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Shakala |
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Shakala is a kind of Glass Bead Game 2.0. It introduces a generic change that in principle can be applied to most mancalas: a double track. More specifically, an outer and an inner track and two 'fork pits' where players may choose which track to follow. I did actually consider changing this topology several times in the past, but it was only after Mike Zapawa tried to rekindle interest in the mancala family of games at the BGG Abstract Games Forum that I gave it some serious thought. So I returned to an old idea of different intersecting tracks and at a certain point it occured to me that I could give players an actual choice of which track to take. That was the clue and instead of two rows of five pits I suddenly saw four rows of four pits, that is: a regular 4x4 board of pits. And that was it. Enschede, May 2022 christian freeling |