Pick a pit.
Outsmart the board.

Start with five shells in each of your seven pits. Pick up all shells from one pit and sow one at a time clockwise. When your hand is empty, pick up the next pit and continue until the pit after your last shell is empty. This Shell Relay ends in a Twin Catch: collect shells from the pit beyond that empty pit and the pit opposite it, if they have any. Then your turn passes.

When a pit reaches exactly four shells, it triggers a Four-shell Sweep: the owner of that row collects those four shells, even if the other player sowed them. When a row runs out, each player refills their own pits with groups of five. Any pit you cannot fill because you have fewer than five shells left becomes a Resting Pit for that round. It may be filled again in a later round. The first player who cannot refill any pit loses.