Rules
Nine Men’s Morris is a two-player board game played for well over a thousand years. Each player has nine pieces. The board has 24 points on three squares, one inside the other, joined by lines at the middle of each side.
Placing
The board starts empty. Players take turns placing one of their pieces on any empty point until both have placed all nine.
Mills
Three of your pieces in a row along one line is a mill. Whenever a move or a placement makes a new mill, you remove one of your opponent’s pieces from the board. A piece in a mill is safe, unless every one of their pieces is in a mill.
Moving
Once all pieces are placed, each turn you move one of your pieces one step along a line to an empty neighbouring point. Moving a piece out of a mill and back in makes a new mill.
Jumping
A player who is down to three pieces may move a piece to any empty point, not just a neighbour.
Winning
You win when your opponent has only two pieces left, or when they cannot make any legal move.
Our version
- Standard rules. The show’s exact rule card is not public, so we use the classic rules: jumping at three pieces, one removal per move even if it makes two mills, and pieces in a mill are safe.
- Who starts: a coin flip.
- Draws: the same position a third time, or 200 moves in total.
- Timer: 60 seconds per move. Running out of time loses.
- Helpers: move highlights (on by default) mark where a selected piece can go. Turn them off in Settings.
- AI: easy looks one move ahead and sometimes plays at random; medium looks three moves ahead; hard searches as deep as it can within a fixed amount of work.
Strategy
Keep your pieces mobile. During placement, filling the corners locks your own pieces in. The four middle points of each side have more neighbours and more lines.
Build two threats at once. A placement that makes two “two in a row” lines can’t be blocked twice.
Block early. When your opponent has two in a row with the third point empty, take that point.
The running mill. In the moving phase, a piece that can step out of a mill and back in removes a piece every two turns. If your opponent has one, break it up before anything else.
Down to three. Jumping makes three pieces dangerous: they can close a mill anywhere. Watch every line where they have two.