Game guide
Three, Nine and Twelve Men's Morris compared
All three are mill games from the same ancient family: place your pieces, slide them, and try to get three in a line. What changes is the size of the board, the number of pieces, and what a line of three is worth. In Three Men's Morris a line wins the game on the spot. In Nine and Twelve Men's Morris a line, called a mill, only removes one enemy piece, and the fight goes on.
The three boards side by side
Green pieces mark one line of three on each board. Nine Men's Morris has no diagonal lines, so the diagonal mill shown on the right is only possible in Twelve Men's Morris.
The differences at a glance
| Three Men's Morris | Nine Men's Morris | Twelve Men's Morris | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Board | 3x3 grid, 9 points | Three concentric squares, 24 points | The same 24 points, plus four diagonals |
| Pieces per player | 3 | 9 | 12 |
| Lines of three on the board | 8 with diagonals drawn, 6 without | 16 | 20 |
| What a line of three does | Wins the game | Makes a mill: remove one enemy piece | Makes a mill: remove one enemy piece |
| Capturing | None | Yes | Yes |
| Empty points after placing | 3 | 6 | 0, unless a piece was captured |
| Flying | No | Yes, when a player is down to three pieces | Usually, when a player is down to three pieces |
| How you win | Be first to line up all three pieces | Leave your opponent with two pieces or no legal move | Leave your opponent with two pieces or no legal move |
| Draws | By repetition | Normal between strong players | The most common: the board can fill up |
| Also known as | Nine Holes, Tapatan | Mill, Merels, Mühle | Morabaraba (a close relative) |
What all three have in common
Every Morris game is for two players, with no dice and nothing hidden. The board starts empty. Players take turns placing one piece at a time, and once the pieces are down they take turns sliding one piece along a line to a neighbouring empty point. From the first move to the last, the aim is to get three of your own pieces onto one marked line.
The family name has nothing to do with Morris dancing. It comes from the Latin merellus, a counter or gaming piece, which is also why these games are known as merels.
Three Men's Morris: the small one
Three Men's Morris is played on a 3x3 grid with three pieces each. It looks like tic-tac-toe, and while the pieces are being placed it plays like it: line up your three and you win at once.
The difference comes afterwards. Six pieces sit on nine points, so the board never fills, and if nobody has won the players start sliding pieces one step at a time. Nothing is ever captured. Going first is a real advantage, which is why many rule sets stop the first player from opening in the centre.
Nine Men's Morris: the classic
Nine Men's Morris is the game most people mean when they say Mill or Merels. The board is three concentric squares with 24 points, and each player has nine men. Completing a line of three makes a mill and lets you remove one of your opponent's men, so a line is a weapon, not the finish.
After placing, 18 men share 24 points. Six points stay free, which gives the moving phase room to breathe. A player cut down to three men may fly, moving to any empty point. You win by leaving your opponent with two men or with no legal move. The game was solved by computer in 1993: with perfect play from both sides it is a draw.
Twelve Men's Morris: the crowded one
Twelve Men's Morris keeps the 24 points of the Nine Men's Morris board and adds four diagonal lines joining the corners of the three squares. Each player has twelve pieces.
Two things follow. There are four extra lines to make mills on, and the corner points become far more valuable. And because 24 pieces exactly fill 24 points, a placing phase with no mill ends with a full board, no legal moves and a draw. That makes every placement count from the first move. The same board and piece count are used in Morabaraba, played in South Africa, Botswana and Lesotho as a competitive mind sport.
Which one should you play?
- New to the family, or playing with children: Three Men's Morris. The rules fit in a sentence and a game is over quickly.
- Want the classic: Nine Men's Morris. It has the best balance of placing, moving and flying, and it is the version you are most likely to find on a physical board.
- Want a tighter, more tactical fight: Twelve Men's Morris. The full board punishes loose placement, and the diagonals create threats that do not exist in the nine-piece game.
Other Morris games
The family is bigger than these three. Six Men's Morris uses two concentric squares, 16 points and six pieces each. Lasker Morris, devised by the chess world champion Emanuel Lasker, gives each player ten pieces and lets them move pieces already on the board before placing is finished. Achi, from Ghana, is played on the Three Men's Morris board with four pieces each. Morabaraba is the southern African form of Twelve Men's Morris, where the pieces are called cows.
Frequently asked questions
Twelve Men's Morris adds four diagonal lines to the Nine Men's Morris board and gives each player twelve pieces instead of nine. Both use the same 24 points. With twelve pieces a side the board fills completely during placing, there are 20 lines to make mills on instead of 16, and a game with no mill in the placing phase ends in a draw.
Three Men's Morris is played on a 3x3 grid with three pieces each, and the first player to line up all three wins. Nine Men's Morris is played on a 24-point board with nine pieces each, and a line of three only removes one enemy piece. Nine Men's Morris has capturing and flying. Three Men's Morris has neither.
No. They share a 3x3 grid and a three-in-a-row goal, but in Three Men's Morris each player has only three pieces, and once they are placed the players slide them around the board. Tic-tac-toe stops when the grid is full. Three Men's Morris carries on until someone makes a line.
Nobody can say for certain. The whole family is ancient. The Roman poet Ovid, writing around 8 CE, describes a game with three pieces a side that is won by lining them up, which matches Three Men's Morris, and boards with the Nine Men's Morris pattern have been found cut into stone across the Roman world. Claims of much older Egyptian boards are disputed.
They are very close. Morabaraba uses the same diagonal 24-point board and twelve pieces a side, called cows, with minor rule differences. For example, a mill broken in order to form another may not be remade on the very next move.
The name comes from the Latin merellus, meaning a counter or gaming piece. It has nothing to do with Morris dancing. The same root gives the older English name merels.
