Exploring different strategies for the board game mancala, also known as Kalaha.
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Mancala is a two-player zero-sum game, where players compete to capture more marbles than their opponent.
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Each player has six buckets, initially containing four marbles. They also have a score bucket.
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A move is made by player one choosing one of their six buckets, collecting all their marbles.
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The player then distributes the marbles in subsequent buckets, including the player's score bucket, moving in a anti-clockwise direction until no marbles remain.
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The opponent's score bucket is skipped over.
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Some further rules are applied:
- If the player ends in a non-zero bucket, then they collect the stones in that bucket and continue moving anti-clockwise around the board.
- If the player ends their turn in their score bucket, then they get to choose a new move from their non-zero buckets.
- If the player ends in an empty bucket, then the player's turn is over.
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The game is over when either half of the marbles have been captured, or one player manages to empty all the buckets on their side.
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Any remaining marbles on each player's side are added to their total. The winner is the player with the most marbles
- A short article describing this work can be found here
| Strategy | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Random | Moves are chosen with an equal probability |
| Max score | The move which maximises the player's score is chosen. If multiple moves give the same max score, choose randomly |
| Exact Random | If possible, choose a move which ends in player's goal. Otherwise, use random strategy |
| Exact Max Score | Same as Exact Random, except that the fallback strategy is Max score |
| Max marbles | Choose the move which has the most marbles. If multiple moves fit this criteria, choose randomly |
| Max moves | The move which maximises the number of moves a player makes is chosen. If multiple moves give the same number, choose randomly |
| MinMax | Minimax algorithm (with configurable depth) |
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