Game: Nine Men's Morris

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whoami — 2008-11-22T04:07:46+00:00

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Unco — 2008-10-07T10:56:20+00:00

Square Off Components (University Games Version - 1996)

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Unco — 2008-10-07T10:49:50+00:00

Square Off Back Cover (University Games Version - 1996)

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Unco — 2008-10-07T10:48:08+00:00

Square Off Front Cover (University Games Version - 1996)

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yingling — 2008-09-10T15:42:12+00:00

Contents of Mühle (Nine Penny Morris) from HABA

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yingling — 2008-09-10T11:11:24+00:00

Mühle from HABA

Thread: Re: a portrait of the koala as a...

intently — 2008-09-03T20:27:51+00:00

My daughter and I have been playing Nine Men's Morris for years now, and we still have fun despite it being "solved". We probably draw half the time. This, Chinese checkers, and Pente are probably our favorites.

We tend to like mobility games and games with multiple phases.

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Urtur — 2008-08-28T09:03:44+00:00

An ancient Roman Morris board exposed in the Games Museum of Figueres (Catalonia, Spain).

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Urtur — 2008-08-28T09:02:48+00:00

Three Morris boards (with the most common one in the middle) carved in one stone and exposed in the Games Museum of Figueres (Catalonia, Spain).

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Groomporter — 2008-08-25T21:36:07+00:00

A coffee table with a Morris game insert and space underneath for storing the game pieces

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Groomporter — 2008-08-25T18:39:52+00:00

A portable fabric set for playing eith 9-man, or 12-man Morrish from MacGregor Historic Games

Thread: Re: RE: 1939 Parker Brothers THE GAME OF MILL

rockytony — 2008-07-03T13:51:50+00:00

Bingo.

Thanks very much as you've been a big help.

Thread: Re: RE: 1939 Parker Brothers THE GAME OF MILL

Moviebuffs — 2008-07-03T06:41:32+00:00

rockytony wrote:
I have recently acquired a 1937 Parker Brothers game called THE GAME OF MILL. But it came without instructions. I have checked BGG and Hasbro but struck out finding any information. Is there some good samaritan in this group who might have a set of instructions for this game and would be willing to send me a copy? Thank you for anyone who will take the trouble.

Also known as "Nine Men's Morris".

Try here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/19299

N.

Thread: RE: 1939 Parker Brothers THE GAME OF MILL

rockytony — 2008-07-03T06:31:43+00:00

I have recently acquired a 1937 Parker Brothers game called THE GAME OF MILL. But it came without instructions. I have checked BGG and Hasbro but struck out finding any information. Is there some good samaritan in this group who might have a set of instructions for this game and would be willing to send me a copy? Thank you for anyone who will take the trouble.

Thread: Re: a portrait of the koala as a...

drunkenKOALA — 2008-04-15T06:27:21+00:00

Oh man I haven't played this in a while. Well there's the 9 stones you place, and probably over within ten moves after that. So most games will be decided within 20 moves from each player (or less, 9 isn't uncommon), unless it's a very even game where both players are playing perfectly waiting for the other to blunder.

Note I said "decided". If you want to play the game to completion it takes more moves but those are quite trivial once the game has been decided.

I remember that the solution (perfect play from both sides) is a draw, in which case play could go on indefinitely.

Thread: Re: a portrait of the koala as a...

rumpz — 2008-04-15T06:20:23+00:00

How long does an average game last, in terms of the number of moves?

Thread: Re: Gipf-like Mill Pickup

jaredhayter — 2008-01-18T20:13:57+00:00

I tested the variant above in solo play and found that it doesn't do much at all to hobble the winning player because his pieces can move anywhere on the board while his opponent still needs to slide one space at a time and will likely be trapped by other pieces.

Can anyone think of a way to remedy to remedy the death spiral problem in mill games or is it destined to be a feature of said games?

Thread: Gipf-like Mill Pickup

jaredhayter — 2008-01-16T17:48:46+00:00

I'd like to propose a morris variant inspired by the rules of Gipf. The rule changes are as follows:

1) When a mill is completed it is returned to the player's hand and one opponent's piece is captured.

2) If you have pieces in your hand you must play them before moving pieces.

