Oha
| Years active | at least 1000 |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Tanni |
| Players | 2 |
| Random chance | Some |
| Skill(s) required | Strategy |
| Synonym(s) | oʼhà, hoja, ó¹ha³ |
Oha (Mañi oʼhà "Take five", Hlung: hoja, Ndxiixun: ó¹ha³) is a Xuni board game and the origin of the tanni class of board games.
History
(tbd)
Traditionally, the game was played with small figurines or tokens representing the animals of each suit. Fine examples of these figurines could be quite expensive and valuable, or they could be roughly hewn or improvised tokens. In the 11th century CE, playing cards began to displace these tokens. Playing card and figurine variants of the game coexisted for some time, with figurines being more common in rural areas. With the advent of industrialization and mass produced playing cards, oha and its variants are now almost exclusively played with cards. A very small but devoted traditional oha revivalist community exists which uses figurines, some made in the traditional way and some 3D printed.
Rules
The game is traditionally played with 3 piles of stones, with one pile of 3 stones, one pile of 4 stones, and one pile of 5 stones. In a 2 player game, players are dealt 6 cards each from the bottom 3 cards of each suit of a Xuni-suited playing card deck. On their turn, a player can either take a single stone, or play a card. The last player to take a stone wins.
The action of the cards depends on the suit and number:
- bat: add n stones, either to an existing pile or each as a new pile of 1 stone
- tapir: take n+1 stones from a single pile
- snake: take n additional turns (you may not play a snake card on any of those new turns, and all stones that you take must be from the same pile)
- shark: the opponent discards n cards
Variants
The game can be adapted for more players by increasing the number of stones, increasing the size of the deck, decreasing the size of each player's hand, or all of the above.
There is a game variant in which the last player to take a stone loses.
The most common variant in southern Quaxin Xun, hoja, merges the snake and tapir suits and adds the white and black elephant cards to the deck. The white elephant card passes and the black elephant takes an additional turn.
Derivatives
The game taongio ma, a derivative of oha, is popular in Goal. It differs from oha by having four players and being played using a different deck. There is no suit corresponding to snake.
Tpanaa is an oha derivative of Maypaw origin. Instead of selecting cards to choose an action, players roll dice, which are very similar to kwąt dice.