Nine Men's Morris

Objective

Nine Men's Morris is a two player strategy game. The board contains a grid with 24 intersecting points. Initially each player starts with 9 pieces of one color (black or white) outside the board. Players try to form "mills" (3 pieces aligned horizontally or vertically) which allows them to remove opponent's piece from the game. The aim is to reduce opponent to two pieces or, leave opponent without a legal move to win the game.

Gameplay

Game starts with empty board and played as following.

  • Placing Pieces - Players take turn to place their pieces on empty points (one piece per turn). Once a line of 3 pieces is formed (called a mill), you can remove one of opponent's pieces. A piece in an opponent's mill can only be removed if no other pieces are available for removal.
  • Moving Pieces - Once all pieces are placed on the board, players take turn to move a piece to an adjacent point. Players continue to try and form mills to remove opponent's pieces.
  • Flying - Once a player is left with only 3 pieces, the limitation to move a piece only to adjacent vacant point is removed and both players can move a piece to any vacant point on their turn (called flying).

Leave your opponent with only 2 pieces or no legal move to win.