Mancala Rules of Stuffing

Video Transcript

"Hello! My name is Melissa Schenk and on behalf of expertvillage.com, today we’re discussing strategy techniques for playing the game Mancala. Our next strategy technique that we’re going to discuss is called stuffing. Basically, what we’re trying to do is just stuff the board, and I’ll show you by our demonstration of the board. It’s all setup here. Stuffing is really the opposite of starving. It’s a defense mechanism really against being rushed out of the game, and it’s also a defense against, in this case, raided. Let’s say it’s my turn, but in your next turn H is trying to steal the stone out of D, the Mancala. Now, there are 8 stones in here, and I’ve got 4 in F. When we are trying to stuff the board, sometimes yes, you have to sacrifice some of your stones, but you are really gaining in the end, because instead of losing 8 stones, you’re only losing a couple of them. You’re going to take these stones here, you’re going to put one into your larger Mancala, one here, one here, one here. Well now, you have stuffed the board so that your opponent could not take that one stone into H and raid D. Very important when you’re trying to not necessarily prolong the game, but you don’t want to lose those stones there, so stuffing is a really great way. You have to sacrifice a few stones, but in the end you’re really gaining a lot in the end. "