The thing I don't like about mill games is that the first player to make a mill has a decided advantage that is very difficult to overcome, particularly if he can create a sliding mill (I mean a pieces shuttles from one mill into another). If the first mill advantage is so high te game might as well end at the completion of the first mill. I propose that when a mill is completed those pieces are removed from the board to give the capturing player a temporary disadvantage. I believe this principle is common to all or many of the project Gipf games and it seems to make for interesting strategic decisions. I'd like to take that concept and insert it into traditional mill games. I haven't had the opportunity to play test this idea but I hope to do so soon. I don't believe it is fundamentally brokem. I'd like the opinions of some seasoned mill game players as to whether or not sush an idea seems workable and interesting. I'm not asking anyone to abandon playing the traditional way and not claiming that this rule change makes a better game, just a different one which has more ebb and flow between winning and losing and can produce some interesting situation in which it may not be in your best interest to make a mill whenever possible.

Thread: Re: Mill Games on regular orthogonal grid?

aquoiboniste — 2007-07-22T18:15:14+00:00

Tri-Umph seems to be a published game related to Dara etc.

Thread: Re: Can sliding pieces move more than one space?

krainer — 2007-04-02T05:01:57+00:00

In any version of the game I ever played, they could only move to the next node, and could never slide past an intermadiate node. You are correct that it would make a huge difference in the strategies and outcomes!

Thread: Can sliding pieces move more than one space?

jaredhayter — 2007-04-02T04:45:00+00:00

When moving pieces on the board do they move only to an open adjacent point or can they slide in an unobstructed line from the first point to the third point? This difference in mobility can really change the outcome of the game.

Thread: Re: Mill Games on regular orthogonal grid?

jaredhayter — 2007-03-13T16:39:25+00:00

Thanks for pointing me to that website. I wish that the games there were separate into one list of modern and one list of traditional games, but i really like the icon key used to describe the game mechanics.

Thread: Re: Mill Games on regular orthogonal grid?

snigfarp — 2007-03-04T12:02:39+00:00

You might want to do a search for the following games: alkarhat, dala, dali, dara, dili, dra, kare, karnun, kyoti, shiva, trebles wali, and wari. Be careful with some of these names: they have attached themselves to a number of games (particularly wari).

The game family I'm referring to is usually played on a 5x6 grid, with rules very similar to the nine men's morris family. You can see an example, Dara, at the following page:

http://www.di.fc.ul.pt/~jpn/gv/dara.htm

You can also see it under various names (shiva, dara, kare, karnun) in the following books:

Bell, R C. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, vol. 1, p. 95. New York: Dover Publications Inc, 1979.

Murray, H J R. A History of Board-Games Other than Chess, p. 49. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952.

Parlett, D. The Oxford History of Board Games, p. 123. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Thread: Mill Games on regular orthogonal grid?

jaredhayter — 2007-03-01T22:43:30+00:00

Does anyone have any experience with or thoughts on the use of a regular orthogonal grid such as a 5x5 or 9x9 go board to play a variant of the common mill games? I can see that it would be quite a bit harder to trap pieces but I wonder why this game happened to develop on this rather unusual board instead of on a more regular surface? Would the additional freedom of movement make it too difficult to block one's opponent from form mills?

I mostly ask this question because as I have been researching traditional abstract stratey games lately I have seen that a great any of them use a simple set of tools, namely light and dark pieces (identical or differentiated by shape) and a board in the form of a grid forming n^2 regular cells with pieces played on either the spaces or the points. I'd like to start accumulating the necessary generic pieces to play many of these games and I see that in a few instance such as with the Morris games or Fox and Geese the board has an unusual shape. I wonder how well these games would play on a board of more regular shape rather than requiring a special boad for each one.

Thanks in advance for your input,

Jared

Thread: Trinoly: only US$2 million for a Nine Men's Morris variant!

EndersGame — 2007-02-23T03:12:42+00:00

This forum really needs a reference to the amazing deal offered on eBay at the end of last year: For the bargain basement price of a cheap US$2 million, you could buy "the exclusive ownership and rights, worldwide royalty free, for the newly developed board game, Trinoly". Oh, did we mention that it's a Nine Men's Morris variant? "Invented" by none other than Simon Kapenda, of fraudulent scholarship scam fame.

See this unbelievable deal for yourself, and weep at missing the opportunity of a lifetime: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?type=4&cam...

