Nine Men's Morris: Play Online Free
The medieval game of mills. Three in a row takes a piece.
How to play
- Each player has nine pieces. Take turns placing them on the empty points where the lines meet.
- Three of your pieces in a row along a line is a mill. Every mill you make lets you take one of your opponent's pieces.
- When all eighteen are placed, take turns sliding one piece along a line to the next empty point.
- A player down to three pieces may fly to any empty point. Leave your opponent with two pieces, or with no move, and you win.
Tips
- Make two-in-a-rows that the computer has to answer, so it spends its turns blocking.
- A piece that can slide out of a mill and back in again makes a new mill every other turn.
- Corners touch only two points; the middle of a side touches three or four. Pieces on corners are easier to hem in.
- Keep your pieces free to move. Being blocked after the placing phase loses the game.
The game of mills
Nine Men's Morris goes by many names: mills, merels, and in German Mühle. Boards were scratched into stone benches and church seats, and cut into the turf of village greens.
It was already played in the Viking age: the game board from the Gokstad ship burial in Norway has Nine Men's Morris on one side and a tafl game on the other. The rules here are the common modern ones, including flying when a player is down to three pieces.
More medieval games
The UsurperHeave together, talk it out, banish the traitor.
The King's Archery ContestHold to draw, aim into the wind, hit the gold.
The JoustSpur, aim, strike. Unhorse five knights.
Hold the CastleLoose arrows, stop the rams, hold the wall.
DuelRead the blade, parry, riposte. Test your reflexes.
Siege: The Trebuchet GameFling stones, topple castles, win the siege.
Viking Chess (Hnefatafl)Lead the king to a corner, or trap him.Questions
Can you take a piece that is in a mill?
Only when every one of your opponent's pieces is in a mill. Otherwise you must take a piece that is not.
What happens with three pieces left?
That player may fly: move any piece to any empty point, not only along a line. It makes a comeback possible.
Can the game be a draw?
Yes. Here it is a draw if the same position comes round three times, or if 30 moves each pass without a capture.
How old is Nine Men's Morris?
Very old. A Viking-age board from the Gokstad ship burial in Norway has it on one side, and by the 1300s it was one of the most played games in Europe. In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania complains that the nine men's morris marked out on the village green is filled up with mud.