Nine Men's Morris

How to Play Nine Men's Morris

Nine Men's Morris is a medieval strategy game played on a board of 24 points arranged in three concentric squares. The game has three phases. First, players alternate placing their nine men on empty points. Once all men are placed, players move a man each turn to an adjacent empty point along a board line. When a player is reduced to exactly three men, those men may fly to any empty point on the board.

Whenever you line up three of your own men along a marked line, you form a mill and immediately remove one opponent man of your choice - though men sitting inside an opponent's mill are safe unless nothing else is available. You win by reducing your opponent below three men or by blocking every move they have. On PlayVersusAI you play the white men against a dark-pieced AI, or challenge a friend in real-time multiplayer.

Strategy Tips

• Take the crossroads first - the four points where the middle square meets the connector lines each touch four neighbors. Controlling them gives you the most moves later and chokes your opponent's mobility.
• Placement decides the game - most games are won or lost before the moving phase begins. Place men to build two mill threats at once, forcing your opponent to leave one open.
• Build a swinging mill - two adjacent mills sharing a movable man let you break and re-form a mill every turn, removing an enemy man each time. It is the most powerful structure in the game.
• Don't rush your first mill - an early mill feels good, but spending placements on one line often concedes board control. Position beats a single capture.
• Block by counting moves - before every move, check which points would complete an opponent mill next turn and make sure you occupy or cover the critical one.
• Use flying aggressively - at three men you can land anywhere, so threaten mills on opposite sides of the board and force awkward defensive shuffles.