I am looking for info on an old game called "Nine Men's Morris.?

Question

I am helping my daughter on a paper she has to do on medieval games. The game she chose is called "Nine Men's Morris" Any information you all may have will be appriciated. We are looking for somone who plays it and might know of the strategy of the game.

Answer 1

Now, there's not an awfull lot I can tell you, because it's a pretty old game. I remember my dad used to play it with his grandma and he always lost. In dutch it's called ''molenspel.'' There's a really nice page about it on wikipedia but you have to be pretty good at reading dutch...There's a link on the bottom so you can read it in german too. (mühle) Ralph Gasser made a program called Bushy and proved the game should end in a draw if played perfectly. The rules aren't that hard. If you download a free demo you could figure it out. Play online here:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/pesullivan/merrelles/English.html (flying allowed)

The general idea is:

You try to put 3 of your men in a row. This will allow you to take one of the opponents men. It works like this:

While the board's empty, you take turns placing men. When they're all there, you'll attempt to outmanoeuvre your opponent. You take turns in moving, that is you choose one of your men to slide one square along a horizontal or vertical row. If you make a mill, (3 in a row) you can take a men of the opponent's but not one that's in a mill. Then, ideally, you start to open and close this mill to take out your opponent. (Every time you close the formation again it's another strike to the opponent.)

The game ends when one player only has 2 pawns left or is unable to move because he's blocked.

Morris is a game of strategy and position that has been popular since 1400 BC. Morris is also known by many other names such as Nine Men's Morris, Windmill, Mill, Merels, Muhle, (german) Mlin just to name a few.

Ok, it seems I missed something earlier, you can easily find the English version on Wikipedia and a very technical account of how the game was solved...not sure if it would help any human understanding the game. I played a few games myself and have found out mobility is important at least. Making a mill seems nice, but if it's completely blocked by your opponent you're gone. If your men are spread and are threatening to make a mill later this works much better. I also found out there's no concensus about the rules. Some allow the last 3 pieces to ''fly across the board'' while others don't.

Good luck!