Morris Variants · FredyGames

About the game

Nine men's morris, also called mill, is one of the oldest games still played: boards for it were scratched into the stones of ancient buildings across the world. Each player has a handful of men and tries to line three of them up in a row, a mill. Every time you make a mill you remove one of your opponent's men. This page has the whole family, from the tiny three men's morris to the twelve-man game with diagonals, and the "flying" versions where a player down to three men can jump anywhere.

Game	Men each	Notes
Three men's morris	3	The smallest: a tic-tac-toe with moving pieces.
Six men's morris	6	A smaller board, with fewer points.
Seven men's morris	7	A step between six and nine.
Nine men's morris	9	The classic game with three squares.
Nine men's morris, flying	9	When you are down to three men you may move one to any empty point.
Twelve men's morris	12	The board has diagonal lines too.
Twelve men's morris, flying	12	The same, with flying when you are down to three.

The game has two phases. First you take turns placing your men on the points of the board. When all the men are down you move them, one at a time, along the lines to a neighbouring empty point. If your move or placement forms three in a row along a line, you take one of your opponent's men off the board. You win when the opponent is left with fewer than three men or cannot move.

Playing it here

This page runs Jocly, a free library of board games with a computer opponent that thinks in the background while you wait. Pick a game in the Game menu at the top; You play chooses first, second or both sides (to play against a friend on the same screen), Computer level sets how hard the computer thinks, and New game starts again. Take back undoes your last move together with the reply, and Rules opens the rules of the game you picked. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. Your choices (game, side, level and board) are kept in this browser; clearing the site's data erases them. The game is in English and has no sound.

Controls

Input	Action
Click or tap an empty point	place a man (first phase)
Click or tap a man, then an empty neighbouring point	move it (second phase)
Click or tap an opponent's man after making a mill	take it off the board
Game menu	choose the game
You play	first, second or both sides
Computer level	from quick replies to longer thinking
Board	switch between the board looks
Take back	undo your last move and the reply

Tips

Do not hurry to make mills. A man in a mill is safe from capture only while the mill stands; a well-placed man that blocks the opponent can be worth more than a quick capture.

Mobility matters. In the moving phase, the player who runs out of moves loses, so avoid leaving your men boxed in.

An open mill is a weapon. A mill you can close and reopen on every turn takes a man each time. Try to build one, and block the opponent's.

Credits

Jocly was made by Michel Gutierrez, who wrote the games and the computer player, and Jérôme Choain, who did the graphic design, and it is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License. Only the flat boards of the library are used here, not its 3D views, and its sound files are left out.

FAQ

What are the flying variants? When one side is down to three men it may move any of them to any empty point, which makes it hard to trap but easy to hit.

Is this the same as the board in my country? Nine men's morris is the classic; the other sizes are played in many places under local names, and the Rules button explains what is used here.