Smalltalk Ninja Board Games All the boards

Nine men's morris

The Roman Empire — boards scratched into the stone of buildings that are still standing.

Who moves first?

No account, no email, nothing to install. You get a link to send to whoever you want to play.

How to play

The board

Three squares one inside another, joined by lines through the middle of each side.
Twenty-four points where those lines meet, and the board starts empty.
Nine men each.

Placing your men

You take turns putting one man on any empty point, until all eighteen are down.
Rows count from the very first move, so men come off the board before anybody has finished placing.

Moving

Once every man is placed, a turn is sliding one of your men along a line to an empty point next to it.
Men never jump over anything and never leave the lines.

Mills

Three of your men filling one of the board's lines is a mill.
Closing a mill lets you take one enemy man off the board, and that is part of the same turn.
You may not take a man standing in a mill, unless every man your opponent has left is in one.
Opening a mill and closing it again takes another man, so a mill you can swing open and shut is worth a great deal.

Flying

A player down to exactly three men may move any of them to any empty point on the board.
That is the whole of the losing side's chance, and it is why a game is not over when it looks over.

Winning

A player reduced to two men has lost, because two men can never close a mill.
A player with no legal move has also lost.

Which rules are these?

Nine men's morris on twenty-four points, played with flying.

The game is old enough and widespread enough that several versions of it are played. The one that changes games is what happens to a player down to three men.

Two rules here that some sets play the other way.

Flying at three: A player with exactly three men may move any of them anywhere. Sets without this rule are much harder on the losing side, because three men pinned in a corner can never reach a line.
Taking from a mill: You may not take a man that stands in a mill, unless every man your opponent has left is in one. Without that second half a capture can be offered with nothing to take.

Mills count while men are still being placed, which surprises people who expect the game to start once the board is full.

Morris has no governing body, so this names what is played here rather than pointing at a rulebook.