---
title: "Nine Men's Morris — Official Rulebook"
version: "0.1.1"
slug: "morris"
players: "2"
duration: "15–45 min"
age: "7+"
tagline: "The ancient mill game, played on stone, cloth, and wood across five continents"
type: "classic"
status: "live"
updated: "2026-06-15"
published: true
variants: true
theme:
  tint: warm
  texture: grain
  cover: solid
  typography: classical
  accent: brown
engine:
  topology:
    type: graph
    structure: concentric-rings
    params:
      rings: 3
      midpoints: true
  surface:
    colors:
      background: "#f5e6c8"
      line: "#4a3520"
      point: "#4a3520"
  render:
    cellSize: 24
    cellColor: uniform
    labels: false
  pieces:
    set: playstrategy-go-classic
    vocabulary:
      b: bS
      w: wS
  players: [white, black]
how_to_play: "Form three-in-a-row lines (mills) to capture opponent pieces. Place all pieces during the opening phase, then move them to form mills. Reduce your opponent to two pieces or block all their moves to win."
mechanics:
  - placement
  - line-formation
  - capture
  - blocking
complexity: simple
related:
  - go
  - reversi
  - agon
---

<div class="section variant-hub">

## Variant Library

Nine Men's Morris — also called Mills or Mühle — is one of the oldest known strategy games, with boards scratched into Roman stone floors, Egyptian temple rooftops, and medieval wooden cathedral furniture. The game belongs to a family called Mill games: placement and movement games in which the goal is to form three-in-a-row lines (mills) and remove opponent pieces. Variants range from the tiny Three Men's Morris (a 3×3 grid) to the elaborate Twelve Men's Morris with diagonal connections.

This library includes {{variant_count}} playable variants from the Mill game family.

### Classic Sizes

<div class="variant-grid">

- [Three Men's Morris](variants/three-mens-morris/) — The 3×3 ancestor: 3 pieces per side, no movement phase, pieces teleport
- [Six Men's Morris](variants/six-mens-morris/) — Two concentric squares; the medieval European standard before Nine was codified
- [Nine Men's Morris](variants/nine-mens-morris/) — Three concentric squares; the definitive and most widely played form
- [Twelve Men's Morris](variants/twelve-mens-morris/) — Three concentric squares with added diagonal connections; 12 pieces per side

</div>

### Modern Variants

<div class="variant-grid">

- [Lasker Morris](variants/lasker-morris/) — Move or place on each turn (not sequential phases); designed by World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker

</div>

### African Forms

<div class="variant-grid">

- [Morabaraba](variants/morabaraba/) — South African national game: cows instead of men, additional three-piece ending rules
- [Shax](variants/shax/) — Somali: capture instead of forming a mill during the placement phase

</div>

</div>