Play Nine Men's Morris, the classic European mill game, free in your browser. Place nine pieces, then slide them to form mills of three and remove your opponent's pieces. Fly when down to three; lose at two. Strategy vs AI. No download required.
Nine Men's Morris is played on a board of three squares, one inside another, joined by short lines at the middle of each side, giving twenty-four points where pieces can sit. Each player starts with nine pieces, and the aim is to make 'mills' — three of your pieces in an unbroken straight line along one of the marked lines. Every time you complete a mill you capture one of your opponent's pieces. You win by wearing the other side down until they have only two pieces left, which can no longer form a mill, or until they are so hemmed in that they cannot move at all on their turn.
The game runs through three stages for each player. In the opening, the two sides take turns placing their nine pieces one at a time onto any empty point, jockeying to build mills while blocking the other player. Once all eighteen pieces are on the board, play moves to the sliding stage: on your turn you move a single piece along a line to a neighbouring empty point. The final twist is flying — the moment a player is reduced to just three pieces, those pieces are freed from the lines and may jump to any empty point on the board, giving a cornered player one last fighting chance.
Forming a mill is the only way to take your opponent's pieces, so the whole game turns on making and breaking them. When a move you make completes a fresh mill, you remove one enemy piece of your choice. The standard rule protects pieces already inside a mill: you must take a piece that is not part of any mill, and you may only break into a mill when every one of your opponent's pieces is locked inside one. Clever players slide a piece out of a mill and back in on the next turn to re-form it again and again, harvesting a capture each time.
Nine Men's Morris is one of the oldest board games in the world, with boards cut into stone, wood and clay across Europe, the Middle East and beyond for thousands of years. Boards have been found carved into Roman buildings and the cloisters of medieval cathedrals, where players passed the time with pebbles, pegs or coins. Known by many names — mills, merels, nine men's morris — it spread wherever traders and soldiers travelled, becoming a fireside favourite in countless villages. This browser version keeps the timeless rules of placing, milling and flying, and adds a thinking computer opponent for either colour.
Nine Men's Morris is a classic European strategy board game played on a board of three nested squares with twenty-four points. Each player has nine pieces and tries to form mills — three pieces in a row — to capture the opponent's pieces.
A mill is three of your own pieces lined up along one of the board's marked straight lines. Whenever a move you make completes a new mill, you immediately remove one of your opponent's pieces from the board.
First the players take turns placing their nine pieces on empty points. Once all the pieces are placed, they slide pieces to neighbouring points. When a player has only three pieces left, those pieces may fly to any empty point.
When you form a mill you must remove an opponent piece that is not part of a mill. Only if every opponent piece is inside a mill may you remove one of those instead.
You win by reducing your opponent to two pieces, since two pieces can never form a mill, or by leaving your opponent with no legal move on their turn.