Nine Men's Morris
The classic mill game, played against the computer. You place nine pieces, then move them around the board. Every three in a row removes one of the other side's pieces, and whoever is left with two pieces loses.
Your turn
Place a piece on an empty point.
Getting started
- Place. Tap an empty point to put down one of your nine pieces. The computer answers by placing one of its own.
- Line up three. Three of your pieces on one of the marked lines form a mill.
- Remove a piece. When you close a mill, the board highlights the opponent's pieces that can be taken. Tap one of them.
- Move. Once all nine pieces are on the board, pick one of your pieces and move it to an adjacent empty point.
- Fly. If you're down to just three pieces, they can jump to any empty point.
Controls
Mouse or trackpad
Click an empty point to place. In the movement phase, click one of your pieces to select it (it gets a ring), then click the adjacent destination point.
Touch
Touch works just like clicking. The points have a touch area big enough for a finger, including on phones.
Keyboard
Tab cycles through the 24 points in board order; Enter or Space activates the focused point. Each point's spoken label says whether it's empty, holds your piece, or holds the computer's.
Tips that work for this game
- The middle point of each side (the four points that link the three squares) crosses more lines than the corners do. Taking them early gives you more possible mills later.
- A double mill (two lines sharing one piece) lets you open and close the same mill on every turn, removing a piece each time. It's the strongest play in the game, and it's worth planning your whole placement phase around it.
- When it's time to remove a piece, go for the one that is one step away from closing an opponent's mill, not the one that looks most isolated.
- Pieces inside a mill are protected as long as loose pieces remain. If you want to protect a piece, close a mill with it.
- On the Hard level the computer blocks your lines. Set up two threats at once: it can only plug one.
Questions about Nine Men's Morris
You win when the computer is down to only two pieces on the board or has no legal move left. Both conditions apply to you as well: if your pieces drop to two, or you get stuck with no possible move, the game ends in a loss.
Any three of your pieces lined up on one of the board's 16 marked lines. As soon as the third piece lands on the line, you immediately remove one of your opponent's pieces.
No. Pieces that are already part of a mill are protected as long as the opponent still has loose pieces outside of mills. Only when every one of the opponent's pieces sits in a mill can any of them be taken.
Nine. In the first phase both sides place their nine pieces, one at a time, on empty points. The movement phase only begins once all eighteen pieces are on the board.
You start flying: instead of moving only to an adjacent point, you can move any of your pieces to any empty point on the board. It's your last chance to turn the game around, and it applies to the computer just the same.
On Easy the computer picks any legal move at random, including when it chooses which piece to remove. On Hard it evaluates every possible move, prioritizes closing its own mills and blocking yours, and deliberately chooses which piece to take.
It does, but only on your device. Wins and losses stay in your browser's local storage and are never sent anywhere. Clearing the site's data resets the score.
No. There's no sign-up, login, payment, betting, or prize. The game opens and runs entirely inside your browser.
Keep playing
Three more games from Clique Habil Site, all free and with no sign-up.