For BGG discussion of this once-in-a-lifetime item, see this thread:
$2,000,000 rights to a game that's 'Better than Checkers'
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/137446

Thread: Re: a portrait of the koala as a...

drunkenKOALA — 2007-01-27T22:55:44+00:00

Thanks, glad I could help.

Thread: Re: a portrait of the koala as a...

plantluvver — 2007-01-27T20:27:15+00:00

Thanks for the review.

I have just thrifted Mozog, a variant of Nine Man Morris. The first review of NMM had me yawning, but your review had sparked my interest in the game. I appreciate the analysis of the strategy of gameplay.

Mary

Thread: Nine Men's Morris Applet

snigfarp — 2006-10-31T19:45:39+00:00

This evening I have uploaded a nine men's morris applet to my web page.

http://damian.snigfarp.karoo.net/

Click on the "games" button to go to the applet. You play first, as black, and the computer opponent takes white. The computer wins more often than I do, though I am a bit of a novice at the game. I plan to leave this game there throughout November, then replace it with something else.

Thread: a portrait of the koala as a...

drunkenKOALA — 2006-09-07T05:17:19+00:00

...LACONIC REVIEWER
Nine Men´s Morris is a perfect information game played by 2 players. Games last around 10 minutes. It is a very ancient game whose origin is uncertain.

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...LICENSED LAWYER
The game is played on a board with 3 concentric squares, and 4 lines connecting the midpoint of the 4 sides. Each player has 9 stones which are played on the 24 nodes. White goes first and black goes second.

The first phase consists in players alternating to place one stone at a time Go-style. This continues until both players have placed 9 stones each.

In the second phase, each turn consists of moving one stone to an unoccupied adjacent node. Adjacent nodes are those directly connected by a line, one step apart.

A mill is a row of 3 same-colored stones occupying nodes on the same line. When you place/move a stone to complete a mill, in either phase, you must take one opponent stone of your choice away from the board. The captured stone will not be played again.

There are two winning conditions. 1)The opponent has only 2 stones left on the board or 2)the opponent has no legal moves because all of his stones are trapped by yours.

special rule
When a player has only 3 stones left on the board, he can move a stone to any unoccupied node on the board.

draw rule
1)players move 50 times each without making a capture.
2)when the same board position is repeated 3 times

...AVID GAMER
Not saying that Morris is anywhere as deep as Go, Chess or even Othello, but it is a lot deeper than what appears at first sight. There´s a lot more to this game than a fancy take on tic-tac-toe.

The goal is not merely to create mills, but to create re-usable mills. To achieve this, one does not focus directly on making mills, but in establishing better mobility of one's stones. The idea is to trap/lock your opponent stones while you form a re-usable mill in an area blocked to your opponent. Put another way, you want to enclose an area and prevent your opponent from doing the same. More than a simple connection game, Morris is also a territorial game.

During the placing phase, I find each turn to be quite engaging and filled with dynamic choices. One must consider both the mobility factor and the connection factor. Very often taking an action in consideration of one compromises your interest in the other.

The moving phase is less interesting, because what happens here is largely dictated by what happened in the first phase. One downside to Morris is that it is very difficult for a player to mount a comeback. Once a player established more re-usable mills than his opponent, the rest of the turns are usually mere formality. But before that, the game is quite fun and intense.

...MATH PROFESSOR
placement phase
You can dictate where your opponent plays by threatening to form a mill. Use this tactic to force him play in positions with poor mobility.

It is frequently not profitable to complete a mill. The reason is that, although you get to capture an opponent stone, you may end up inmobilizing the 3 stones that form the mill (or even more). I call this a dead/trapped mill.

Therefore, even if your opponent doesn't block your 2 in a row, don't complete the mill unless 1)you are sure that he cannot kill it, so the mill will be re-usable, or 2)capturing an opponent stone gains you mobility in another area which makes up for what you lost from having the 3 mill stones inmobilized. Likewise, it is not necessary to block an opponent 2 in a row if you can kill the completed mill and gain mobility by doing so. But if you can block and gain mobility in one move, by all means do it without waiting for him to complete the mill.

In general:
-a re-usable mill wins you the game
-a dead mill lets you capture an opponent stone, but at the expense of taking away mobility from 3 of your stones.

