captured, or one point if she has lost at least one of her own pieces. A series of matches is played, and the series is won by the first player to score 10 points.