Nine Men’s Morris

How to play

The mill game the Norse carved into ship timbers and church pews across the Viking world. Place your nine men, then slide them along the lines. Complete a row of three — a “mill” — and you pluck an enemy man from the board.

Rules

  • First, tap empty points to place your nine men one at a time.
  • Once all are placed, tap one of your men, then an adjacent empty point to slide it there — with only three men left, you may fly to any empty point.
  • Completing a mill (three men in a row on a marked line), whether by placing or moving, lets you remove one enemy man — one not already in a mill, if possible.
  • Reduce the enemy to two men, or leave them with no legal move, to win.

Tips

Build a “swinging mill” — two mills that share a point, so shuttling one man back and forth re-forms a mill every turn and removes an enemy man each time. During placement, block the enemy’s two-in-a-row even at the cost of your own tempo; a mill you allow costs you a man.