A very general observation:
Eliminate opponent stones by trapping them on the board or by capturing, with the ultimate goal of achieving greater mobility. With greater mobility, automatically comes the opportunity to create re-usable mills. To sum it up in one sentence:

MOBILITY IS VITAL

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In the game above, black can threaten to complete 2 mills by playing in the top right corner of the middle square. Suppose he does, then white should block in the top left corner. Now, if black completes a mill by playing the bottom right corner and capturing the white blocking piece, white should respond by 1)replacing the captured piece and then 2)placing in the outer square on the right midpoint whenever he is free to do so. Now the 3 black mill stones are trapped.

Continuing the game, white places on outer square top right corner. Black will be forced to block in the bottom right corner. Then white plays in the inner square on the low midpoint. Black will be forced to block in outer square low midpoint. Now white plays in outer square lower left corner to trap 2 black stones.

Of course black can make his own moves and prevent the game from unfolding the way it did in our example.

moving phase
Be careful not to untrap opponent's mills.

Set yourself up for a sure victory before taking your opponent down to 3 stones because of the special rule.

opening
For both black and white, place the first stone in the middle square, on one of the midpoints. These nodes have the greatest mobility (4 liberties).

player advantage
Although the game's solution is a draw, I feel that black has the advantage. The reason is because he gets to place the last stone in the first phase. However, white has the advantage of making the first move in the moving phase, so the advantage is less obvious.

...COFFEE TABLE DECORATOR
Depends on which publication you have. As for myself, I only play online at ludoteka.com. Verdict: coffee table quality for the version in the first picture.

...QUIRKY MARSUPIAL
Who cares if it's solved? No one I know has the solution memorized, if it's even possible.

Thread: Re: User Review

krainer — 2005-11-24T18:37:53+00:00

I find the opposite... I like the rule, because you must not simply win, but win WELL. You need to have a thought-out plan to deal with the opponent acquiring the jump ability instead of simply nursing along a potentially slight situational advantage through to the endgame.

In Austria and Germany it seems to be a standard rule.

Thread: Re: User Review

leslauber — 2005-11-23T17:23:10+00:00

Shade_Jon wrote:
As to your comment, I don't recall that rule (moving anywhere when you only have 3 pieces). Is it a variant, or the standard?
Yehuda

Given that there are no copies of original rules anywhere, there's no way to know whether it is variant or standard. However, it is extremely common. When I play Nine Men's Morris with people who know the game, we always have to establish whether we're using that rule.

I prefer to play without it. I find that it upsets the balance of the game in much the same way that "Money-in-the-Middle" does for Monopoly. It seems to punish the player who has the stronger play.

Thread: Re: User Review

Deeghter — 2005-09-20T00:09:11+00:00

It is standard!

Thread: Session Report

TamiWhitsett — 2005-05-01T20:29:58+00:00

Terry described it as a “European version of Tic-Tac-Toe”. I think that was a pretty accurate assessment. You start by putting your pegs on the board. Anytime you get 3 in a row, you remove one of your opponents’ pegs. After you’ve placed all 9 of your pieces, you can then move them along the lines, one peg at a time, again, removing your opponents’ pegs whenever you get 3 in a row. The object is to get your opponent down to just 2 pegs. This was a hard-fought battle, but in the end, Terry pulled out a narrow win, getting his last 3 pegs in a row, thereby eliminating my 3rd peg. Interesting game, which would be good to help teach strategy to younger players, which is why Terry purchased it. I hope he’s able to clean up his set, as it will be beautiful when he does so.

Thread: User Review

consuelo — 2005-02-23T23:33:10+00:00

This game was given to me by my grandmother when I was 10 or 11. I've had the chance to play against a lot of family members and friends over the years, so here is my take on the game with a brief introduction of how the game works.

Each player has 9 ducks of a similar color (light or dark). During the opening portion of the game, players take turns placing their ducks one at a time onto a board with 24 available spots with which to choose. The spots are arranged into three squares, with straight lines connecting horizontal and vertical alignments of spaces. During the duck placement phase, players are trying to create "rows" of three ducks in alignment. Successful creation of a row allows the player to immediately remove an opponent's duck from the playing board (except ducks which are already in a row of three, as they are "protected" - and it wouldn't make sense, as it would allow your opponent to play his next duck at the newly vacated spot creating a row and thus getting to remove one of your ducks). Once all the ducks are placed, players then take turns moving a duck from one spot to another adjacent spot which is connected by a line (no diagonal movement). Like during Phase I, as players align three ducks in a row, they get to remove an opponents duck (but not a protected duck). When a player is reduced to two ducks, he or she loses and their opponent is declared the victor.

