Nine Men's Morris (Mill)
Ancient connection and alignment game: form mills of three stones to remove opponent pieces.
Game Phases
Played on a board with 24 intersections connected by lines. Each player has 9 pieces. White moves first.
1. Placing Phase: Players take turns placing one piece on any vacant point until all 18 pieces are on the board. 2. Moving Phase: Players move a piece to an adjacent empty point along the board lines. 3. Flying Phase: Once a player is reduced to exactly 3 pieces, their pieces may 'fly' to any vacant point on the board.
Mills & Winning
- Forming a Mill: Lining up three of your pieces on a straight line forms a mill, allowing you to remove one opposing piece from the board.
- Mill Protection: You cannot remove a piece that is part of an active opponent mill unless all of their pieces belong to mills.
- Winning: A player loses when reduced to fewer than 3 pieces or when having no legal moves left.
- Draws: Threefold repetition, or 50 moves without a mill.