Malawi
Malawi Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Materials
- 1 6x6 board
- 6 white and 6 brown pieces
- 12 balls of each colour
Objective
Place one of your pieces on your opponent's back row. It should have at least one ball. It should not be possible for its balls to be taken on the next move.
The Game
The players each stand their pieces on their back rows. They place two balls on each figure. They now take turns and choose one of the following three actions.
- Moves: Players can move the chosen piece as many squares sideways, forwards or backwards as the piece has balls; if it has 4 balls it must move 4 squares. The pieces may neither jump nor change direction.
- Sharing: Players may take all the balls from a selected piece and place one each on any of their other pieces. Exception: if a tower has six balls only five balls may be placed on the other five pieces and so one ball is lost and is removed from the game.
- Capturing: Only balls are captured, not pieces. The capturing piece and the threatened piece stay on their own squares. Example: a white piece and a brown piece stand two squares apart. They have two balls and three balls respectively. It is white's move and white can remove the three brown balls from the game as long as there is no piece between the white and brown pieces. Pieces whose balls have been captured can be activated again by the sharing of balls. Therefore, capturing only limits the movement possibilities; the number of pieces always remains the same. If a player loses all their balls they can no longer move and have lost.
Strategy
It is not possible to defend a piece; it can only be moved, or its balls can be shared amongst the player's other pieces. It can also be moved between two pieces to avoid a threat. Counter-threats can often be created when balls are shared.