Analysis:

Materials - Great. The cigar box is constructed of a heavy cardboard material. The wooden ducks are carefully crafted, yet simple. The cloth bags with which they are stored is a nice touch. The game board itself has a stencil/watercolor look to it. Since the picture on the board is merely ornamental, it serves a nice backdrop that does not cloud the game. The trim to the board is very nice.

Mechanics - Subpar. The fate of the game is usually revealed shortly into Phase II. If you and your opponent are graceful, this can be pointed out and a new game can begin immediately. However, if you or your opponent insists on playing it out, the length of time after the climax is rather pointless. It is impossible for a player to come from behind unless the winning player makes a blunder equivilent to allowing someone to win at tic-tac-toe. Since the board becomes more open as the game progresses, the winner is often the first player to align three ducks in a row. Still, since a game can be played in a very short amount of time, I would rate the mechanics as simply "subpar".

A game variation (as listed in the rules) allows for incorporation of "flight" by introducing jumps common to checkers. This can offset some of the mechanic problems mentioned above, but the separation between leader and trailor is still hard to overcome.

Fun Factor - Above Average (for its genre). There are a handful of strategies to employ. During Phase I, what works one game may not work the next time around. Ducks in a Row is very quick to play and extremely easy to teach, so it is fun in both of those regards.

Replayability - above average in that it's a filler, it's quicker than chess, it's not broken like tic-tac-toe, and the fact that only 75% of the spots will be initially filled with ducks makes for a different approach to the game every time (as opposed to Stratego and Chess type univeral games which can often lead to re-tread tactics).

In conclusion - well, it's an okay game. It won't give you goose bumps. It won't break your bank. It won't keep you up all night. It isn't based on luck. The craftsmenship has been done well.

Thread: Re:User Review

Octavian — 2004-12-02T06:57:40+00:00

Shade_Jon (#68631),

I'm decently sure it's standard - at least it seemed so in the copy I had (from England, no less! ) It makes sense, too, as it gives the opportunity for the player who is down to mount a bit of a challenge before bowing out. I imagine among good players it becomes a matter of some importance as to how solid your own position is before taking your opponent down to three pawns.

-MMM

Thread: Re:User Review

Shade_Jon — 2004-12-02T06:30:56+00:00

Octavian (#68531),

Holy comoly, I just reallized that I messed up my review competely. I wrote that you have to get three in a row: your piece, opp piece, your piece. You are of course correct. You have to get three of your own pieces in a row, which allows you to remove any of your opps pieces.

Sorry about that.

As to your comment, I don't recall that rule (moving anywhere when you only have 3 pieces). Is it a variant, or the standard?

Yehuda

Thread: Re:User Review

Octavian — 2004-12-01T20:15:03+00:00

Shade_Jon (#68427),

You forgot to mention that once a player is down to three pieces his movement is no longer restricted to the lines on the board - he may pick up any piece and place it on any empty node for his turn. This makes it easier to block and easier to get three in a row, but the trick is to be able to do both so as to catch up without allowing the other player to take the final piece needed.

-MMM

Thread: User Review

Shade_Jon — 2004-12-01T18:18:30+00:00

Nine Men's Morris is another quick and dirty abstract that has past its prime (it is now solved), but holds some slight interest for a dozen or so playings until it is time to move onto something else.

The game board consists of eight lines on the compass points, with three nodes on each line: inner, middle, and outer. Nodes are connected by lines out from the center, and by three circles passing through inner, middle and outer nodes. Often these three circles are squashed into squares, without changing the topology (or game play).

Begin play by alternately placing one of your nine pieces onto a node. If, during this placement process you place a piece such that it forms a line of three of your pieces, you remove your opponent's piece from the game. This can be either on the lines out from the center or along the circles.

After all placement is done, the first player then moves one piece one space along a line to am empty space. Again, if he thus forms a line of three of his pieces, an opponent's piece is removed from the board.

Game continues until one player has only two pieces left. The other player is the winner.

The game falls into patterns very quickly. It can be played for analysis principals, but is not really much fun.