Seed Pits: the ancient sowing game explained

Seed Pits is the ancient sowing game, a family of games played in one form or another for a very long time. You scoop up the seeds from one of your pits and drop them one by one round the board, trying to fill your store with more seeds than the computer. In Games by Zaweba it sits on the Board games shelf, and you play the bottom row against the computer.

If you have not met a sowing game before, it can look puzzling at first glance. After a few moves it becomes clear, and then it becomes absorbing.

The board

The board has two rows of pits. Yours is the bottom row, with six pits, and the computer has the row opposite. Each side also has a store, where captured and sown seeds collect. The seeds in your store are your score.

Sowing

On your turn, pick one of your six pits by clicking it. All of its seeds are scooped up and sown one per pit, anticlockwise round the board. As they go round, one drops into your own store, but never into the computer's store, which your seeds skip over.

Extra turns and captures

Two things can happen with the last seed you sow. If it lands in your own store, you go again. That is the most useful thing in the game, since a well-chosen pit can earn several moves in a row.

If the last seed lands in an empty pit on your own side, you capture it, along with all the seeds in the computer's pit directly opposite. Those all go to your store.

When one row is empty, the game ends. Whichever store holds more seeds wins.

Thinking a move ahead

The trick to Seed Pits is counting. Before you click a pit, count how many seeds it holds and where the last one will land. A pit whose seeds will end exactly in your store gives you another turn, so look for those first. Often you can chain several of them, playing the pit nearest your store first and then the next.

Next, look for captures. An empty pit on your side with plenty of seeds opposite is a target. Find a pit whose last seed will land in it.

Then look at the computer's side in the same way. If the computer has a capture waiting against one of your full pits, think about moving those seeds out of danger, or filling the empty pit it would land in.

Keep in mind that every pit you sow drops seeds onto the computer's side too. A big sowing can hand it seeds that help it later, so the biggest pit is not always the best one to choose.

A calm game with deep roots

Seed Pits in Games by Zaweba is quiet and thoughtful, with no clock and no luck at all, since nothing is hidden and nothing is rolled. Esc pauses, F1 brings back the rules, and your wins against the computer are counted on the game's tile in the library. It makes a lovely change from the dice and card games, and it fits well alongside Mill and Draughts on the Board games shelf.