Hoyito II
Game type: Two-player two-row mancala without stores; multi-lap relay sowing; casa captures triggered solely by the final counter, claiming unbroken backward chains of fours and awarding an extra turn.
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Overview
Hoyito II is a more strategic and tactically demanding variant within the Dominican Hoyito (Casitas or Mate) mancala tradition, documented during Víktor Bautista i Roca's 2005 field study in the southwestern Dominican Republic. While sharing its cultural heritage and vocabulary with Hoyito I, this variant introduces significant depth by disallowing mid-sow captures, allowing captures to chain backward through consecutive four-seed holes, and granting an additional turn upon capturing. These mechanics make play especially dynamic, particularly when expanded onto longer twelve-hole rows (2x12).
Board
- Ranks/rows: Two
- Holes per row: 6 (can also be played on extended boards of 12 holes per row, which makes calculation more challenging)
- Stores: None
- Seeds per hole at start: 4 (total seeds: 48 on a 2x6 board, 96 on a 2x12 board)
- The board consists of two rows of holes called casitas ("little houses"), scooped out of the earth or chalked onto hard surfaces.
How to Play
- On their turn, a player picks up all contents from one of their own holes and distributes them, one by one, counter-clockwise into subsequent holes.
- If the last stone lands in an occupied hole, relay sowing continues: its contents (including the last distributed counter) are picked up and distributed in a new lap starting from the next hole.
- When the last stone drops into an empty hole, the turn ends.
- If a player cannot move because they have no stones on their side of the board, they pass their turn until stones enter their holes.
Differences from Hoyito I:
- Captures do not occur mid-sow; only the final counter of a move can trigger a capture (no capturing en passant).
- After the contents of the final landing hole are captured, the player also captures any fours residing in preceding holes that form an uninterrupted backward sequence.
- Successfully capturing earns the moving player an immediate extra turn.
Capturing
- A casa (a hole containing exactly four counters) is captured by the moving player only when the last distributed counter creates it.
- There is no mid-sow capture (en passant capture is abolished).
- After capturing the landing hole, the player also captures all groups of four in preceding holes that form an unbroken backward sequence along the sowing track. The chain terminates at the first hole that does not contain exactly four pieces.
- Any turn in which a capture is made earns the active player another turn.
End of Game and Winning
- When only four counters remain on the board (after the penultimate group of four has been captured), the player who captured that penultimate group also claims the final four seeds, ending the game.
- The player who has amassed the higher total of captured stones wins the game.
Notes
- The expanded 2x12 variant was recorded in Villa Jaragua in February 2005 and is regarded as the most challenging configuration of the game.
- The combination of backward-chaining captures and turn continuation rewards careful forward planning and positional defense, distinguishing Hoyito II from the simpler Hoyito I.
Source: Mancala World – Hoyito II