Nine Men's Morris
Created | Updated Nov 27, 2005
Most popular in the 14th century, forms of this game have been found that date back to 1400 BC. It is the earliest of the family of games where the board starts out empty and players place their opposing-color markers one at a time on a board in the attempt to create a winning position. If neither player has won at the end of the "placing" phase, a "moving" phase begins in which pieces are moved to adjacent vacant positions in further efforts to create a win.
In Nine Men's Morris, the board consists of three concentric squares with each square marked by dots at the vertices and the midpoints of each side. Lines are then drawn connecting each of the four sets of midpoint dots to create 6 lines and 24 dots. Each player gets nine playing pieces of his/her own color.
Players alternate turns, each placing a marker on any empty dot, attempting to get three like-color markers along one of the 16 lines (called a mill). The opponent may play a blocking move or a move that attempts to create his own mill. A player who creates a mill can remove any opponent's piece that is not part of a mill. The loser of the game is the first player who cannot make a legal move, or who is left with only two pieces.
After all 18 markers are on the board, if no-one has won, further moves consist of sliding one piece of your color to any adjacent dot along a line in the attempt to make a mill so that another enemy marker can be removed, or to block an oponent from making a mill, or to make it impossible for the oponent to have a legal move.
A normal rule observed is to allow a player with just three markers left on the board to move any of his/her markers to any vacant dot.
The game seems simple, but can be won by either the first or the second player with proper play. The strategy is deep and satisfying. Other names for the game are Mill, Merrills, Morris, and a game for the Palm computer known as Tripples. There are probably other names as well.
Other games in this family are Kensington and an almost forgotten game called Teeko, invented by John Scarne in 1944.
In Nine Men's Morris, the board consists of three concentric squares with each square marked by dots at the vertices and the midpoints of each side. Lines are then drawn connecting each of the four sets of midpoint dots to create 6 lines and 24 dots. Each player gets nine playing pieces of his/her own color.
Players alternate turns, each placing a marker on any empty dot, attempting to get three like-color markers along one of the 16 lines (called a mill). The opponent may play a blocking move or a move that attempts to create his own mill. A player who creates a mill can remove any opponent's piece that is not part of a mill. The loser of the game is the first player who cannot make a legal move, or who is left with only two pieces.
After all 18 markers are on the board, if no-one has won, further moves consist of sliding one piece of your color to any adjacent dot along a line in the attempt to make a mill so that another enemy marker can be removed, or to block an oponent from making a mill, or to make it impossible for the oponent to have a legal move.
A normal rule observed is to allow a player with just three markers left on the board to move any of his/her markers to any vacant dot.
The game seems simple, but can be won by either the first or the second player with proper play. The strategy is deep and satisfying. Other names for the game are Mill, Merrills, Morris, and a game for the Palm computer known as Tripples. There are probably other names as well.
Other games in this family are Kensington and an almost forgotten game called Teeko, invented by John Scarne in 1944.
