Thank you for playing the Bean Game, an ancient game of strategy originally played with stones or beans on a wooden board.
If you feel that the rules are complicated, don't worry. Everything is automatic for you. You will not be allowed to make an illegal move. Pleast just briefly glance over the rules, then jump right into playing. You will quickly learn from your mistakes! The rules are here for your future reference more than anything else.
The rectangles in this game represent indentations or wells carved into the wooden board. The wells serve as containers for the beans, which are represented by the large black numbers.
The large well nearest to the bottom of the screen is your home well. The object of the game is to gather as many beans as possible in your home well.
The six wells along the right side of the board are the wells over which you have control. On your turn, you can choose to empty any one of these six wells, and distribute the beans that were contained in it to the other wells, one by one in a counter-clockwise fashion until all the beans that were originally in the well you chose are gone.
When sowing beans in this fashion, place one bean in each well as you go around, including your home well, but excluding the home well of your opponent. This will all be done automatically for you. All you need to do is click on the small rectangular button to the right of the well that you want to empty.
If the last bean you sow should land in an empty well that belongs to you, one of the six on the right side of the board, you capture the bean that landed in the empty well, and all of the beans that are in your opponent's well immediately opposite your empty well. All captured pieces are automatically placed in your home well for you.
If the last bean you sow lands in your home well, you are awarded an additional turn. You will be reminded of this rule when it is invoked during the game, since it is easy to forget but very important.
You will notice two white circles on the game board. One of them will contain a black dot. If the dot is in the circle on the left side of the board near the top, it is the computer's turn. To allow the computer to make a move, click the long rectangular button on the left side of the screen. This function is so that you can more easily keep track of who moved where.
Give it a try! You will learn much better from doing than reading.
