Overview

• Nine Men's Morris is an abstract board game for two players.
• Players attempt to remove their opponents' stones, and the first player to completely deprive the opponent of stones wins the game.

Start of the game

• The board has 24 spaces, arranged in three squares.
• Each player begins with 9 stones of their colour in their reserve.

Player's turn

• On a player's turn, a player either places one of their stones onto the board if there's any left, or otherwise moves one of their stones on the board.
• If a player moves a stone, that stone must be moved to an adjacent space.
  • See 'final three stones' below for possible exception.
• If by placing or moving this stone, the player forms a line of three of their stones, they have formed a "mill" and may remove any of their opponent's stones on the board.
• If it's possible, a player must remove a stone that is not a part of a mill, but if it's not possible, the player may remove any stone.
• Final three stones:
  • According to the chosen rule option, the last three stones must move to adjacent spaces, or
    • default for 'simple' games
  • may move anywhere, not necessarily to an adjacent space.
    • default for 'arena' games
  • This option can be changed by clicking the cog-wheel preferences icon next to the game picture on the 'Play now' page.

End of the game

• The game ends if a player cannot make a legal move; that player loses.
• The game also ends if a player is reduced to two stones.
  • With a loss for that player.
  • This is because they cannot make any more mills, and so those stones will eventually be captured by the opponent, leaving no stones and thus no legal move to make.