Nine Men’s Morris: A Complete Step By Step Guide
Do you want a game that is fun and amusing? If yes, then the nine men’s morris is the perfect game which you can enjoy.
The nine men’s morris game is a two-player strategy-type game that dates back centuries. This is a game that appeared around the times of the Roman Empire. The nine men morris is one of the most intriguing board games which you can play.
In the article, we will tell you all about the nine men’s morris, including how to play and more.
Nine Men’s Morris
These are something which you should know:
The Game Basics
In this game, each of the players has a total of 9 stones. Each player has a different color of stones for themselves. Each of the players in the game places these stones in the different vacant spots over the board. Once all the stone pieces are kept on the board, the players can continue to guide them to new spots which are adjacent to their first positions. While doing this shift of the positions, players must remember that they can’t directly jump over to the new positions over the other pieces.
The players do this shift of positions to make the mills. A mill in the game is formed when a player is able to line up 3 of their pieces in a straight line. This line can be either horizontal or vertical. On getting a mill, a player can remove one piece from the pieces of the opponent. However, you are not allowed to remove the pieces from the mill of an opponent until there are no more pieces other than them in-game.
During this mill formation and piece removal, when an opponent is left with only two pieces, then you win. The logic behind this is that with only two pieces, a player can’t make a mill.
Variants Of Nine Men’s Morris
This is one of the best board games which you can play in many ways. Some of them are as follows:
- “Pounding.” In this version of the game, the player moves any one of his nine pieces outside the mill. Later they move back the same piece to reform the same mill again. So, when you are playing, you need to move two pieces of any mill before you are able to move that same mill once again.
- According to the board games you prefer, you can go for three men’s morris or the twelve men version. There is also a six men version of the game.
- Some people also count the mills formed in the diagonal form.
- In some games, players can also add flying variation and in it the pieces are allowed to fly from one place to another. However flying is allowed only if a player have 3 stones left. The flying in the game refers to the players being allowed to move to any open spot in the game.
These are some of the nine men’s morris game variants that you can choose for yourself.
Gameplay
This the step by step guide for the game:
Step 1: Get Stones, Make Board
Like any other board game, this game’s first requirement is also a board. The boards for this game have pits in them, and there are no lines that connect them together in any form. One good thing about the game is that you can make these lines anywhere, like grass, dirt, wood, and more.
The formation of this adult board games layout is also easy as it contains three squares with four lines in it. Some people also add form diagonal lines in the game, but it depends on you.
The next step in the game after you have the board layout complete is to get the stones for the game. For the stones, you need to get two sets of the nine stones; however, if in place of stones, you can also use anything else which you can easily tell apart.
Step 2: Begin! The Phase One
- The players in this fun board games in the first phase place the stones on the board.
- They can place their stones anywhere on the board where there is a vacant spot.
- Once both the players have completed their stones keeping, then you can move on to the next step of the game.
Step 3: Play! The Second Phase
- Once all the pieces of stones from both the players are present on the board, you can begin sliding them on board. To do this, you need to take turns.
- For the beginning of the turns, you can go for a coin toss to decide who will start sliding the stones first in the game.
- When sliding, remember that you can only slide into the adjacent spots in these board games. While doing this, you are also not allowed to jump over the other stones in adjacent spots.
Step 4: Mill Formation.
- When sliding the stones, the main objective is to form a mill in the game.
- In the game, the formation of a mill can differ according to the variant of the game you choose for yourself.
- A mill is when three pieces of stones are in a single line. This line is generally horizontal or vertical in shape. But in some variants of the game, the mill line can also be in the diagonal direction.
Step 5: The Wining
- The next step of the game is to win.
- In this step, after the mill formation, you remove the opponents’ pieces from the board.
- This removal of pieces is with each mill formation. One mill equals the removal of one piece from the board.
- The removal of the pieces from the board continues until any of the players have only two pieces left.
- Once a player only has two pieces left, they lose the game, and the opponent wins.
These are some of the nine men’s morris game steps that you need to follow to play the game. The steps which we have put together above are similar for all the variants, and the only difference is the line direction. One thing which you can be sure about no matter which version you choose of these adult board games is that they are one of the most fun board games.
Final Words
Do you want some board games to enjoy with your friend or better half? If yes, then the nine men’s morris is the game which you will love for sure.
There are a number of nine men’s morris variants present, which you can choose for yourself. But the good thing is that most of them are nearly similar and their rules are also the same.
