Description

"Unee Tugaluulach (Mongolian: ???? ??????????, "let the cows calve"), also spelled Unee Tugaluulax, is a mancala game played by Kazakhs in western Mongolia near the Chinese border. It was described by Namzhildorzh in 1963 for the first time. Although a very small board is used, the game is challenging for humans (not so much for computers) because it usually takes more than 150 moves.

Rules:

The game is played on a board (khölög) of 2 x 3 = 6 holes. Initially each hole contains six dungballs (khorgol), excrements of camels, goats and sheep are recommended.

At his turn a player distributes the contents of one of his holes, one by one, in a clockwise direction (viewed as the male direction in Mongolia). The first ball must be dropped into the succeeding hole.

If the last ball is dropped into one of your own holes which then contains four balls, you capture the contents (four balls).

The game ends when a player cannot move or the board position repeats.

If a player cannot move, the remaining balls are captured by the player who was able to move last. The player with most balls wins.

The traditional rule for what happens when the board position repeats is unknown. In other mancala games, counters that continue to circulate around the board are either divided between the players (Oware) or they are not counted (Cross-Wari). It is also possible that the game is considered to end without result (Aw-li On-nam Ot-tjin)."