Play-tested rules variant of Queah's game

Why this variant

I have played this game for some time and then I noticed that it gave an advantage to a second player. Also if a player has to put a piece and immediately play it, the game becomes pretty repetitive. Moreover no other West African game known to me has the mechanics of mandatory placing a piece and immeditaly moving, which is what most of the rules on the web state. I tried to change the rules a bit and now I use those:

placing of a replacement stone is done instead of actual move/capture, not before it
a player is not required to replace a stone after capture and may do it later

These rules are in line with other games from Western Africa and do not contradict the rules explained in “Travel sketches from Liberia” which is the rules source (the rules described there are not 100% clear and various options are possible). Game became more playable and fun.

In house I add one more rules to make the game less drawish:

player cannot do a move which is a mirror move to the previous one - thus moving a piece there and back is fobridden

The game of Queah can either be played on a 5x5 checkered board - then moves can be described as being diagonal, or on a special 13-spaces board, then moves can be described as orthogonal. Because of this, the words “orthogonally” and “diagonally” may be misleading and I won’t use them. Following rules assume you play on a special 13-spaces board.

Proposed rules

The game is played by two players, black and white (men and women originally) on a special 13-spaces board.

Each player has 10 pieces. Four pieces are positioned at board according to a photo, the other pieces are kept in hand.

         +---+
         | 0 |
     +---+---+---+
     | 0 | 0 |   |
 +---+---+---+---+---+
 |   | 0 |   | * |   |
 +---+---+---+---+---+
     |   | * | * |
     +---+---+---+
         | * |
         +---+

Players decide who is to move first.
During his move a player may do exactly one of the following:
- Move one step into any adjacent space. However, to avoid drawish situations, moving back-and-forth is forbidden, or in more formal words: a piece cannot be moved into a space it occupied at the start of a previous move.
- Capture a single enemy at the adjacent space, by jumping over it into the space beyond, which must be empty. There are no multiple captures in the game. Captured pieces are removed from the board. Captures are not mandatory.
- Place a piece into any empty space on the board, if player still has pieces in hand and there are less than 4 his pieces on board.
Note: Adjacent spaces are those, which share the side (not those who share only an angle) - so max 4 available moves for a piece.
A player wins the game by either capturing the last enemy piece, or when an enemy player has no available moves.

You may choose to play with mandatory capture, which is a departure from usual West African games, but may bring more dynamics.

These rules on BoardGameGeek

Original German rules:

Dasselbe kann einigermaassen mit unserem Damspiel verglichen werden . Es ist aus zusammengefügten Holzstäbchen hergestellt , die 14 Fächer bilden . Die Spieler setzen sich , wie beim Poh - Spiel , einander gegenüber , mit dem Spiel in der Mitte . Jeder Theilnehmer hat 10 flache , lange Holzstäb- chen , die unten zugespitzt sind . Die Stäbchen der einen Partei sind am obern Ende , um sie kenntlich zu machen , schief abge- schnitten ( sogenannte Männchen ) , die anderen zehn aber gerade ( Weibchen ) . Jeder Spieler setzt vier Stäbchen , und in abwech- selnden Zügen trachtet Einer dem Andern durch Ueberspringen die seinigen wegzunehmen . Derjenige , welcher ein Stäbchen verliert , ersetzt dasselbe durch ein anderes , bis sein Vorrath erschöpft ist . Es sind also nie mehr als acht Stäbchen zugleich im Spiel . Wer sie Alle verliert oder durch die Gegenpartei matt gesetzt wird , ist geschlagen . So sehr dieses Spiel auch an manche bei uns gebräuchliche erinnern mag , so glaube ich doch nicht , dass es europäischen Ursprungs sei .