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#Contents game nine mens morris manual

An ideal position, which typically results in a win, allows a player to shuttle one piece back and forth between two mills, removing a piece every turn. Flying was introduced to compensate when the weaker side is one man away from losing the game.Īt the beginning of the game, it is more important to place pieces in versatile locations rather than to try to form mills immediately and make the mistake of concentrating one's pieces in one area of the board.

#Contents game nine mens morris manual

A 19th-century games manual calls this the "truly rustic mode of playing the game".

Some rules sources say this is the way the game is played, some treat it as a variation, and some do not mention it at all.

When a player is reduced to three pieces, there is no longer a limitation on that player of moving to only adjacent points: The player's men may "fly" (or "hop", or "jump" ) from any point to any vacant point. When one player has been reduced to three men, phase three begins. The act of removing an opponent's man is sometimes called "pounding" the opponent. A player can "break" a mill by moving one of his pieces out of an existing mill, then moving it back to form the same mill a second time (or any number of times), each time removing one of his opponent's men. Players continue to try to form mills and remove their opponent's pieces as in phase one. Players continue to alternate moves, this time moving one of their men to an adjacent point each turn. After all men have been placed, phase two begins. A piece in an opponent's mill, however, can be removed only if no other pieces are available. If a player is able to place three of their pieces on contiguous points in a straight line, vertically or horizontally, they have formed a mill, which allows them to remove one of their opponent's pieces from the board. During the first phase, a player's turn consists of placing a man from their hand onto an empty point. The players determine who plays first and then take turns. Nine men's morris starts on an empty board.

(optional phase) Moving men to any vacant point when the player has been reduced to three men.

A player wins by reducing the opponent to two men (whereupon they can no longer form mills and thus are unable to win) or by leaving them without a legal move. Players try to form 'mills'-three of their own men lined horizontally or vertically-allowing a player to remove an opponent's man from the game. Each player has nine pieces, or men, usually coloured black and white. The board consists of a grid with twenty-four intersections, or points. Three main alternative variations of the game are three, six, and twelve men's morris. The Latin word merellus means 'gamepiece', which may have been corrupted in English to 'morris', while miles is Latin for soldier. It has been shown that with perfect play from both players, the game results in a draw. Nine men's morris is a solved game, that is, a game whose optimal strategy has been calculated. In North America, the game has also been called cowboy checkers, and its board is sometimes printed on the back of checkerboards. The game is also known as nine-man morris, mill, mills, the mill game, merels, merrills, merelles, marelles, morelles, and ninepenny marl in English. Nine men's morris is a strategy board game for two players dating at least to the Roman Empire.